 |
| Beef Wellington, Craft Dining Rooms, 2019 |
A couple of episodes ago, Ian, the chef in the the BBC’s radio saga, The Archers, which is the longest running radio soap opera in the world and which tells the story of nice middle class mostly English people who are decent and honest while the working class, also mostly English but generally mildly dishonest as well as being comedy characters, denounced the changes in the menu introduced by the locum chef in his restaurant at Grey Gables Hotel. The locum is filling in for him while Ian is on paternity leave to spend time with the child he and his husband have had by a surrogate mother. Why was Ian so disgruntled?
Well Ian was furious that the locum head chef, whose name I forget and which probably isn’t important anyway, had introduced, daringly one presumes, Beef Wellington and Steak pie on to the menu. Ian was full of fury saying that the locum was taking the restaurant back to the 1970s. It didn’t help that these vintage dishes were proving popular with the guests and even his husband said how much he was enjoying the steak pie.
Frankly I think it was Ian who was out of touch. I drift back to a stupendous and memorable beef Wellington I luxuriated in at the end of last year at Craft Dining Rooms. And despite Ian’s misgivings the dish was as elegant and modern as one could hope. How much more excited I could feel about having the dish again rather than a plate of foams, pine nuts, anaemic sous vide-cooked pork belly and nasturtium flowers. Ian and a good many other chefs (real and fictional) need to rethink their strategies as we enter the third decade of the 21st century. As do a lot of professional food critics.
Of course this amble into fictional Ambridge, the village which these characters inhabit, is highly relevant to this Blog as the village is based on elements of one not far from Birmingham in Worcestershire. It in fact finds itself in the fictional county of Borsetshire which I believe is theoretically squeezed somewhat improbably between Warwickshire and Worcestershire which would be a rather tight fit. I’ve no idea if Ian’s cooking is so good that Michelin or The Good Food Guide have graced his restaurant with a mention in their guides - probably not as I don’t ever remember Ian mentioning it and I’m sure he would have done if they had.
Perhaps, and this could be rather enjoyable, the locum chef will win the Grey Gables restaurant a Michelin plate or a mention in the Good Food Guide, an achievement previously undreamed of in Ambridge and never achieved by the self-satisfied Ian. Borsetshire does seem to be a culinary desert though a couple of years ago a celebrity female chef did open an expensive fine-dining restaurant in, and I can’t remember which, either the county town of Borchester or the large town of Felpersham. It’s a place to be seen in apparently and the programme’s most snobbish characters, Brian and Jennifer Aldridge, who fancies herself as a bit of a cook and hostess, have dined there on at least two occasions. But mostly local people eat out at the local pub, The Bull (recently renamed The B At Ambridge in the face of considerable local antagonism) or at Grey Gables where there’s often a mishap in the kitchen or in the dining room itself.
So I must try to remember that the West Midlands has not seven counties (Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands and Worcestershire) but eight (Borsetshire to be added) and to look out for food events there. Perhaps Grey Gables with its Beef Wellington and Steak pie really is at the cutting edge of West Midlands cuisine in the early 2020s despite what Ian thinks.
The producers of The Archers have for years produced books relating to the programme and one popular aspect of such publishing has been cookbooks. Jennifer Aldridge has even had her own cook book as the programme’s doyenne of cuisine and entertaining. The books are aimed at linking the programme’s rural and farming background to food that is fresh, local and seasonal which the books potentially quite interesting I suppose.
 |
| Published 2019 |
 |
| 1994 edition |
 |
| 2009 edition |
 |
| 1977 edition |
Changes continue apace in Birmingham’s more important restaurants. At Alex Claridge’s The Wilderness, following the departure of Stu Deeley, the restaurant’s former sous chef, Marius Gedminas, has been appointed as the new Head Chef.
 |
| Marius Gedminas |
Meanwhile, excitingly, after leaving Purnell’s where he had worked for 10 years (see Blog 71), Sonal Clare is taking up the post of General Manager and Head Sommelier at The Wilderness in preparation for the restaurant moving to a larger site in and to enhance the wine aspect of the restaurant (Clare won the GQ Sommelier Of The Year award 2018). Doubtless this is all part of Alex Claridge’s effort to try to make sure every possible action has been taken to persuade the Michelin inspectors that this is the year The Wilderness finally finds its place among the stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment