Mysterious Sicknesses at Fat Duck affect 400

[ktb615]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/be...

I'm not sure that this is going to be too good for business. I hate for it to happen to such a talented guy.

[Frodnesor]

Update - The Fat Duck reopened 3/12, health authorities could find nothing wrong, shellfish taken off the menu purely as a precaution, restaurant was fully booked, customers were happy.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article5898018.ece

www.foodforthoughtmiami.com

[Harters]

I gather numbers claiming to have been affected dramatically increased around the time Blumenthal offered a free meal to folk who had been affected. Now you might believe there's a connection there but I couldnt possibly comment.

[EWSflash]

Hmmmmmm. Iiiiiiiinteresting.
But people wouldn't be that tacky and opportunistic, would they? Oh heck no.

[Harters]

Weeelllll.

The Fat Duck (which remains closed) is only a 40 cover restaurant and "complaints" date back to January. It's not as though all these 400 folk fell ill over a couple of days. Tests by the local council's Environmental Health Department has failed to find a cause.

I wonder whether eating a load of weird wacky food combinations might be a contibutory factor. You might believe that but I couldnt possibly comment.

[buttertart]

Aaah Harters, dear old Francis Urquhart lives.

[Harters]

The best Prime Minister we never had :-0

[EWSflash]

I don't know which is sadder- the idea of sabotage or the thought of a bunch of silly people with a norovirus coupled with group hysteria, if either scenario caused the restaurant to close down.

[RBCal]

Norovirus would indicate poor hygiene at the Fat Duck and its not very silly. Usually it doesn't cause vomiting, however which is one of the symptoms that patrons have reported.

I bet the sickness is due to some weird molecular gastronomy chemical reaction that was not expected.

[LindaWhit]

If it is a norovirus, that doesn't mean it was from hygiene from a person who works in the kitchen at the Fat Duck. It could have been a previous diner who didn't wash their hands after using the bathroom, and then perhaps shaking the hand of a maitre'd, who then shook hands with other people that evening. It's not always a food-born virus.

[EWSflash]

Are you sure?
Norovirus = Norwalk virus = "winter vomiting disease"

The molecular gastronomy chemical reaction idea occurred to me, too, but that's just a wild-ass guess- I'd have no way of knowing.

I do hope they find out something that clears his name.

[dmd_kc]

Even if there was something in the food, the numbers of people involved here is a sure sign that there's a major psychosomatic component to this. It's like cruise ship illnesses, where people attribute any slight malady to the food, when it's really seasickness and groupthink.

I'm not really interested in eating there, but I hope they recover from it. Very unlikely it was the kitchen's fault.

[small h]

According to this article (in addition to the one ktb615 posted), it's very possible the illness wasn't food related at all:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/wor...

[dexters]

I was wondering why there wasn't a thread on the topic already! I wonder what will happen to HB's reputation and that of the Fat Duck.

[shallots]

Health inspectors haven't been able to isloate a cause for the problem.
One news article suggested the possibility of Sabotage. And there was a mention of a fifty thousand pound loss of business.

[cockscomb]

this won't ruin hb's reputation in my book. had a couple of my best dining experiences of my life at the fat duck and other places eating his food.