Fatter Duck as Heston plans menu at £170

Heston Blumenthal is set to raise prices at his Fat Duck restaurant by almost a third, making it nearly twice as expensive as other top dining rooms.

The chef this week raised the cost of his 12-course tasting menu from £130 to £140, but has plans to increase the price to £170.

According to Blumenthal, the hike is due to investment in staff, produce and painstaking research that goes into the production of the celebrated menu.

"The costs associated with employing 45 chefs to cook for, on average, 42 covers a service are huge," he said.

The new tasting menu will feature established Fat Duck dishes alongside new creations — some of which have been developed through his Feast series for Channel 4, including a Tudor recipe for chocolate wine.

Other dishes at the Berkshire restaurant include red cabbage gazpacho with pommery grain mustard ice cream, and salmon poached in liquorice.

The signature menu at Hélène Darroze at the Connaught costs £85, while the menu prestige at Gordon Ramsay's Claridge's restaurant costs £80.

And even a menu prestige at Ramsay's three Michelin-starred restaurant in Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea is priced at £120.

Blumenthal recently lost hundreds of thousands of pounds when the Fat Duck was forced to shut for two weeks due to a food scare. He now plans to open his first London restaurant at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park.