Heston Blumenthal is looking to buy a property in Provence.
Heston Blumenthal
The 53-year-old Michelin star-winning chef is currently renting a house in the south east of France, 15 minutes away from the restaurant that convinced him to devote his life and career to cooking, L'Oustau de Baumaniere.
The star explained the move was inspired by the establishment he visited with his parents when he was a child and he is now working on a new development kitchen in the area.
He said: "I live in Provence and we're setting up a lab on the water. It's a big subject. I'm back in the place where it all started. I've come full circle."
And opening up about his love of France, Heston - who is known for his weird and wacky food concoctions - insisted he loves how "fertile" the region is because of his "connection to nature" displayed in his food.
In an interview with The Times newspaper's T2, he added: "It's so bright. There's a reason Van Gogh was there. The light! And Picasso. And the ground is so fertile.
"It's also a bit Charles Darwin-y, I suppose; being able to have a connection with nature. We live in a life that's so fast now. Every time somebody tries to sell you a new app on your telephone there is another cause for distraction."
Heston - who relocated to rural France with his spouse Stephanie Gouveia and their child - loves that the country is "incredibly hot" because it allows him to have unlimited access to fresh ingredients.
He continued: "It gets very hot there. They grow truffles, olives everywhere. Lavender, herbs, vine fruit. They breed white horses. It's incredibly fertile. And the Romans!
"The biggest amphitheatre outside of Italy is down the road in Arles and you've got the Pont du Gard aqueduct in Nimes to take water 50km."
The TV chef - who also has children Zack, 25, Jessie, 22, and 20-year-old Joy with his ex-wife Zanna Blumenthal - went on to reveal his development kitchen will go hand-in-hand with his restaurants in England, most famously he owns the prestigious Fat Duck in Bray, and he will continue to use his food to tell "stories".
He added: "Tomorrow we've got an all-day development meeting but the basic principle comes back to the fact that human beings are storytellers. I've used food to tell stories."
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