Heston Blumenthal OBE is among the first chefs in the world to address a revolution in eating habits motivated by weight loss, by designing The Mindful Experience menu.
The Mindful Experience will be a version of the Fat Duck’s ‘Journey’ menu, scaled back in terms of the size of the dishes, but designed to retain the same impact of texture and flavour. Both menus will be available at the restaurant, and diners can book which they prefer.
There has been a dramatically rapid revolution in our eating habits in the last few years. Food Manufacture noted that, in 2025, ‘37% of UK consumers cite weight loss as a top health priority’. An increasing number are choosing weight-loss drugs to achieve this. According to a Future of Food seminar held by UK Hospitality, 7 per cent of UK adults – 3.6 million people – are now using drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, which help suppress the appetite and reduce interest in food and drink.
These seismic shifts in people’s habits of consumption will inevitably require an evolution of the UK foodservice industry. Survival in what has become an extremely challenging market (with 20 venues disappearing per week in 2025, according to Hospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls) is likely to depend on how well any enterprise adapts to a hospitality landscape that is being reshaped by the expectations of younger generations and the rapid rise in the use of weight-loss drugs.
Pioneering chef Blumenthal has been at the forefront of new developments in food and cooking and has frequently expressed an interest in gut health and the microbiome. A chapter in his most recent book, Is This a Cookbook?, is devoted to the concept of mindful eating. He’s also well placed to understand the consequences of appetite suppressants since he has been taking Mounjaro to combat the weight gained as a side effect of his medication for type 1 bipolar.
Heston Blumenthal OBE says: “Millions of people are eating much less food, drinking less, losing interest in restaurants, losing interest even in food. For more than a decade I’ve been saying that mindful eating is one of the keys to happiness and mental health: I even did a podcast on this in 2019 called ‘The best raisin you’ll ever eat’.*
One of the unanticipated effects of taking Mounjaro has been that I’ve become even more aware of my tastebuds and how hunger works, and I’m eating in a more mindful, focused manner. Mindful eating can of course be applied to any experience – even an airline meal or a store-bought sandwich on your lunchbreak – but this new version of The Fat Duck menu is carefully tailored to a growing demand for a different restaurant experience. Sometimes, less really is more.
Sometimes, depending on your mood and how you’re feeling – how your gut is feeling – you might well just desire less of everything. Sometimes, equally, you might just want to focus on taking your time with each and every mouthful and slowly exploring its effect on all of your senses. The Mindful Experience offers a way of satisfying these needs.”
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Heston adds: “People used to joke that the portions on a tasting menu were so small that you had to grab a burger on the way home. But now, as our needs and expectations and appetites change, maybe this carefully structured menu is the perfect answer to what many people are looking for.”
The price of the Mindful Experience will be £275.00, which reflects the fact that The Fat Duck is well known for using a high number of staff to deliver its highly complex three-Michelin-star dishes, with almost as many chefs and waiters as guests during service.
To sample the Mindful Experience, visit https://thefatduck.co.uk/book-your-ticket
