Heston Blumenthal Has Created Plant-Based Burgers for Grill’d and I Got a Sneaky Taste Test

I am the first to admit that fancy food scares me. So I like to think that is the reason I’ve never eaten one of Heston Blumenthal’s extravagant dishes. Too fancy for me. Until now. Say hello to the Heston Fable Burger range.

The fancy British chef — known the world over for his magical dishes that just seem too spectacular to actually eat — has partnered with Grill’d to create plant-based burgers for us mere mortals.

The Heston Fable Burger, Fable Spicy Cheeseburger, Fable Truffle, and Fable Southern BBQ are all made with mushroom-based meat — and they’re limited to just 4000 burgers across Australia.

But guess what? I got to try one!

Here’s what Heston tells me I can expect (via a press release of course, I didn’t actually get to sit down for a chin-wag with old mate):

“The Fable pattie has a rich, satisfying mushroom flavour that tastes just like slow cooked meat, complemented by the pluminess and spiciness of hoisin sauce, fresh texture of Japanese slaw and lightly grilled tofu. It has all of the umami, all of the satisfying things that you would expect from a burger but there’s no meat in it.”

My first impression of the Fable Spicy Cheeseburger is that it looks like a regular hamburger — in that if you didn’t tell me it was a plant-based pattie I wouldn’t have had a clue. I don’t know how they do it, but the texture really is like slow-cooked beef. I was anticipating at least a slight hint of mushroom flavour lingering about, but that wasn’t the case at all.

Given Heston Blumenthal’s extravagance, I was expecting the Spicy Cheeseburger to be a lot spicier. It’s very subtle, even for a white girl like me who grew up thinking chicken salt was max flavour.

But the wholemeal bun is a real player — it adds a nice nutty flavour to the burger. I’m so over brioche buns with everything, to be honest. It’s like eating a burger made of cake. No thank you.

Final verdict: well worth a crack. Heston did good.

The burgers are available from August 8 to 22, but to get the full Heston Fable Burger experience — which is delivered to the table under a smoke-filled cloche — you need to book a seat at a Grill’d restaurant. The three other burgers — Fable Spicy Cheeseburger, Fable Truffle, and Fable Southern BBQ — are also available for takeaway.

Now, for Sydney folks stuck in lockdown, that means you will have to wait until lockdown lifts, but you can register your interest here and receive updates.