"I love this dish because you're lifting something out of a fairytale but it's also got a bit of recipe history in there.

In the Victorian times, turtle soup was very popular. It fell out of favour for cost reasons and was replaced with mock turtle soup. This was a consomme with a calf's head, maybe a calf's foot, and root vegetables like turnips, swede and carrots. That's why in the Alice in Wonderland illustrations the Mock Turtle has a calf's head and feet.

At the time, the French nicked it and it became very fashionable in Paris. It's best described as a light, meaty, fragrant broth. You can see why it caught on.

In Alice, the Mad Hatter dunks his fob watch in the tea. So at the Fat Duck we made a fob watch from freeze dried, reduced, concentrated stock and wrapped it in gold fleck. It comes with a teapot and when you pour hot water on, it dissolves into this beautiful clear brown consomme with gold leaf. We serve it with a Mock Turtle egg, which is a turnip mousse with a swede puree, and little enochi mushrooms to signify the Caterpillar's toadstool.

Multimedia

• Pictures: How to make mock turtle soup

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BACKGROUND

• The Okido science colouring book that you can eat

• How schoolchildren shaped the new Trafalgar Square plinth

• Traditional British culture has been forgotten

BACKGROUND

• Heston Blumenthal's Mock Turtle Soup

• Sophie Dahl's magic muesli

• Make a gingerbread house and people

Alice has been a favourite book of mine for a while. I love the way she makes reason in a completely unreasonable world. I think cooking is like going down a rabbit hole into a wonderland - the sense of discovery, the way that things are not quite as they seem. "

(For more fun, games and fairytales go to the House of Fairy Tales website.)

Mock turtle soup

(Serves 500, makes enough for a week's supply at the Fat Duck)

For the beef stock base
16.25kg beef bones
5kg oxtail, sectioned
grape seed or groundnut oil
16.25kgbeef shin meat
7.5kg peeled and thinly sliced carrot
7.5kg peeled and thinly sliced onions
7.5kg star anise, lightly crushed
7½ bottles of red wine
28l water

Pre-heat an oven to 150C. Combine the beef bones and the oxtail in a roasting pan and roast in the oven until golden brown on all sides, turning regularly. In the bottom of a pressure cooker heat a thin layer of oil over high heat. Brown the beef shin meat in batches, colouring deeply without burning. Remove the meat from the pan and add the onion and star anise. Caramelize the onions (but do not fry) on the pan and add the carrots when the onions have a light brown colour. Continue to sauté the vegetables, stirring regularly, until evenly coloured. Add the red wine and reduce by two-t2/3. When the wine has reduced add the beef bones and the meat and the water. Cover with the lid and bring to full pressure. Cook at full pressure for 2 hours. Depressurize and strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve. Cool the mixture to room temperature.

For the infusion
3.6kg cherry tomatoes, quartered
Cooled stock from above
Whisk together and infuse for 20 minutes. Strain.

For the mushroom stock
200g unsalted butter
1.5kg button mushrooms
400g East India Madeira
3l water
16 sprigs thyme
6 black peppercorns

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