Broadcaster David Freeman and his wife Jo went to the Fat Duck on Tuesday,

February 17th.



This is his first-hand account of eating at the restaurant and what happened

afterwards, an experience which he describes as “two weeks of serious

unpleasantness”.

“I’ve always been intrigued by chefs and high-level cooking and I’ve wanted to eat


the Fat Duck for years. You have to book two months ahead and you have to call


between 10am and 10.10am, so it’s quite difficult to get in. It had taken Jo eight or


nine phone calls to get the table but she’d managed it and she gave me the menu as a


Christmas present. We were both really pleased.




“We had an 8.30pm sitting and we had the tasting menu. I absolutely loved it. It was


everything I’d expected and more: the bacon and egg ice-cream, the sound of the


sea, the snail porridge, the parsnip cereal, the savoury meringue. The highlight was


the dish with the liquid nitrogen - so audacious, such magnificent theatre.


 

“The only things that felt a bit dodgy on the way down were the oysters. Neither of


us is a huge fan, but we both ate them because we were determined not to miss out


on anything. Anyway, we were eating in one of the most famous restaurants in the


world so we were confident that there wouldn't be anything wrong with them. It was


a fantastic atmosphere. Jim Rosenthal (another diner who has talked about how he


fell ill)  and his party were at the table next to us and we got talking to another


couple who were also dining there as a Christmas present.




All the members of staff were magnificent. We had a bottle of relatively


inexpensive white wine and the bill came to about £380.


 

“We left thinking ‘what a great experience’ but at 5am on the Thursday morning 


(two days later) Jo woke me up to say she was ill. She had had to rush to the loo and


was being violently ill. This went on for about six or seven hours and she was really


quite poorly. I felt distinctly queasy, clammy and hot but I thought I could keep it


under control. We still got up the next day to go to the airport for our flight to


Venice.


 

“I started throwing up on the Saturday morning. I was afflicted by violent stomach


pains and diarrhoea. It was horrible, absolutely horrible. It was all made worse by the


fact that we were in Venice so we were on boats and then rushing around trying to


find euros for public loos. I was sitting in St Mark’s Square, absolutely whacked, and


typing up all these wacky symptoms into Google, trying to find out what was wrong


with us.

 


“We came home and it went on for about a week, with both of us dragging ourselves


around. Neither of us could eat – I lost half a stone. We almost suffered a kind of


depression – it really laid us low. The symptoms were such that I thought there was


something wrong with my liver or bile ducts, it was very deep, very systemic. When I


put all my wacky symptoms into Google, it came up with hepatitis or giardiasis, a


parasite that can get into the intestine.




"Ten days later I had to drive to Lyme Regis for a broadcast and I was coming back at


midnight when I heard on the news that Heston Blumenthal had closed the restaurant.


I hadn’t made the connection; that it was the meal at the Fat Duck that had made us


so ill. I remember thinking that surely it wasn’t possible that the second best


restaurant in the world could have poisoned us. I got back home, woke up Jo, and


said ‘Guess what?’
 



“The next day I went onto the Fat Duck website and sent them an email. At that point


the news bulletins were saying that 40 or so diners had been affected and I wrote


something to the effect of: 'This has happened to us as well. We loved the meal and


we’re not angry but count us among the walking wounded and let us know what's


happening.’
 



“We received no reply so I wrote quite a long letter. I haven’t received a reply to


that either. I’m appalled because I was so entranced by Heston Blumenthal and he


comes across as being very decent and clever. We had been so ill and, at the very


least, we expected some kind of acknowledgement.  We really


thought they would be interested in what had happened to us.
 



“Jo is still a bit wan and I still feel a wee bit under the weather. It was two weeks of


serious unpleasantness; it was an alarming experience, the last thing you'd expect


when you go to a restaurant like the Fat Duck. I'm not angry that it happened because


obviously it wasn't a deliberate thing. My anger is that neither Heston Blumenthal or


his management have contacted us. The rest is just curiosity really. We want to


know: what made us so sick?”