So what do you slurp with snail porridge?

His food may be dismissed by some as deliberately flouting culinary traditions, but there's no question that Heston Blumenthal is pushing the boundaries of food combinations and introducing British palates to something new. Many chefs consider him revolutionary - his innovations a welcome relief from the tried-and-tested flavour combinations that most chefs swear by.

It's all very well for him to racily combine foie gras with seafood, or offer ice-cream made out of smoked bacon and eggs, but put yourself in the shoes of his front-of-house staff. How would you explain some of his dishes to first-timers?

"Yes sir, I can assure you the snail porridge on the set lunch menu is quite delicious... No, it's not a strange-tasting grey sludge at all, sir. More like a risotto, actually. It's terrific, one of the chef's great successes."

And, once you've persuaded diners to try some of the more peculiar-sounding dishes, what about the wine? Just what would you suggest with sardine on toast ice-cream?

Actually, presenting Blumenthal's idiosyncratic food isn't tough at all. Didier Fertilati and Emmanuel Defevre, his restaurant manager and sommelier, reckon the job is quite straightforward. There are several reasons. First, says Fertilati, the front-of-house staff not only know that the food is good, but they know from experience that customers almost always enjoy it. "It's very easy to sell something that is good in itself. It's not as if we are trying to sell something which isn't, however strange some dishes may sound to customers at first."

Second, more and more customers have some foreknowledge of what the Fat Duck is about, so they are expecting offbeat culinary combinations. "Six months ago I would say 70% of our customers were shocked by what they saw on the menu," Fertilati says. "Now it is probably less than half, because what we are doing here has become more widely appreciated."

A third reason why Blumenthal's food is more accessible than you'd expect is that its peculiarities are overstated. Defevre often tells customers the combinations sound stranger than they taste.

Let's return to the snail porridge. Fertilati admits it sounds awful, but it's one of his favourite dishes. It really does look more like a risotto than porridge, and Defevre likes to pair it with a Bourgogne Aligoté, a classic combination for a Burgundy-inspired snail dish. Like many other Blumenthal creations, it may be radical in presentation, but the principles underlying it are classical.

Even when Fertilati and Defevre have successfully guided customers through the menu, there is much more for them to do than just put the food on the table with a pleasant "Bon appétit!" Blumenthal's food is not just carefully constructed, it calls for consideration in consumption as well. "A lot of the dishes we serve need interaction with the restaurant, both in detailed explanation of the way something is cooked and in the way it should ideally be consumed," Fertilati says.

So the staff explain carefully to customers that the spiced cod with Casteluccio lentils, braised coxcombs and pea pur‚e has not been lazily allowed to go cold, but has been deliberately cooked at the low level of 42°C to preserve its texture. And to experience the d‚lice of chocolate sorbet and cumin caramel at its best, diners are advised to dig their spoon deep into the dish to enjoy all the layers in the mouth at once.

Similarly, Fertilati says: "The smoked bacon and egg ice-cream is no good by itself. You have to have a little bit of everything on the plate together, including the tomato jam and the French toast. We explain to customers that it's the combination that's important."

Most customers are happy to go along with the advice, even acquiescing when staff place small tasting spoons directly into customers' mouths for some of the complimentary dishes that are part of the Fat Duck experience. "If you are open-minded you can enjoy this sort of thing. It makes people laugh - they enjoy it like a game," Fertilati says.

Perhaps the most spectacular piece of culinary theatre comes with the palate-cleanser of green tea and lime sour, which is "cooked" in liquid nitrogen. It comes to the table looking like a glass of whipped egg whites with trails of 1970s disco-style dry ice.

The Fat Duck's gets far more than its fair share of visits from the trade. Chefs, sommeliers and other restaurant staff all want to sample its cutting-edge reputation for themselves.

You might think these customers are the toughest to please, but not according to Defevre. "They just come along to enjoy themselves. They know what they're talking about and they know what to expect, but they're not difficult."

Sommeliers have come from as far away as Australia, and some leading US chefs have sampled Blumenthal's cooking, but Fertilati says the French are less frequent visitors. "The French still tend to think you can't get good food in Britain. Some of the more informed have now heard of Heston, but when I came here in 2001 from the Chèvre d'Or [a two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Eze, France] my chef heard I was going to work for someone called Heston Blumenthal and said, 'Who is he?'"

Fertilati first came to the Fat Duck with the aim of perfecting his English, and admits that he, too, had heard little of Blumenthal before he arrived. Defevre, who was previously at the 1837 restaurant in Brown's hotel, London, had heard what Blumenthal was doing, and was attracted by his adventurous spirit. He is keen on serving less common wines - like the sweet wines of Willie Opitz, for example - and there are 25 sherries on the Fat Duck list. But the unusual wines he suggests have less to do with matching them with unusual food and more to do with the spirit of the restaurant.

"There are dishes here that are difficult to match with wine, but no more than in any other restaurant. Generally, the food here favours aromatic whites and Mediterranean reds. Bordeaux doesn't go with the cooking much, but many of the other combinations can be quite traditional." Just like the snails and Bourgogne Aligoté.

For the record, Defevre's favoured pairing with the smoked bacon and egg ice-cream is a rich sherry, the Old East India from Lustau. And the sardine on toast ice-cream? Try a dry manzanilla.

A menu from the Fat Duck

The sommelier and the restaurant manager

Emmanuel Defevre, 33

Came to the Fat Duck in June 2001 from the 1837 restaurant at Brown's hotel, London. He is from the Rhône, but has never worked in France, having been in England for 13 years.

Didier Fertilati, 27

Came to the Fat Duck as chef de rang in November 2001 from the Château de la Chèvre d'Or, the two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Eze. He has previously worked at Rousillon restaurant, London.