Waitrose has announced it is taking ‘product development in a new direction’ as it ends its 12-year contract with celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal. The partnership saw him starring in TV adverts and developing a range of iconic products such as his most famous creation, the hidden orange Christmas pudding, which sold out within days when it first went on sale in 2010.
The retailer says it is wanting to take product development down a different route now, focusing on its own-brand premium range, Waitrose No.1. This is designed by Waitrose's in-house team of development chefs, including executive chef Martyn Lee, who has been with Waitrose since 2020.
In a statement to The Daily Mail, Natalie Mitchell, director of Waitrose own brand, said: 'We're looking forward to the next chapter and unveiling some really exciting plans in the months to come. We would like to thank Heston Blumenthal and his team for what has been a tremendously creative partnership and wish them all the best in the future.'
A spokesperson for The Fat Duck Group, which oversees the operations of Blumenthal’s restaurants, which currently has an impressive three Michelin star rating, said, 'We want to thank Waitrose for the partnership. Heston and his teams continuously strive to create, and this year sees the arrival of a new sensory experience at The Fat Duck as well as the opening of an innovative new bar concept and Dinner by Heston at Atlantis the Royal, Dubai.'
![A picture of a chocolate shape that looks like both a duck and a rabbit]()
The range will still be supermarkets for a few more months and will end with its final products for the Easter 2023 collection. This will include the Chocolate Dabbit (pictured above), an optical illusion designed to look like it could be both a duck and a rabbit, which has a dark chocolate shell filled with salted blonde chocolate truffle.
More Heston news. Ex-Fat Duck chef sues for £200k over injury claims.