chef

Dégustation – do you know what that means? It’s a French word meaning ‘the careful, appreciative tasting of various food, focusing on the gustatory system, the senses, high culinary art and good company’ – and it’s this concept that underlies the tasting menu. The trend dates back many centuries, but it’s most recent incarnation came about in the 1980s as chefs out of France introduced smaller portions of their signature dishes as part of multiple courses for the ultimate culinary experience.

The first-ever televised cooking programme was on the UK’s BBC in June 1946 – it was called Cookery and it starred Philip Harben. Recognised as the world’s first celebrity chef, Harben’s show was only ten minutes long and in the first episode, he showed his viewers how to make lobster vol-au-vents – not quite your run-of-the-mill Halaal fish dish, but a sign of the times then we suppose.