Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal’s famous Fat Duck restaurant has been forced to close after dozens of customers got ill after eating there.

Heston’s restaurant costs approximately £130 per head and is famous for serving dishes such as bacon-and-egg ice cream and snail porridge.

However around three weeks ago restaurant diners began to fall ill and suffer from the runs.

Blumenthal, 42, whose Channel 4 show Feast starts on Tuesday, decided to close the restaurant until he finds the cause of the bug. He told The Sun last night: “It’s very strange.

“Four or five years ago we enlisted the help of a hygiene consulting company and we routinely send samples off for analysis, as we know there can be all sorts of pitfalls in the supply chain.

“All our systems are checked and monitored. We have done everything in our power and I’ve never come across anything like this before.”