On the island

I would start pulling my hair out if I were in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do. I'm a person of extremes, for me it's just all or nothing, mainly I'd use the time to experiment with food. I've always had a childlike inquisitiveness of what surrounds me. I'd want a rainforest inland so I could find lots of ingredients to experiment with like bugs and some unusual barks that might be good for flavouring: I'll eat anything except worms and Brussels sprouts. I have a very scientific approach to cooking, and I have a lot of ideas about what flavours would work together, but they often remain hypothetical, and I usually spend half an hour working my dishes out on paper before preparing them.

I started doing this after reading Harold McGee's book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen in 1988 - I've read it again and again. His book investigates the mechanics behind cooking answering questions like, why does custard thicken, all the stuff I wasn't taught in cookery school. If you understand the science behind food then you can start to experiment. My ice creams, like the smoked bacon with pain perdu, are formulaically created to get the right levels of solids in them to stop crystallisation. When we first opened my restaurant it was rustic French cooking, but the science element has been involved right from the start. In the last three months it's all started to click and every ingredient in my dishes like foie gras with smoked eel has a reason for being there. I don't wake up and think 'how wacky can I be today' it comes from technique.

Drink: Meursault Desirée

I love tea, but it's not the best thing to take to a desert island. If I was to go for wine to work technically with the food I'd take something from Alsace, but I just love Meursault Desirée. It's a benchmark wine that New World producers strive for. It's very fine with a refreshing acidity and it's powerful without being too oaky and heavy.

Luxury item: Mobile phone or On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee

It would be a toss up between a mobile phone so I could reach my wife Susanna and my children Jack (8), Jessica (6) and Joy (3 1/2) and the Harold McGee book.

My desert island dish

With the five ingredients: tuna belly, Pertuis asparagus, Pata Negra ham, violet sea urchins, Macvin

I've just made this dish up, I can't wait to try it out, it will be delicious. It's got all my favourite ingredients in it, but it would cost a fortune. The ham is £60 a kilo, the asparagus costs £2 a stem, the tuna belly is the most expensive part of the fish. I get Mediterranean violet sea urchins, from Brittany. They have this vivid translucent orange colour and a fantastic violet aroma to them, which is quite volatile so they have to be opened and eaten within a couple of hours. Macvin is a wine from Jura in France. Pata Negra ham is exceptional, you can taste the acorns that the pigs have been fed on and the texture of tuna belly is lovely, it's very rich, but the dish won't be heavy. Pertuis asparagus is purple, thick and should be eaten as fresh as possible and Macvin is a wine from Jura in France. The alcohol is made from the distillation of all the stems and the grapes after they've made the local wine.

Confit of tuna belly, sauté of asparagus with Pata Negra ham and sea urchin

Serves 4

4 200g portions of tuna belly
80g sliced Pata Negra ham with fat removed and reserved
16 Pertuis asparagus spears, snapped to remove the woody base
6 violet sea urchins
50ml Macvin
750ml extra virgin olive oil
rosemary
12 black olives, stoned and roughly chopped
chervil
chives

Remove and reserve the sea urchin tongues. These are the vivid orange coral inside the shell. Heat the olive oil along with rosemary to 450C. Season the tuna, place in the oil and cook for 30 minutes. Meanwhile spoon a tablespoon of the oil used to cook the tuna and the reserved ham fat into a frying pan. Peel the asparagus spears and place in the pan. Sauté on medium heat for between five and 10 minutes depending on the size of the spears. Deglaze the pan with the Macvin. Pour in the alcohol and flame it. Once reduced to a syrup, remove from the heat. Add the chopped olives, the ham and sea urchin tongues. Chop the chervil and chives and mix in. Serve sauté topped with the tuna.

• Heston Blumenthal is head chef of the Fat Duck, 1 High Street, Bray, Berkshire SL6 2AQ, Tel: 01628 580335. Closed Mondays.