Heston Blumenthal's Christmas dinner could cost diners £2,125 each…

Heston Blumenthal’s Christmas dinner could cost £2,125 each… So just HOW much are other TV chefs charging for their peculiar dishes of decaying grapes, sea lettuce tarts and golden carrots?

From the presents to the fully-stocked fridge, and from turning up the heating to the big work night out – Christmas is expensive enough as it is.

But anyone thinking of adding a festive meal at a high-end restaurant to that list may need to ask Santa for a winning lottery ticket this December.

TV’s most celebrated chefs are preparing to serve up Christmas dinner – but tucking in could set you back as much as £2,125 per head.

Marcus Wareing, Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal and Tom Kerridge all boast Michelin stars on their CVs.

But diners can pay anything from £275 per head to £450 for the food alone, while even a festive children’s menu could be as much as £185.

The pricey dishes from TV’s top chefs which could set you back up to £2,125 this Christmas

Heston Blumenthal raised the prices of his Christmas menu (pictured) at the Fat Duck

And once the chefs’ recommended wine pairings are added to the total, the price per person could surge to as much as £2,125.

Lovers of tradition should be aware that while these events offer a fabulous array of prestige ‘trimmings’, turkey and sprouts are not even always on offer. Wareing, who has featured as a judge on the BBC’s Masterchef: The Professionals for almost a decade, is set to walk away from his restaurant this year.

READ MORE: HESTON BLUMENTHAL’S RESTAURANT SERVES A BRAISED CELERY MAIN COURSE FOR £50 

As a result, he is celebrating with a final six-course Christmas menu at the swanky Michelin-starred Berkeley restaurant in London’s Knightsbridge.

It is billed as a ‘slice of history you won’t want to miss’ with a price of £450 per head for the food, which includes carefully selected matching wines for each course.

A diner looking to treat a family of 16 was quoted £10,000 for the pleasure.

This includes a six-course tasting menu with prestige wines from the chef’s cellar, bottled water, tea or coffee and a digestif.

Menu choices include tea-cured Loch Duart salmon, roast Orkney scallop, winter truffle, and Rhug Estate turkey or Galloway beef fillet. There are also fabulous British and European cheeses as well as a yule log dessert.

The Merseyside-born TV chef worked with Ramsay until the pair fell out when Wareing left to launch his first solo restaurant. Ramsay’s own Michelin-starred Petrus restaurant, which is close by, is charging a headline price of £290 per head for the food alone.

However, adding the recommended ‘indulgent’ wines – costing £875 per head – to the dishes would drive the price per head to as much as £1,165. The lavish menu includes a Potimarron sea lettuce tart, lobster raviolo with Oscietra caviar, a confit of Dover sole, Aynhoe Park Deer and a chocolate cremeux.

Blumenthal is charging £425 per head for the Christmas menu at his Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, which is recognised as one of the best in the world.

The nine courses include roast scallops, which are served with chocolate, short rib of beef with a gold carrot, plus King’s venison served with sprouts, black truffle and beetroot. And diners will finish off their meal with ‘Botrytis Cinerea’ – which the chef has described as a ‘noble rot’ that is harvested from certain types of decaying grape.

Gordon Ramsay’s Pétrus restaurant (pictured) is charging a headline price of £290 per head

There is also Blumenthal’s unique take on a compressed red grape, Jerusalem artichoke, and truffled egg, as well as a langoustine cocktail. The restaurant recommends a series of wine pairing options, including one called myrrh at £170 per person and frankincense at £420 per person.

The most expensive wine pairing selection, called gold, is priced at £1,700 per person and would take the total cost to £2,125.

For the traditionalist, Kerridge, who has his own collection of Michelin stars, is offering a much more familiar menu.

Tom Kerridge’s Bar & Grill at London’s Corinthia hotel off Whitehall is charging £275 per head, which includes a glass of champagne. There is a game terrine, Cornish crab cake, a spectacular Norfolk roast turkey dinner with every trimming variation, or an option of roast fillet of beef.

Blumenthal is charging £425 per head for the Christmas menu at the Fat Duck (pictured)

The restaurant recommends a series of wine pairing options, pushing up the cost further

There is also the chef’s own Christmas pudding, fabulous English cheese and mince pies.

There are no wine pairing suggestions, however there is an extensive choice from around the world, with many single bottles costing more than £500.

A small glass of white ranges from £9.50 to £50, while red ranges up to £65, and a glass of Laurent-Perrier ‘Grand Siècle’ N°22 champagne is £52.

At the top end, a single bottle of the 1997 ‘Corton Charlemagne’ Grand Cru Domaine Leroy is listed at £6,250.

This week, retail analysts Kantar put the average cost of a home-cooked Christmas turkey meal for four, including pud and sparkling wine, at £31.71 – working out at £7.93 a head.

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