Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal is set to hike the prices at his three-Michelin-starred Fat Duck restaurant by a third.
Our favourite culinary wizard pushed up the cost of his much celebrated 12-course tasting menu from £130 to £140 this week. But he plans to eventually bring it up to £170, making it the most expensive tasting menu in the UK.
Even the tasting menu at Thomas Keller's French Laundry in Napa Valley, California, comes in at less than Heston's new prices at $240 (£147), while Jean Georges Vongerichten's flagship eatery in New York City charges $148 (£90).
However, the Fat Duck's prices are still nowhere near those of the three-star restaurants in Paris, many of whom charge in excess of €250 (£214) for their Menus Prestiges.
Blumenthal said the hike was the result of the sheer investment in staff, produce and research that goes into the production of the Fat Duck's menu.
"The costs associated with employing 45 chefs to cook for, on average, 42 covers a service are huge," he told Restaurant Magazine.
Seems like the recession isn't much of an issue to old Heston but then again the Fat Duck did lose hundreds of thousands of pounds when it was forced to shut for two weeks amid a food scare earlier this year.
On a separate note, Heston has agreed to appear at the Caterer and Hotelkeeper Chef Conference in September.
He will take to the stage in a one-on-one interview and is expected to talk about the breadth of his culinary experiences over the past two years, as well as future projects, including a 140-seat restaurant at London's Mandarin Oriental hotel, which he plans to open in 2010.
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