Mmm Little Chef. I appreciate the lollies but it's no Happy Eater, let's face it. All that's about to change, though. Little Chef will soon be up there with the best roadside eateries in the country - experimental chef Heston Blumenthal has been brought in to help transform the place into a gastronomic wonderland.

Little Chef was rescued from financial ruin last year by the private equity company RCapital. Without a new menu, though, they were still in serious danger of being swallowed up by a big pile of mushy peas and gravy, so Blumenthal was recruited by Channel 4 last month in a deal said to be worth £1m. He's set to create a new menu for one Little Chef restaurant and, if that's a hit, the new food will soon be rolled out across the country (possibly literally, I've seen his concoctions and they're weird.)

Blumenthal of course owns the Michelin-starred Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire and is known for his scientific approach to food, often described rather unhelpfully as "molecular gastronomy".

The project, a three-part series of one hour shows with the working title Big Chef, Little Chef [wait, wasn't that a different show? - ed] will begin in May to coincide with the chain's 50th anniversary.

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