251. Take Three Chefs.

 

  A one off. Purnell’s hosting a rather promising evening of three courses (each cooked by a celebrity chef - Tom Kerridge (starter), Michel Roux Jr (main) and Glynn Purnell himself (dessert) with a range of ‘snacks’ to start provided by all three chefs. Actually it was not really a one off as a similar evening took place last year (Kerridge, Angela Hartnett and Purnell) and doubtless, from the clamour for a ticket and the adoring approval at the end, more will take place in the future.

  It was very soothing sitting amongst a group of really rather nice people all united by their love of, and knowledge of, fine food. It was rather like being a member of a secret society, exclusive of the gastronomically unwashed, all of us admittedly rather self-satisfied and mildly smug but when spending £250 on a three course meal such gratifying self-appreciation is very understandable and perhaps acceptable. “Good company maketh a meal” (Old Bloke, 2022).

  The cost included a Purnell’s original cocktail - a pleasing Rhubarb cocktail (rhubarb vodka) and some excellent wines, selected by Purnell’s’ sommelier, Adrien Garnier. Purnell’s’ triumphant pain de campagne always With the snacks came a very quaffable rare champagne (2008). The snacks were a delight - along with Glynn Purnell’s own faux black canary potatoes (presumably inspired by a temporally distant holiday in Tenerife) and his black charcoal, which is more puzzling to the uninitiated than the riddle of the Sphinx, there was Michel Roux’s exceptional tarte pissaladière (which even though I have what I believe to be a rather good French accent I find to be a single word tongue twister which despite hours of practice I have failed to conquer) and the ferociously delicious contribution by Tom Kerridge of black truffle sausage roll which is luxurious and comforting both at the same time.

 And Kerridge scored again with his starter of red mullet with deeply flavoured bouillabaisse glowing with saffron and tickled up with a mustard aïoli and a herb cracker which just maybe I might not have needed.

  And Roux lived up to his heritage by bringing to Birmingham his skills which brought to the table a generously portioned, fabulously tender and flavoured piece of Wagyu, cooked - as we might expect - to perfection and precisely, almost painfully perfectly, seasoned along with a delicious, crispy pomme Anna and a gorgeous Béarnaise sauce. 

  Meantime, the sommelier had been doing his work uncompromisingly satisfactorily- with the fish he had served Cloudy Bay 2020 and the pleasing Lirac 2016 with the beef course which it matched with very happily.

    Purnell served up a very fine dessert of chocolate parfait covered by a layer of passion fruit jelly served alongside a dark chocolate and cardamom sorbet with a cocoa meringue and a brightly shining mango coulée glowing like an egg yoke on the plate. The dish found a good companion in a glass of South African sweet red wine.

  Afterwards it was Question and Answer time when the three wise chefs faced their adoring audience and told anecdotes and quipped hilariously as we might have expected them to do with Glynn Purnell as the ringleader of this merry band. Roux was more serious but joined in with the air of general merriment. A good time was had by all.

  And so to bed at The Grand Hotel, a couple of minutes’ walk away from Purnell’s. I had been kindly upgraded to a suite on the special occasion of the dog’s 11th birthday. The hotel staff had all signed a birthday card for her and gifts in the form of packets of chews and a toy were awaiting her when we arrived in our bedroom. As I wrote, a good time was had by all.

 

  Apart from the luxury of it all, I naturally enjoyed the view looking down on the cathedral and St Phillip’s Square but I also derived pleasure from the little pieces of art in the room including a clever little collage depicting a view at Gas Street Basin and another showing The Floozie out of her jacuzzi and luxuriating instead in an old bubble-filled tin bath which is pleasingly ironic given how disastrous it was given that just in the last week or two a joker emptied detergent into the real ‘jacuzzi’ outside the Council House and wrecked at great expense the mechanism which allows the water to flow in the fountain. The Council called it ‘vandalism’ though it is no worse than what they have just allowed to be done to the nearby statue of Queen Victoria by some ‘artist’ they’ve found somewhere or the other who wants to harp on again about the evil British Empire. It was all I could do to stop my gastronomic dog who also has delicate artistic sensibilities from cocking her keg and micturating on it. Birmingham - more than great restaurants.