Blumenthal in search of perfection

Heston Blumenthal's search for perfection amused and outraged critics. Photograph: BBC/Des Willie.

It wasn't hard to take the mickey out of Heston Blumenthal's In Search of Perfection on BBC2 last night.

After all, this is a chap whose bangers-and-mash recipe demanded, among other efforts critics highlighted, the leg of a rare middle white pig from Piperfield Farm outside Berwick-upon-Tweed; bread crumbs made from toast soaked for a hour in tea and fat which had been roasted over an open fire; star anise and mace; checking the temperature of the mixture to ensure it didn't creep above the critical 10C; natural hog casings; alternating the direction in which the sausages are twisted; and a sausage stuffing machine. All in the name of "trying to capture the memory of a childhood bonfire into the sausage".

The suggestion that you should try this at home amused all, outraged some, and was met by Jane Simon of the Daily Mirror with simply "Bless".

But that aside, did anybody actually enjoy watching this programme? Absolutely. Our own Sam Wollaston, The Times' Tim Teeman, Louisa Pearson for The Scotsman and Simon all had one word to sum it up: fascinating.

The Times' Tim Teeman was more intrigued by Blumenthal's passion (and his chilled rolling pins). Pearson, while pondering that his name made him sound like "a cad from a Mills & Boon novel", was excited that he "was no food snob" despite his "boffin mentality".

Wollaston thought he seemed a bit weird, but dead cool. Only The Herald's David Belcher was distinctly unimpressed, calling the programme a "right chuffing dog's breakfast". And that's not just because this "shaven-headed young turk" looks like "a younger Ross Kemp in spectacles". Rather Belcher minds that Blumenthal sits "spouting pretentious piffle at an unseen interviewer" and cooks "in a blokey jump-cut manner".

So, were you impressed? Post your thoughts below...