Do we like Heston Blumenthal?
Our score: 7 out of 10. No harmful words or company turned up, but the Melbourne wage dispute and a thin record of good works keep it short of the top.
Heston Blumenthal is the bloke behind The Fat Duck, the three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray that made him a household name. His London restaurant, Dinner by Heston at the Mandarin Oriental, opened in January 2011, won its first star in 2012 and its second in 2013.
The ugly chapter is Melbourne. The New Daily reported in 2020 that a leaked administrator's report alleged Dinner by Heston at Crown underpaid staff by at least $4 million. The restaurant went into liquidation, and the same report says his name was on the door but he did not own it. Network 10 then confirmed he would not return to MasterChef Australia, without giving a reason.
Closer to home, a former Fat Duck pastry chef sued the restaurant in 2019 for £200,000, alleging negligence over repetitive work. The Fat Duck denied liability and argued the claim was filed too late. We couldn't find an outcome, so treat it as an unresolved allegation.
On the harm check, the searches came up empty. No campaigning against LGBTQ+ or trans people, no slide into conspiracies, no culture-war grifting, and no dodgy co-stars turned up. A 2026 Channel 4 interview shows him talking up mindful, sustainable eating as good for the planet. That is a clean sheet, though a quiet one, because he mostly keeps to cooking.
The recent news is about money and endings, not scandal. He told The Times of the London closure, “We are effectively tenants in a building and our tenancy is finished.” The group is also lining up fresh money, with COMO Group backing the Bray restaurants.
The honest verdict is that he is a clean pass on harm and a small asterisk on being a good boss. The good stuff is mostly food, innovation and a long career, with no big public charity record in what we read. If the Melbourne claims are the worst on file and he wasn't the owner, that's a stain, not a pattern.