Heston Blumenthal has made his name creating such original dishes as Snail Porridge and Nitrogen Scrambled Egg & Bacon Ice Cream at his internationally acclaimed restaurant, The Fat Duck. In this book, a single-volume edition of the bestselling Perfection books, Heston focuses his creative talent on reinventing some of our most well-known (and most abused) dishes.

He travels around the world in search of definitive versions of sixteen classic dishes: Roast Chicken & Roast Potatoes, Pizza, Hamburger, Bangers & Mash, Fish Pie, Steak, Spaghetti Bolognese, Risotto, Fish & Chips, Chilli Con Carne, Chicken Tikka Masala, Peking duck, Black Forest Gateau, Treacle Tart & Ice Cream, Trifle and Baked Alaska.

Among the many adventures on his quest, he travels to Delhi and makes an MRI scan of the marinated chicken in his Tikki Masala; he discovers the secret to the ultimate crispy duck in Peking and experiments at home by inflating a Gressingham on a footpump; he walks the Dickensian streets of Lambeth and learns how to capture the essence of a fish and chip shop in a perfume bottle, and he explores the Willy Wonka-esque Tate&Lyle factory and tastes some seventy-year-old syrup that proves an inspiration for the flavour of his treacle tart.

Total Perfection is an original, inspiring and fascinating voyage around the culinary globe.

Chef Heston Blumenthal has been described as a culinary alchemist for his innovative style of cuisine. His work researches the molecular compounds of dishes to enable a greater understanding of taste and flavor. His restaurant, the Fat Duck, in Bray, Berkshire, England, was awarded three Michelin stars in 2004, and voted the Best Restaurant in the World by an international panel of 500 culinary experts in Restaurant magazine's list of the World's Best Restaurants 2005. Blumenthal lives in Berkshire with his wife and three children.