Making multi-sensory dining the top priority of his menu, Chef Heston Blumenthal has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award 2017, by organisation the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Known the world over among TV audiences and globetrotting gourmets, Chef Heston Blumenthal joins a long list of honorees that includes Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse, Alain Passard and Joel Robuchon. Blumenthal’s restaurant The Fat Duck recently regained its three Michelin Stars last year, after being closed for renovations.

Blumenthal, 50, is largely self-taught, and rose through the ranks of high gastronomy with his fastidiously scientific approach, technical wizardry, imagination and sense of humour. Among his famous dishes are snail porridge and egg and bacon ice cream.

“A pioneer, an entrepreneur and a creative force, throughout his distinguished career Heston Blumenthal has challenged the way we eat and inspired a generation of chefs,” said World’s 50 Best Restaurants group editor William Drew in a statement. “His passion, energy, imagination and thirst for change have enriched global gastronomy and make him a worthy winner of the prestigious Diners Club® Lifetime Achievement Award.”

Along with The Fat Duck, which he relocated to a pop-up venture in Australia for six months in 2015, Blumenthal also heads Dinner by Heston at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park in London, and in Melbourne, Australia.

The chef will accept his award at the ceremony April 5 in Melbourne, Australia.