69. Birmingham’s New Star.

  The Michelin Star awards ceremony held this evening (Monday 7 October) was, as usual, a mixture of long drawn-out tedium and toe curlingly cringeworthy moments. Really the organisers should get someone to introduce the whole shabang who actually knows how to ask questions of men who are obviously generally socially inept (except when in the company of fellow chefs especially if the chefs are men). In fact cutting out the questioning altogether would be a step that everyone would welcome. But the show had everything - a weeping Japanese chef, an Irishman well in his cups who wrestled Raymond Blanc to the floor in his state of half-drunken euphoria, a heavy sprinkling of swear words, numerous words of gratitude to various chefs’ mothers, a young and highly successful chef who pronounced that both he and his wife had been ‘going mental’ and a remarkable 

demonstration that the Michelin inspectors were all cashing in on their Irish second passports by sprinkling stars across that island.

  But from our point of view all that mattered was that Aktar Islam’s sublime Opheem has been awarded a Michelin star, the first Asian restaurant outside London to be so honoured. And deservedly so. Birmingham is back to 5 stars and Aktar has bolstered the city’s gastronomic reputation. In his on stage interview Aktar could not help but attribute his success to using his mother’s recipes. I for one would have been quite happy to see Mrs Islam on the stage along with him receiving her share of the Award!

  There were no other stars for Birmingham chefs and, though some thought it might happen, Adam’s did not increase its star score. In all there were 23 new one starred restaurants, 1 new 2 star restaurant which did not previously have a star at all, 2 new stars made up from 1 star and 1 new 3 star. Stars were sprinkled liberally over Ireland which makes me think that the inspectors are looking for a bolthole in the event of Brexit actually taking place.

  Meanwhile there is also good news for the West Midlands with the award of a Michelin star to chef Lee Westcott at Pensoms in Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire. My paternal grandmother was born there before coming to Birmingham in 1911 to work at the Bell Inn (long since closed and demolished) in Northfield and so the pleasant little town of Tenbury has a special place in my heart and the news is particularly pleasing to me. 

  Finally it’s worth mentioning that Manchester, which hilariously has not had a single Michelin-starred restaurant despite the city’s ‘second city’ pretensions for forty years, finally finds itself with a starred restaurant in the form of Mana. If it can get another four it’ll be starting to look a little more like a ‘second city’.