307. Chapter. Tattu.

  Chapter, in a rather twee short section of a road in the even more tweely-named Edgbaston Village which seems to amount to being a short section of a road lined by upmarket houses where no traffic is allowed, is smart, modern and appealing. Chapter is the successor to Opus in Cornwall Street, located across the road from Purnell’s, the trade of which was ruined by prolonged roadworks carried out by the progressively incompetent Birmingham City Council immediately outside the building which housed the restaurant. The previous Head Chef, Ben Ternant and Anne Tonks, previous owner of Opus regrouped and shifted the site of their culinary activities to Edgbaston and opened Chapter which has been well received by diners from the surrounding area as well as The Good Food Guide but not the Michelin Guide.

  The clientele was interesting when I and two companions were lunching there. The location and the nature of the location clearly define who is eating here - smartly dressed Conservative (big C as opposed to little C) ladies-who-lunch, businessmen, upper echelon professionals - so different from trendy Stirchley where carefully scruffy socialist hipsters throng shabby chic cafes. Serious money was lunching out in Edgbaston Village.

  Anne Tonks was welcoming very brilliantly her arriving diners and embracing quite expertly the ladies-who-lunch who were clearly regular visitors to Chapter. It was all so much more civilised than a dip into the downmarket jumble in Stirchley. And so we embarked on our voyage through the new spring menu launched that day. I chose Wye Valley asparagus with poached egg and wild garlic Hollandaise. The menu asserted that spring, a Midlands spring, was here. The asparagus was well cooked and tasty, the egg spot on but the wild garlic in the Hollandaise was imperceptible. Still, a reasonable start and a promise that the seasons were moving along towards summer. One of my companions chose a duck salad as his starter and was pleased with what he was served.

    I was tremendously excited to be having Dover sole ‘on the bone’ with caviar, lemon butter and ‘fries’. The chips were as good as the fish was disastrous. The sole, which admittedly was nice and meaty, was severely overcooked to the point of stodginess. After a few mouthfuls I found it to be inedible and I parcelled it up to bring home for Lucy The Labrador who appreciated the gesture of being offered about £15 worth of expensive fish to be easily gobbled up in five seconds. My companions also ordered some unremarkable tenderstem broccoli at the remarkable price of £5.

  Things could only get better … but they did not. For dessert I chose what seemed to be a promising panna cotta with ‘local’ rhubarb and tiny shards of ginger snap. To be fair the ginger element was very tasty and the rhubarb was well-cooked though not great in flavour but the panna cotta was a disaster with less wobble than the Rotunda and a thick, stodgy texture more suited to a sponge pudding than a happy, light panna cotta. This was really not good enough given the price of the meal.

  Despite, the depressing nature of the meal, I imagine Chapter will flourish and that the Ladies-who-lunch there will continue to, er, lunch there. Sadly though, it seems unlikely that I shall be sitting at a table near them again, given the mediocrity of what was served at this particular lunchtime, particularly at the price we were asked to pay.

Rating:- 🌛

  A couple of evening’s earlier I had dinner at the remarkably glitzy Tattu in Barwick Street. I found that it remained as lively and colourful as ever and worth visiting just to catch the atmosphere of the place. I was seated in a nicely comfortable booth to the side of the downstairs dining room, which suited me perfectly, and I received excellent service from the very attentive front-of- house staff. After discussing my options of what to have from the crowded menu I opted for ‘small plates’.

  I chose robustly tasty black cod croquettes served with ginger and garlic aioli, what turned out to be remarkably ruby red steamed wagyu dumplings which were also very tasty and - rather more disappointing - ‘aromatic crispy duck pancakes’ served with a Szechuan sauce, cucumber and spring onions, as one might expect. The duck would have been nicely cooked if one had chosen a pan-fried dish European style but there was no crispiness about it and the flavours were hardly scintillating. I also had a rather heavy jasmine rice which I would not have missed had I not ordered it.

  

  In the end, not for the last time this week (see above), Lucy The Labrador found herself eating the remains of an expensive meal which did not seem worth the price asked for it. Still, it was an enjoyable evening and the food was generally good and the dog was happy, so what else can a man want in his life?

Rating:- 🌛🌛

305. From Apprentices To Michelin Stars.

 

  Somehow it seemed quite appropriate to be out dining at the restaurant associated with University College Birmingham where possibly the West Midlands’ Michelin star winners of the future may be at this very moment undergoing the training which will lead eventually to that dazzling culinary achievement, on the evening that the Michelin Guide star revelation was taking place in a ceremony in the far south east of the Midlands at Silverstone Race track.

  From the West Midlands point of view, things had not started well with the announcement of the Bibs Gourmands, made several days before, revealing that the region had received nul points at that particular level of award. In contrast the Michelin inspectors had been having a whale of a time in the West Country and the the south west (well, they wouldn’t they?) with Bristol, a city populated now almost entirely by hipsters, where not a single man will shave his beard or do anything useful for society, achieving three Bibs out of eight for the region (almost 50% of the twenty new Bibs), The Bibs were also awarded to, inevitably, Brighton (one), the least useful town in England, and London  (3). The East Midlands did make an appearance on the list (2) and the Michelin inspectors ventured into The North with a Bib going to an establishment in Manchester. The remaining Bibs were distributed to Wales (1), Northern Ireland (2) and the Irish Republic (1). 

  Still, stars are everything so what really mattered was what would happen at 6PM Monday 27 March. The awards reflected just how irrelevant the Michelin awards are across broad sections of England, never more so than here in the West Midlands with only Grace and Savour at Hampton in Arden and Lumière in Cheltenham being awarded new stars. The award to Grace and Savour replaces that was lost by Peel’s Restaurant at Hampton (because the restaurant has closed) and Lumière’s is a recognition at last of twenty three years of continuing service. It is pleasing to see this pair of the region’s fine establishments being deservedly recognised for their fine cuisine but disappointing to see that a number of our excellent restaurants continue to be ignored, which I suspect would not have been the case if they had been located in London. Michelin provides a useful overview of what’s happening in dining out but in other respects it has little relevance outside London. Birmingham retains its five stars so there’s no loss of face for our leading chefs but The Good Food Guide editors have shown that they are far more aware of the cutting edge of dining out as the 2020s move along than those who edit Michelin and as such, if we need respectable indications of where to eat good food away from London then The Good Food Guide is by far the more reliable source of information. 

Luke Tipping, Head Chef at Simpsons with Bibendum, at the 2023 Reveal ceremony, celebrating Simpsons’ retention of its star - 

  And so, after watching the excruciatingly embarrassingly presented ‘star revelation ceremony’ on social media, I and a dining companion moved on to dinner at The Restaurant at University College Birmingham, the well spring of the city’s future hospitality workers. It is a large and attractively decorated dining space. Given that the students are the front of house workers it is naturally well-staffed. The students working there that evening were first year students - their course, they told me, is four years in length and I suppose they must have been studying at UCB for about six months - early days therefore.

  Our ‘waiters’ clearly had some distance to travel to gain the self-confidence that an accomplished front-of-house hospitality worker needs to bring a roundness to the performance of serving food which contributes to making a meal memorable. But these were, after all, early days and the waiters were polite and charming if not slick and polished. There was an amuse guele which are waiter had not been schooled to explain to the diner and indeed coukd not say what exactly she was serving. We did not wish to embarrass her and so naturally did not press her on the issue. It was really very good - a sizeable crisp topped by a goats cheese mousse, I think, with little ball# of apple and sweet pickles. Good stuff,Chef!

  The young chef had nicely prepared an attractive muted-yellow risotto with three small cheese-filled arancini with girolles and tasty flakes of Parmesan. This was very well cooked though the young chef had been far too heavy with the salt which was a great pity. For the main course I chose what turned out to be a finely cooked pan-fried sea beam, with good crispy skin - and some very passable dauphinois potatoes though the slices of grilled orange and other intrusions of the same fruit did not work at all well with the fish - I appreciate the use of citrus with fish but not sweet citrus as this was. Well, these young people are honing their skills and the matching of flavours is one of them so again one could hardly be disappointed by what was served if they have not yet perfected that skill. My dining companion, having thoroughly enjoyed a beautifully seared scallop starter, was also very satisfied with his main course of duck.

  Finally, we were both unable to resist ordering a rather smart pineapple tarte tatin. This was very good, perhaps the base of the pastry was a little undercooked but on the whole it was very good and nicely balanced with a coconut ice cream. The supervisor approached us at the end of the meal, asking if we had enjoyed the meal which we said we had done but the supervisor was a little defensive when my companion mentioned that the waiters were a little adrift in their knowledge of what they were serving. He need not have been - we fully understood that the work was being carried out by young people in the very earliest stages of their training, but it did seem to us that if no feedback is given then teachers and student will never know how the customer thinks the trainees are doing. Perhaps the restaurant should offer the diners a chance to comment in the form of a questionnaire

  This had been a fascinating evening. At one end all the nonsense of the Michelin ‘Reveal’ had been going on when chefs at the peak of their careers were hoping for recognition and at the other end, young people, embarking on their careers, were being given the chance to showcase to the ordinary dining public their growing experience and expertise. A pleasing symmetry.

304. The Oyster Club On A Slow Sunday Evening.

 

  This will be a short piece. One full of praise and positive adjectives (very positive adjectives). Though not to start with but that is more to do with the wet, cold late March weather and the flight from Birmingham (not an aircraft, you understand, but the general abandonment of the city centre associated with transport strikes and a witless city council) which made the streets look like those of a ghost town.

  It’s a good thing that The Oyster Club by Adam Stokes opens its doors to diners on Sunday evenings as it is now almost a refuge from the streets all but empty apart from a burgeoning army of beggars queuing up to be given end-of-date sandwiches by various charitable middle class people who serve as honey to bees. I crossed St Phillip’s Place, the thirty seconds walk from The Grand Hotel to the Oyster Club at the top of Temple Street, and burst into the warmth and light of an otherwise empty restaurant. A good welcome, fine service and though I think it’s ridiculous to eat meat in a restaurant which specialises in fish and seafood, I drew the line at missing out on the Oyster Club’s wonderful Chateaubriand Sunday lunch which is keenly priced, happily luxurious and makes any Sunday afternoon, rain or shine, a red letter day.

  This was an excellent dish, the Chateaubriand was generously portioned, cooked impeccably - perfectly seasoned, caramelised nicely on the exterior and gorgeously tender and tasty on the interior, just look at the pictures of it - and served with fine ‘trimmings’ - a Yorkshire pudding, brilliantly puffed up and crispy, a delicious sweet, nicely textured carrot (none of that daft undercooked bullet-style texture, beloved by some chefs), spinach,  a powerfully flavoured cauliflower cheese, a fine sauce and, perhaps the only disappointment, a creamy horseradish sauce which had no bite to it all. Still, horseradish sauce aside this was a memorably enjoyed late Sunday lunch.

  Nicely full, Greed insisted that I have a dessert. Thank you Greed, I would have not wished to miss this gem for anything. Menued as Vanilla panna cotta, this was so much more. The panna cotta really was loaded with the delightful flavour of vanilla but with it came three strips of precisely cooked rhubarb, so timely as we reach the end of the forced rhubarb season, it’s spot-on crunch and mellow sourness  accurately balanced by a sweet syrup and a most astonishingly good rhubarb sorbet, the best sorbet I have had for a long time. A great dessert.

Rating:- 🌞🌞

  All too soon it was finished. I was very happy. Back to The Grand to digest at my leisure and see what Steven Knight has done to Great Expectations.

303. The French Pantry.

 

  My previous visit to Ludlow’s rustically Gallic The French Pantry was recorded in Blog 242 (13 May 2022). I thoroughly enjoyed my visit then and I thoroughly enjoyed my most recent visit. It is relaxing and comfortable and busy enough to have a nice time watching the other lunchers. There was a young woman taking out for a treat what looked like a beloved grannie, perhaps, because of Mothers’ Day which was to be the next day, a gruesome pair of hipsters, far too old for that particular culture and out of place in conservative Ludlow - they thought their conversation was interesting enough to warrant them speaking loudly enough to broadcast it to their fellow diners, and there was a group of elderly Shropshire pensioners enjoying a meal out probably to mark a special occasion. All Ludlow life was there.

  A description of the meal need not take long. Rustic…delicious…generous…very well prepared. I started  with the French Pantry’s fabulous French onion soup which lurked patiently under a monumentally thick pavement of gorgeous cheesy crouton which made this starter a hugely satisfying dish. 

  Thence to an even more rustic and even more stupendously delicious Coq au vin.This was no ordinary cock, no trifling little hen; this was a full-blooded head rooster of magnificent proportions, cooked beautifully and bathed in a wondrously delicious wine sauce, full of bay leaf and mushrooms and all that’s good served with some rather fine pomme frites; it’s true then  - the French do know a thing or two about cooking but I wonder how easy it is to find a bistro as good as the French Pantry in France itself in these modern times when cuisine in France is quivering with self-doubt.

  I was a little surprised to find my chosen dessert, a ‘special’, arriving via the front door - it seemed to have been provided by the cake shop next door. I had chosen strawberry gateau and it looked very pretty though the strawberries were more obvious because of their scantiness. The gateau was light but dry and not much fun and the strawberries emphasised how ridiculous it is to eat the fruit in early March. There was also a large thick layer of marzipan which added nothing to the gateau and again was not all that nice. I should have stuck with crème brûlée.

  So, apart from the very disappointing dessert, the French Pantry was a great success with the first two courses leaving me comfortably full and cosily satisfied.

Rating:- 🌞

302. Mortimers.

 

  Mortimers is located at 17 Corve Street in Ludlow, previously home to the Michelin-listed The Oaks, the two-Michelin starred Hibuscus and the one-Michelin-starred La Becasse. It got its first name from the attractive oak panelling that gives the restaurant a feeling of classy rural style and with its well-judged lighting and crisp white tablecloths it is a very attractive setting to sit back and eat a six course lunch  tasting menu (cost a remarkably good £50, an à la carte lunch can also be had for £35 which again represents very value. The service is excellent and I was delighted with the dishes served to me.

    When I write, “I was delighted” it does not really make the point that every dish was excellent, hard to fault and pleasingly memorable. Notably it has a more British feel to it than many fine restaurants - trendy Japanese ingredients are absent and chef Chris O’Halloran really brings the feel of the Marches in particular and England in general to his cuisine. If only more could find a way to follow a similar path. 

  The meal started with three cracking little ‘snacks’ - a little bomb of cheese and a sedate and charming crab and vaguely sumptuous blini. There was an excellent selection of bread - brioche, sourdough and garlic served with three butters including a robustly tasty garlic butter.

  The first starter was perhaps the least interesting course - nice slices of cold duck, a ballotine of duck which was a little short on flavour but the taste quotient was greatly upgraded by the third duck element which was a gorgeous silky parfait served on brioche all nicely complemented with various cherry elements and an orange jelly. 

  Next, there was a very happy goats cheese and beetroot dish - a number of fine elements - a beetroot meringue, a beetroot sorbet, pieces of beetroot and pickled beetroot with a goats cheese cream and little crackers to give texture. This was excellent.

  The main course was what appeared to be a straightforward beef dish but which was much more than that - generously portioned, profoundly tasty and tender Herefordshire beef served with a devilishly tasty confit onion mash, splendidly roasted shallots - moist, charred and full of the right amount of bite - and a grilled baby leek which contributed its share to the overall flavour of the dish.

  O’Halloran made a point of taking advantage of the closing days of the forced rhubarb season with a dessert of pistachio cake, a gorgeous vanilla cream, excellent pistachio ice cream and perfectly cooked rhubarb. Though I am not keen on a two dessert meal, I was not disheartened to be served with a very enjoyable chocolate dish with the flavour and texture of hazelnut and the soothing flavour of caramel ice cream.

  I loved the presentation of the mignardises in a mini-brief case and what a pleasure they were - macaroon, fudge, chocolate.

  This excellent lunch was strong evidence that O’Halloran’s Mortimers is a worthy successor to the fine restaurants which have proceeded it in that hoary old building and I look forward to visiting there again when I revisit Ludlow. 

Rating:- 🌞🌞

301. The Wilderness’s Fabulous New Spring Menu.

 

    A recent lunch at The Wilderness underlined just why the inspectors and editors of The Good Food Guide placed the restaurant in their ‘top ten’ list of British restaurants last autumn. It simply is very exciting - the atmosphere, the personality and, most importantly, the food. I lunched there the day the new spring menu was being launched and it proved to be such a remarkable oeuvre that it convinced me that The Wilderness had cemented itself right there at the peak of present British cuisine without having to endure four or five hours of the vague torture of a twenty plus course meal.

  Now eternally fixed at the top of the menu, Claridge’s or perhaps Gedminas’, latest version of their now almost notorious Big Mac arrived as one of two amuses gueles in a tin which raised the expectation that the contents was made up of caviar rather than the sublime wagyu tartare “with luxury condiments’ which it actually was. The other amuse bouche was an absolutely delicious ‘smoked eel eclair’ - a frighteningly powerful example of just how much this restaurant has fully understood what makes for a clever, witty, exciting, spectacularly tasty food experience.

  Then, a remarkable visual exercise in shades of green - a Swiss roll of pasta and strips of courgette sitting like an island surrounded by a viridescent moat flavoured as a Thai green curry and populated by nicely cooked mussels. Then, a now ‘usual suspect’ - the Wilderness carrot dish, we have now arrived at Carrot 2023 - a savoury bread and butter pudding with a perfect texture to complement the carrot.

  Fish course. Lightly poached cod, moist and softly textured, with an Iberico cheese and truffle custard. This looked spectacular but I felt that the flavour of the truffle was really too strong to get the benefit of the flavour of the cod which woukd have been lovely in itself.

  The main course brought the word sublime back to mind. This was the absolutely most perfectly cooked Fallow deer with a fine redcurrant sauce and chicory leaves sitting on hen-of-the-woods mushrooms - in many ways more simple in appearance than some of the more flamboyant dishes that made up the menu but entirely perfectly conceived and executed. How can a restaurant which renders on to its diners such a dish as this not have a Michelin star? Perhaps it will soon. 

  The pastry chef then proved that he should be beatified. The ‘rhubarb and custard Viennetta’ came to the table all pink and decorated and gorgeous and looking like either Carême or Soyer or both were working in the kitchen of The Wilderness. This was wickedness from the Wilderness. A brilliant dessert. It should stay on the menu for ever. I smiled throughout my consumption of it and then a long time afterwards. This is to The Wilderness what 10-10-10 Egg Surprise is to Purnell’s. 

  Finally, four immaculate, clever petits four - a cow’s head fudge, an egg that tasted of bacon, The Wilderness’s familiar Hot Lips and a very memorable, explosively citric yuzu jelly.

  I really felt that while already gazing down on most restaurants, The Wilderness had even then reached new heights.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞