Everyone in business talks about being unique and authentic in their marketplace. What do you do though, when your authentic self is a little batshit crazy?
What if you’re a nutty professor, geeky gamer, punk rocker or just super super good looking?
Surely you can’t use that to market and position yourself right?
Surely people will look at your epic levels cray cray and run for the hills?
Perhaps Not.
Exhibit A: Heston Blumenthal
For those of you who don’t know Heston, Heston is a chef… kind of… sorta…. Well I guess you could call him a chef… He does make food… in a way.
You see, if I asked you think of a successful Michelin star chef or restaurant, you probably automatically think of a stuck up, fancy, French place where you can barely pronounce let alone understand what you’re actually going to get on a plate.
Either way, you’re probably thinking out the back is a highly strung chef, who’s running around yelling French or other foreign things at all his sous chefs to make sure the food is all going out perfectly.
He’s Not In Any Way Traditional.
What you’re probably not expecting is a cross between a crazy scientist, a medical laboratory and Halloween. A place where meals are not really cooked, but born.
This is the crazy that Heston brings to the table. You see, from an early age, he fell in love with the EXPERIENCE of eating, not necessarily the food itself. Did you know that when first Fat Duck, Heston’s signature restaurant in Bray, opened it was in a terrible part of town. It had a terribly small kitchen, no windows and one door, all in all it sounds a lot like a dungeon.
Necessity: The Mother Of Innovation
Heston’s kitchen had gas pipes that were designed for residential cooking, not a mass commercial kitchen – so even boiling a pot of water took FOREVER. Heston improvised by consulting a professor and a physicist to figure out new ways of making the food. A PROFESSOR AND A PHYSICST… maybe the thought of getting in a plumber in was a bit too mainstream for him.
He didn’t stop there though. The crazy genius continued into the naming of dishes… to the point that frequently on Facebook there are quizzes to guess which dish name is an actual Heston dish… there’s no chicken parmy or shepherds pie here.
High Concept: Food Edition
The level of genius on these dish namings is just phenomenal. Imagine ordering a dish of UMBLE PIE and eating it in front of your partner. Or a MAD HATTERS TEA PARTY. Or perhaps you’d prefer some ARACHNID PANCAKES, or maybe you’re more of a SNAIL PORRIDGE type of person.
BONUS POINTS: Can you guess which of the dishes above that I made up?
I can only imagine the experience of eating there though… you literally can’t buy a table at Fat Duck, the tables are sold out months in advance. The experience would have to be epic with dishes named like that though.
Oh, and a typical sitting lasts 4.5 hours… I think I could talk about the dish names alone for that long.
A lot of people think they are being way too out there with their crazy and their positioning of what they do. When you think you’re being crazy… ask yourself… have you consulted a professor and a physicist yet? If not, you’re probably fine.