Heston Blumenthal has said he fears that watching the high pressure depictions of kitchen life in the TV series The Bear could trigger a bipolar episode.
The restaurateur and TV chef announced he was diagnosed with the mental health condition earlier this year, after receiving a positive assessment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 2017.
Blumenthal, 58, runs restaurants including the three Michelin-star Fat Duck, two Michelin-star Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Michelin-starred Hind’s Head, and the Perfectionists’ Cafe.
He said he has not been able to watch the award-winning series The Bear as it depicts the highly pressurised atmosphere in the kitchen.
Blumenthal told BBC Newsnight: “There’s a couple of the big chefs that I know, friends of mine, who have been involved in the consulting of it, so it must be pretty accurate. I’m hoping that one day I’ll be able to watch it, just at the moment, it’s too soon.”
Blumenthal’s wife, Melanie Ceysson, added that he had not watched the show “because I think it is the biggest trigger for Heston’s condition”.
Bipolar disorder is a severe mental health condition where people have extreme mood changes, though their frequency and type varies. Some people experience more periods of high mood or mania, and others experience more low mood, or depression, and many, though not all, have psychotic thoughts. Stress and not getting enough sleep can trigger these episodes.
While many people are undiagnosed, the charity Bipolar UK says there are 1.3 million people with the disorder in the UK.
Blumenthal was sectioned in October last year after a mental health crisis in which he experienced mania, barely slept, had suicidal thoughts and became hallucinatory. He has previously said he wants to talk about his condition to raise awareness and reduce stigma.
He was diagnosed with bipolar type 1, which refers to mania potentially followed by shorter depressive periods, and now uses medication to stabilise his moods.
He has also reflected on whether there were signs earlier in his career. During the BBC interview, Blumenthal said he worked 120 hours a week for the first 10 years of his career, “because I had no choice”.
“I was sleeping 20 hours in a whole week,” he said. “The restaurant was young, and I was getting up at five o’clock in the morning, going into the kitchen, and then leaving at midnight. It didn’t really expose itself, my bipolarity, when I was in the kitchen.”
Blumenthal said he did not see his diagnosis as “all doom and gloom”, but rather that it was “part of who I am”.