187. 1988.

 

  I have just obtained a decent copy of the 1988 Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland which was one of the three editions of the guide which was not in my collection of the book’s modern day version which dates back to 1974.

  Not surprisingly, given even today’s Michelin Guide’s attitude to the region, The West Midlands did not have many restaurants which the then Guide inspectors felt worthy of inclusion in the book in that year. The United Kingdom as a whole was home to just two three star restaurants - the Waterside Inn at Bray and Le Gavroche in London. There were just 4 two starred establishments - La Manoir Aux Quatr’ Saisons in Oxfordshire, The Terrace, La Tante Claire and Simply Nico all of course in London.

  The Guide included 21 one starred restaurants in the whole of The United Kingdom, ten of which were in London, and only two of which - Croque-en-Bouche in Great Malvern (see Blog 94) and Mallory Court in Leamington were in the West Midlands. The Guide also included a ‘red M’ category which was explained thus, “Whilst appreciating the quality of the cooking in restaurants with a star, you may, however, wish to find some serving a perhaps less elaborate but nonetheless always carefully prepared meal. Certain restaurants seem to us to answer this requirement. We bring them to your attention by marking them with a red ‘M’ in the text of the guide”.  In the whole of The United Kingdom there were 68 restaurants in this red M category (just 8 in London) with the following West Midlands restaurants being featured:- Henry Wong and Henry’s (Birmingham), Buckland Manor  (Broadway),  Redmond’s (Cheltenham), Hope End Country House (Ledbury), Westgate Arms (Warwick) and Brown’s (Worcester) - a total of seven.

  The Birmingham restaurants mentioned in The Guide apart from the two red M restaurants were:- Ploungh And Harrow, Jonathan’s, Sloans, Rajdoot, Dynasty, Lorenzo, Maharajah and Pinocchio’s plus Le Bon Viveur (Sutton Coldfield) and Franzl’s (Smethwick) (see Blog 94).

  It’s interesting that unlike now, Coventry had 3 restaurants named in The Guide - Herbs, Simla and nearby Nailcote Hall. It has been a long time since Coventry has made an appearance in the Michelin Guide, perhaps the planned opening of Glynn Purnell’s restaurant there will act as a spur to the Michelin inspectors to visit the city and reestablish it as a destination for food lovers. 

  Meanwhile Wolverhampton made no appearance in the 1988 Guide; there was no mention for any Ludlow restaurant; in Cheltenham there was just the above mentioned Redmond’s plus Twelve; Shrewsbury had Antonio’s and the Old Police House with Albright Hussey at Albrighton and Country Friends in Dorrington. In Stourbridge Berkley’s (Piano Room) received a mention as did Severn Tandoori in Stourport-On-Severn, Hussain’s (still there but very much trapped in 1988!) in Stratford-Upon-Avon and The Chase Country House in Ettington. Stafford had no restaurant mentioned with just Effy’s in Hereford, Thrales in Lichfield and there were no restaurants mentioned in Stoke-on-Trent. In addition to the above mentioned Westgate Arms there were Randolph’s and Aylesford in Warwick, Hunt House in Rugby, the above mentioned Brown’s plus Kings in Worcester, Rose Tree in Bourton-On-The-Water, College Green in Gloucester, Old Colonial and Haywain at Bridgnorth, Brookhouse Inn at Burton-Upon-Trent, Le Filbert Cottage in Henley-In-Arden, Grafton Manor in Bromsgrove, Lambs at Moreton-In-Marsh while at Kenilworth there was a goodly list of mentioned restaurants - Diment, Bosquet, Portofino and Ana’s Bistro. In Tewkesbury there was Corse Lawn House, in Tetbury there was Gibbons, in Chipping Camden there was Caminetto and in Solihull there was Liaison.

  This list is clearly not exhaustive but it occurs to me that restaurants are featured in the 1988 Guide in rather more towns and communities than is the case today. In 1988 the Michelin inspectors were loitering in Bearwood or driving down country roads to Tewkesbury or Stourport-on-Severn. The Guide’s representation of the West Midlands, though having more named restaurants now, seems to have spread its listing around the smaller places in the area. Of course the current Guide richly features the Cotswolds area and Cheltenham but elsewhere across the region a number of significant smaller towns do not make an appearance. Perhaps it is because they just do not genuinely have anywhere worth eating in or perhaps it is because standards for inclusion in The Guide have been raised to unrealistic levels. Perhaps those with their London-centric gastronomic brains and bellies who plan the Guide should look a little more at the bye-ways towns of the West Midlands than seems to be the case at present.

  Perhaps we may see some new West Midlands mentioned in The Guide as my Michelin Guide Twitter watch reveals just where the Michelin inspectors have been in the West Midlands recently:-

1 October - Simpsons “A verdant oasis in the heart of the city of Birmingham” (really, that’s a bit overblown isn’t it? and since when was Edgbaston “in the heart of the city”?).

11 October - La Dolce Vita, Shrewsbury -  not mentioned before by

16 October - Henne, Moreton-In-Marsh - not mentioned before by Michelin.

  Myself, I have had a very pleasant week of dining in Birmingham with a repeat visit to Kray Tredwell’s 670 Grams,  tasting some dishes I have had before as well as some new ones. It’s certainly a different dining experience, novel, often exciting, even thrilling. Tredwell offers a true tasting menu - not a collection of dishes but small plates with items that send the diner travelling through the world of food - a single langoustine with a tiny pot of Thai green sauce, a vegetable course highlighting celeriac, his now familiar crispy chicken served with a garish red sauce in a dish shaped like a skull with its top sawn off, a course of excellent halibut (more accurately cooked on this second visit) and so on.

 

 Then, the following evening to Purnell’s to join a small number of old university friends for our annual reunion. Those who had not had the pleasure of dining at Purnell’s before were astonished at the excellence of the dishes - there were the usual ‘gifts from the kitchen’, the totally delicious pain de campagne, the classic but a little revised, I think, emotions of soixante-dix (the modern day twist on cheese and pineapple which only Glynn Purnell could come up with): ‘Mom Purnell’s remix’ of the smoked haddock, cornflakes and egg yolk classic, a surprisingly chewy and overcooked Cornish monkfish dish with roast butternut which brought the evening down a bit only for it to be salvaged by a fabulous dish of divinely cooked Ramsbury Estate fallow deer artfully served with a little pat of duck liver parfait with thin little slices of beetroot and a cameo by some sorrel, an Autumn version of 10/10/10 burnt egg custard surprise with blackberries plus the usual tarragon and honeycomb and then the ‘Mint choccy chip’ which as usual rounded everything off to the delight of my fellow diners. Needless to say, it was a happy reunion.

 

 I might just mention that a final treat was shared by the aged reunioneers - a splendid vanilla and strawberry jam sponge bought from the excellent cake maker, Mary Ashman of Kiss Me Cupcakes located in West Heath, here decorated in line with the former professions of the diners:- 

 The week had not completely come to an end. The day following the reunion I was off to Bennett’s Hill to lunch in at the newly opened fish and chip restaurant and takeaway - Fillet Of Soul.

 

 There are a good number of options to chose from but it seems ridiculous to go to a fish and chip shop and not have fish and chips. I chose the excellently-priced cod and chips and as a side dish a black pudding fritter. I had forgotten that the restaurant cooks in either beef dripping or rape seed oil and when my perfectly sized plate of fish and chips arrived I realised I should have asked for the oil-cooked version. Beef dripping-cooked fish always leaves me with a slightly claggy sensation on my tongue and the flavour is not quite to my liking. That aside it was an excellent piece of cod, cooked admirably with perfect batter and as fish and chip shop chips go those on my plate were pretty good. The black pudding fritters were a revelation; apart from being far too big a helping for my appetite, they were cooked perfectly - so many hotels who offer black pudding as part of a cooked breakfast overcook it so that it is dried out to the point of unpleasantness. I was surprised how very edible they were with the fish and chips. So Fillet Of Soul proved to be an excellent option as a meal alternative in the city centre, offering fine fish and chips at a reasonable price. What a joy it is to find a good fish and chip establishment.