I've finally managed to find time to nip down to a book shop and hand over my money for the 2018 edition of The Michelin Guide Great Britain Ireland which is a title that seems to have a lot of grammatical problems and doesn't help in making sure the buyer is forking out for the correct edition without flicking through the pages to page 14 where the year that it is relevant to is finally revealed.
Still it's fun to have it and see what regional preferences are shown by the Michelin inspectors and to guess precisely how rarely they bring themselves to manage a trip out of London and the Home Counties. An excursion out of the capital indeed seems like a rare phenomenon if judged by the summary of new awards and new Bib Gourmands.
London has one new 3 star restaurant, 1 new 2 star restaurant and 7 new 1 star restaurants (two of them in Kensington and Chelsea where the rich get to eat Michelin starred food and the poor get trapped in burning flats). Meanwhile the Michelin inspectors deem that only 8 other restaurants in the whole of the rest of England are worthy of being awarded a new Michelin star and 3 of those are in the Home Counties/South-east and another 3 are in the south/south-west of England.
Meanwhile there are 10 new Bib Gourmands in London but just 8 in the whole of the rest of England. What nonsense!
The situation in Birmingham and The West Midlands is largely unchanged. As mentioned in Blog 13 four Birmingham restaurants retain their single stars - Purnell's, Carter's Of Moseley, Adam's and Simpson's - while Turner's At 69 loses its star though Richard Turner had seemed rather keen for that to happen so no harm done there then. The other Birmingham restaurants to receive a mention are Asha's and Lasan (both south Asian cuisine), Opus, Turner's At 69 and the only newly mentioned restaurant, Alex Claridge's splendid The Wilderness. The entry for the latter describes it as "A small casual restaurant located in the avant-garde Birmingham Open Media Gallery. The enthusiastic team serve artfully presented menus which marry just a few local and home-grown ingredients in playful combinations". This summary does not do justice to the fabulous nature of the food coming out of The Wilderness's kitchen - I was there last Friday evening with some friends and all were astonished at the excellence and originality of what was served to us.
The Michelin Guide happily defines its criteria for the various awards it makes to what it sees as deserving restaurants.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Three Michelin Stars. "Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey! Our highest award is given for the superlative cooking of chefs at the peak of their profession. The ingredients are exemplary, the cooking is elevated to an art form and their dishes are often destined to become classics".
⭐️⭐️ Two Michelin Stars. "Excellent cooking, worth a detour! The personality and talent of the chef and their team is evident in the expertly crafted dishes which are refined, inspired and sometimes original".
⭐️ One Michelin Star. "High quality cooking, worth a stop! Using top quality ingredients dishes with distinct flavours are carefully prepared to a consistently high standard".
Bib Gourmand. "Good quality, good value cooking. 'Bibs are awarded for simple yet skilful cooking for under £28 or €40.
🍽 The Michelin Plate. "Good cooking. Fresh ingredients, carefully prepared: simply a good meal".
Birmingham diners will draw their own conclusions about how much our restaurants fit into these criteria. I would certainly argue that the dishes available at Purnell's reflect the personality of the chef and his team, are expertly crafted, refined, inspired and frequently original - having visited the restaurant quite often I also feel that Purnell's dishes are consistently refined, inspired, original and reflect the chef's personality. On these criteria there seems little reason to understand why Purnell's has not by now achieved a 2 star status other than the fact that the restaurant is not located in London.
It's difficult, too, to argue that Alex Claridge's The Wilderness does not deliver "high quality food using top quality ingredients resulting in dishes carefully prepared to a consistently high standard with distinct flavours (in my opinion they are highly distinct flavours)". The meals I have had there have been highly consistent in quality and excellence. We will see what happens when The Wilderness moves to its new home in February 2018.
I recently had lunch at Adam's and to be frank, its usually impeccable performance went slightly awry. My companion and I invested in an expensive extra lobster course which was served with satay and a pickle and the rather tasteless lobster was murdered by its accompaniments. It was certainly an ill-judged dish. It was followed by a a beautifully cooked and tasty chicken dish which was ruined by two accompanying elements which were too salty and, literally, left a very unpleasant taste in one's mouth. Perhaps chef was having an off-day.
I haven't been to Simpson's for a while following an extraordinarily poor lunch experience there which was marked by indifferent food and near-chaotic service. I read on the dislikeable Tripadvisor that service remains an issue for some reasonably well-informed commentators and I have not brought myself to go back to eat there after last year's disappointing meal. I remember at the time thinking that Simpson's did not really deserve to hold on to its single star but the Michelin inspectors obviously feel differently.
From previous editions I see that the excellent Edmund's has disappeared from the Birmingham list therefore being denied the chance of announcing itself to be the awardee of a "Michelin Plate". I can not think why Edmund's has not been so rewarded - I have lunched there several times in the past 12 months and always been impressed and pleased by the cooking and dishes served there.
Two Cats in the Jewellery Quarter has also disappeared from the Birmingham list but that is hardly surprising since it sadly closed at the end of September. I'm sure the innovative restaurant will be much missed including the elegant "Two Cats" sign:-
Birmingham's "Michelin Plate" restaurant's are Asha's, Lasan, Opus, Turner's at 69, Andy Water's and The Wilderness. A rather shorter list than one might expect. This is contrasted with a similar list for Manchester which, as though to compensate for awarding none of that city's restaurants a Michelin star, is swollen with a Bib Gourmand and no fewer than 11 "Plate" establishments. Poor Manchester, always the bridesmaid and never the bride.
Elsewhere in the West Midlands, Cheal's of Henley and Bluebell are awarded a Michelin Plate in Henley in Arden; No 9 Church Street, Salt, Lambs and Rooftop (at the RSC) are "plated" in Stratford upon Avon; Forelles, Mortimers, Old Downton Lodge, French Pantry and Charlton Arms have been awarded a Plate in Ludlow but the Green Cafe at Dinham seems to have lost its Bib Gourmand (although on several visits this year the food seemed as good as ever); Bilash in Wolverhampton is Plated; Lion and Pheasant and The Haughmond are Plated in Shrewsbury; Peel's retains its Michelin star in Hampton in Arden; The Cross At Kenilworth holds on to its star in Kenilworth; The Butcher's Arms in Eldersfield retains its star; The Howard Arms in Ilmington is Plated; The Castle House in Hereford is Plated; Buckland Manor and Russell's in Broadway are Plated; Brasserie At Mallory, Restaurant 23 and Oscar's are Plated at Leamington; The Moody Cow at Ross-on-Wye is Plated, The Lion at Leintwardine is Plated; and then there is Cheltenham where Le Champignon Sauvage retains its 2 stars and a remarkably large number of Plates are to be found at The Beaufort (at the wonderful Ellenborough Park Hotel, though I personally prefer its delightful, cosy brasserie), Lumière, Daffodil, Bhoomi, Curry Corner, East India Cafe, Koloshi, Prithvi (do you get the feeling that a Michelin inspector with a predilection for curries actually lives in Cheltenham?), White Spoon, No 131, Pursiane and Royal Oak (12, yes 12, Michelin plates in this small town, hmmm...hard to believe).
So what is there to look forward to in the coming year in Birmingham? Purnell's is changing its midweek menu concept offering a more flexible a la carte menu with the classic Purnell dishes featured on it whilst retaining the magnificent tasting menus for weekend dining and of course there is a new Autumn menu.
As mentioned above we have the new The Wilderness to get excited about in February 2018. I think we will need to try out Graeme Jackson's Grit which will be opened soon in the building which housed Two Cats and will there be news of Ben Tesh's very own, as opposed to "pop up", restaurant in the not too far off future? (I hope so).
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