313. Shakespeare’s Birthday Lunch 2023.

 

  Shakespeare’s birthday parade through the centre of Stratford went well with the sun emerging fron a veil of clouds to add to the general feeling of joy, something rare in these anguished times. But the highlight for those who had been clever enough to obtain a ticket, was the Shakespeare Birthday lunch, taking place again in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre gardens in a vast impressive temporary dining room which appears a few days before the event and then in a symmetrical time period disappears again after the lunch had been staged.

  It is a great event. Stars appear (theatrical not Michelin) - this year there was Dame Janet Suzman and Alex Kingston who had played Prospero magnificently in the most recent RSC production of The Tempest.  A wonderful visiting professor from Ukraine received a prolonged standing ovation after a speech she delivered and Greg Doran, who lead the RSC for the previous ten years and as director brought some memorable productions to the stage, was awarded the Pragnell Prize which celebrates notable contributions to the world of Shakespeare - be it knowledge or performance. There were acting performances - Alex Kingston delivered beautifully Prospero’s wonderful We are the stuff that dreams are made of monologue, and at the end a fabulous performance by the American singer Marisha Wallace. Such fun was it all that the food hardly seemed relevant and it did give the vague impression that it was something of an afterthought.

  There was no starter as the menu dived straight into the main course. This was not a pretty looking plate and the butter roasted chicken breast looked vaguely unhappy as it sat there alongside a somewhat insubstantial whirl of pomme purée and a drizzle of sauce. However much pleasure was delivered by the four very finely cooked, magnificently portioned spears of Wye Valley asparagus which were served with the chicken (perhaps they could have been served as a starter) and the dessert made up entirely for the lacklustre main course taking the form of a really excellent rhubarb and ginger crème brûlée with a splendidly thin but successfully crispy cover ready to be cracked to reveal the delicious custard and accurately cooked rhubarb that lay beneath it - an unimpeachable dish. It was straightforward and to the point and benefitted from the restraint shown by the chef in not pairing it up with anything else. 

  The meal was rounded off with a platter of fine cheeses (which I never got to photograph s it was seized upon by others at the table) with plump, sweet grapes and a delightful quince jelly which everyone was too polite to gluttonise on which was a shame as there was much uneaten. The meal included generous amounts of champagne and red or white wine or both - I thought the premier cru Chablis served with the meal was excellent.

  A great event in the West Midlands diner’s calendar Happy birthday Will.

312. The Woodsman, Stratford upon Avon.

 

  The Woodsman was opened in April 2019 by Executive Chef Mike Robinson in the newly refurbished historic Falcon Hotel, unfortunately renamed as the Hotel Indigo, situated across the road from the grounds of Shakespeare’s long lost home, New Place (see Blog 67). When it first opened it was stated that the aim of the restaurant was to serve locally sourced, seasonal food cooked using a wood-fired oven and charcoal grill. There remains a heavy emphasis on seasonal game, particularly locally sourced venison. Perhaps therefore I am foolish when I dine there in often being tempted to order a fish main course. 

  It’s a lovely restaurant; smartly, rusticly comfortable. On my last visit, there was an air of mild chaos surrounding the service there, related I suspect, to the hospitality industry recruiting crisis which was particularly acute then. Service on my latest visit was very satisfactory though I could have done without the apéritif/cocktail trolley being wheeled to my table within a few seconds of my taking my seat and before I had managed to get my thoughts together. 

  The meal got off to an excellent start with some delicious and generously portioned bread - nicely textured and tasty - two slices each of granary and focaccia accompanied by lusty wild garlic butter and a more soothing cultured butter. The starter of quail and wild garlic Kyiv was irresistible but when I ate it it was not to my liking. The small Kyiv was golden on top but was much darker shade below - close to be scorched but the coating was nice and crispy. I detected the pleasing flavour of the quail which was cooked satisfactorily but the wild garlic element was far too subtle in taste; it seemed as though all the wild garlic had been used in the fine butter that accompanied the bread. The dish also included hen of the woods mushrooms and Berkswell cheese gnocchi but, for me, the elements did not really all come together.

  On to the main of fillet of Cornish stone bass which was pleasingly meaty and firm but perhaps slightly over and lacking in moisture. The other elements of the dish were an alluring lobster and vanilla bisque, lobster tortellini and heritage carrots. I also had as a side dish, the signature Dirty mash which the menu described as mash with crisp shredded venison, sourdough crumb and deer gravy. This was a disastrous combination of ingredients. Firstly the vanilla was far too strongly flavoured; the vanilla aggressively assaulted the taste of the stone bass and clung unpleasantly to the carrots which texturally I liked but could not eat because of the powerful vanilla taste which clung to them. 

  The dirty mash was also far too powerful to go with the fish - I think a warning should be given not to choose it as a side dish if the fish is chosen as main course. The dirty mash itself has far too many crunchy elements in it and too little mash. When I first had it in 2019 - it was described as including braised oxtail, lardons, crispy onions and truffle - the dish has clearly evolved since then as I found it very admirable at the time, but on this occasion I think that evolution has not resulted in a superior species.

  Perhaps it was just me that was at fault for choosing a fish dish in a restaurant where the accent is clearly on powerful, gutsy meat dishes.

  For dessert I chose poached Wye Valley rhubarb with rice pudding mousse and a scintillating rhubarb sorbet with tiny cubes of ginger beer jelly. The rhubarb itself was satisfactorily cooked and I did get the occasional appropriate burst of ginger from the jelly cubes but the rice pudding mousse was depressingly lacking in flavour - I wanted cream and some of that vanilla which had abused the main course and more sweetness. Overall, this was another disappointing course. I found the meal lacklustre on this occasion, with various dishes failing for various reasons.

 Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛

310. Nikita Pathakji At Grace And Savour.

 

  Nikita Pathakji, winner of the BBC’s Masterchef The Professionals in 2022, took on a week’s residency at Grace and Savour during the second week of April. I was delighted to have the chance to experience this charming young chef’s cuisine for myself at one of the popular dinners she was serving during the course of the week though disappointed to be away with the Labrador at the seaside for the triple Masterchef Sunday lunch which was to be participated in by Stu Deeley of Smoke, Dan Lee, soon to begin four months at Hockley Social Club, and Nikita herself - oh well, you can’t have everything in life. This dinner however gave the opportunity to fully experience Nikita’s impressive culinary talents. The dishes served were generally related to those she served during the Masterchef heats and finals.

  Firstly how delightful it was to be back at Grace and Savour and to be able to order a glass of fine Cambridge gin and tonic. Then to the Chef’s table (well, a counter really) where Nikita Pathakji was busying herself with the kitchen staff to prepare to present what was going to be a fine dinner. For her Masterchef final starter she had served sea bass cured in a citrus dressing with smoked aubergine purée, spicy red pepper purée with pomegranate, preserved lemon, parsley oil and a side of aubergine crisps. Here at Grace and Favour, the very edible crisps came out with a creamy wasabi dip, the heat of the wasabi perfectly judged, ahead of the starter which was broadly the Masterchef-winning dish - citrus cured sea bass with harissa, preserved lemon and preserved lemon and the pomegranate seeds were there for good measure.  A very fine and pleasing dish. Then a vegetable course of Jerusalem and globe artichokes nicely served with a potato emulsion. The ‘fish course’ took the form of a tender and robustly flavoured octopus - delightfully meaty and full of flavour - the tastiest octopus I can remember eating in fact - the flavour, of course, enhanced with a Takoyaki sauce and ‘Japanese mayo’. Less successful was the accompanying ‘octopus doughnut’, a sizeable beignet containing octopus head meat - the octopus itself was tasty but the doughnut too dry - an interesting idea but the dish didn’t really need it.

  The main course borrowed heavily from that served by Pathakji in the Masterchef final which had been crispy chicken thighs, tortellini filled with chicken, mushrooms, coriander and coriander oil, topped with handmade sev, finished with coconut curry sauce and a side of crispy chicken skin dusted with chilli powder and topped with mango, cumin and onion purée. The menu described the dish served at Grace and Savour as Khao soi style chicken, mushroom tortellini and pickled shallots. The chicken was delicious but the skin not particularly crispy, the tortellini were fine and the curry sauce very well matched and delcious. I used the remain# of the bread I had been served to mop up the coconut curry, too tasty to waste.

   I loved the first dessert - well cooked rhubarb, with a beautiful custard espuma and delicious rhubarb sorbet. Next came banana pudding, chocolate mousse and peanut crumble. This too was delightful and Chef was able to come around to have a few words with her diners during the dessert phase of the meal. I, like all the other informed diners there, was keen to know Nikita’s plans for the future. Not surprisingly Nikita is hoping to open her own restaurant when funding can be found. I suggested to her that the West Midlands was the gastronomic centre of Britain now and where better could there by for a chef of her talents to open a restaurant than in the region to which she was very receptive though of course, coming from Derby, she was also open to setting up in the East Midlands.

  It was time to go home. Nikita distributed nice little boxes containing a pair of petits fours - a fudge and a jelly - as parting gifts and I set off for Hampton station having passed a very pleasant evening eating the food of a fine - and now famous - chef.

311. Gulp. Taste The JQ.

 

  One of the fun things about Kaye Winwood’s Gulp is finding it. And when you’ve found it, there’s the thrill of the steep Victorian stairs up to the dining room itself (I love it, I can live out any Sherpa Tensing fantasies I might have had though as I’m not very happy when I’m more than six inches off the ground those fantasies have always been rather limited. But the ascent is a thrill, no doubt about it.

  Then there’s the warm greeting from Kaye and a quick conversation with someone who is really interested in her work. Then there’s the gaze around the dining room - intimate and fascinating, with its deeply rich wallpaper on the theme of fruit and the gorgeous quirkily shaped glass lightshade and the art hanging in the walls contributing its own appropriate part to the overall atmosphere. There’s the table laid and bearing the first hints of what may becoming along. And then there’s the guests who have been attracted by Kaye’s promise of an experience that is clearly going to be something’different’ and who really are a very eclectic bunch. 

  There are now many rare and wonderful gastronomic experiences available in Birmingham - remember, The Good Food Guide pronounced it to be the most exciting food city in Britain just last autumn - but Kaye Winwood’s Gulp, food built around art - not the chef as artist with which we are perfectly familiar, but the artist as restaurateur, may presently be the most extraordinary of them all. But remember - art is the dominant element - she is an artist who expresses herself through her concepts of food and diners will be intrigued to find out how her mind works exploring these artistic concepts.

  And so for my latest excursion into an artist’s expression of art through the medium of food - Taste The JQ - an exploration of the textures and flavours, and even the visual aspects, of a walk around the Jewellery Quarter. The menu was a map starting off in Spencer Street at the home of Gulp and then sauntering on to Key Hill cemetery, past the Warstone and on to St Paul’s Square where the pigeons are under pressure from the gulls (a relevant point in the context of this meal) and so back to Gulp.

  

And so our gastronomic perambulation began. We started off at Gulp itself where the pink logo served as inspiration for a delightful savoury meringue of beetroot and goats cheese - classic ingredient combinations but totally delightful. Light as a whisper - and there it was gone - and we set off for Key Hill where the cemetery was the inspiration for the next course (how often can you say that?). There was a combined plate of Headstone - a cracker with labneh and luscious sweet red peppers - and Gravestone - rye bread with a butter bean spread and pickled red onion and the taste of sumac with tasty cemetery soil scattered around, made from olives and bread, with pea shoots giving us the greenery of the cemetery served with a side-plate of Moss (that grows on the stones - a beignet-like sphere, courgette in origin, boosted by the flourish of nori.

  Then to the sweet elements of the tea which are arrived at by proceeding to the War stone. Firstly a quite miraculous brownie made from chocolate and mushrooms though one was hardly aware of the mushroom element (one or two participants felt they could get the hint of them); no matter, though not being a fan of the brownie, I thoroughly enjoyed this specimen. There was also a Warscone, prepared from sesame and white chocolate, to be dressed with a delightful rose petal jam. The sesame was too strong a flavour for me and there was also more sweetness than I enjoy but my fellow tea-takers enjoyed the mock scone.

  After moving on to St Paul’s Square, we were assailed by the seagulls there who seem to be rivals to the local pigeons by a pleasing Lemon droppings, basically a lemon drizzle cake with lots of drizzle which looked suspiciously, as was intended, like the products of egestion of the St Paul’s seagulls - a witty little jest - though I think I should have liked the flavour of the lemon to be more pronounced. The dish was nicely adorned by an edible paper feather. 

  We moved on, the tour almost over. And we arrived at the Jewellery shops and factories that give the area its name. Having previously been served hibiscus and mint tea, a cup of black tea with a spray of rose perfume was poured out and Bullion, a mixed spice and sultana cake, zinging with cinnamon, and with a cross on it to note the recent Easter holiday, was served to conjure up a gold ingot. This was a lovely cake. Then, finally, a ring box containing an exciting gem was presented to each guest. Inside was a jewel, 28 Carat, a pleasing raspberry jelly. 

  What fun it had all been. I look forward to a few more excursions into the Jewellery Quarter as Gulp unveils its future events.