As statues of 18th century slave owners which have stood for 200 years across Britain begin to disappear in the swell of the tide of protests against racism, one not necessarily foreseen outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic, so other symbols of privilege - ludicrously overpriced London restaurants are beginning to feel the heat. Much loved by London-centric Michelin, but already dumped by the 2019 The Fifty Best Restaurants in the World List, formerly prestigious London restaurants, previously delighted to squeeze wealthy international travellers and gastrotourists and the wealthy Londoner elite (now hiding away in their second or third or fourth or fifth home somewhere in Scotland or Cornwall or the Cotswolds) for every £50 note they can, are facing the end of their glory days.
Thus the two Michelin-starred The Ledbury is now closed indefinitely as its Chef patron, Brett Graham, declared that it was impossible to keep the restaurant open because of the government’s social distancing measures and he has fired all his staff but is holding on to the lease for the present. the Ledbury hah held its two Michelin stars longer than any other restaurant in London apart from Le Gavroche and first opened about 15 years ago.
Quite simply, London now has far, far too many restaurants. With international travel suspended it is clear that there are not enough local inhabitants to keep the thousands of restaurants in the capital alive over the next couple of years. And with the prices in so many of them being exorbitant the numbers of their potential clientele is minuscule. Furthermore those in the know are already ditching London in a big way. The latest Fifty Best Restaurants In The World list gave London the elbow when it placed only two of the city’s restaurants in the legendary Fifty - both in Shoreditch (The Clove Club and Lyle’s) with a taste for ‘Modern British’ cuisine, with Spanish or Nordic or Far Eastern influences rather than being derivative of the sort of stuff the French have long presented to the world as the (dubious) peak of gastronomy. Thus the likes of Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and The Ledbury were pitched from their top fifty places with the latter down to no. 68.
Here in Birmingham the number of true Fine Dining restaurants, mostly serving exceptional food at realistic prices but undervalued by the London-loving Michelin, can be counted on the fingers of less than two hands. There should be enough local diners around wishing to enjoy the pleasures of Birmingham’s very special restaurants to enable the restaurants not only to reopen but to thrive and flourish. We have some exciting new chefs just waiting for the current crisis to finish to open their new restaurants and of course there are Birmingham’s great already well-established restaurants on the scene which their regular diners are just itching to get back to. Perhaps some of the promising young Midlands chefs who thought their future lay in a career in London will think of coming back to the West Midlands as the London restaurant scene begins to sink.
It’s been an awful time and bad things aren’t over yet, but the Birmingham food scene could emerge enriched and hopefully better appreciated than it ever has been before. Giles Coren, who claims to have given up being a food critic, may after all find peace among the “One eyes” who enjoy West Midlands gastronomy. And the likely collapse of the London dining food scene gives impetus to the campaign of the quite excellent and pleasingly influential West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, to make the region the place where the hospitality industry kickstarts the economy again.
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