353. Atelier.

 

  

  In 2016 I decided that and pronounced that Alex Claridge is a genius. Last year’s Good Food Guide judgement that The Wilderness is among the top ten most exciting places to eat in Britain was fully in line with my long held view whether or not the Michelin inspectors judge that the restaurant deserves one of their overrated stars. Since 2019, his Head Chef at The Wilderness has been the very amiable and modest Marius Gedminas. Since his arrival there, through plague and whatever else Fate has thrown at the hospitality industry, the food served at The Wilderness has been original, obsessionally beautifully executed and presented, and, in the words of The Good Food Guide, “exceptional”. The Wilderness is clearly a creatitional collaborative triumph but we can not doubt that Gedminas’ role has been pivotal.in recent years.

  Claridge’s brilliance of course extended to employing the immortal Sonal Clare, previously of Purnell’s as we know, to lead on wines at The Wilderness and previous Blogs have reported on some of the occasions staged by Clare to entertain the palates of the oenophilic good burgers of Birmingham and surrounding counties. 

  And now the latest flash of brilliance involving Atelier and making permanent, I think at least for the weekend, a combination of food prepared by Marius Gedminas and the pleasures that Sonal Clare can serve up which originate from a bottle. My knowledge of Japanese food is limited and I can not approach judging how Gedminas’s delicious sashimi and sushi dishes compare with the sort of food being served up in the trendy and heart attack-inducingly expensive Japanese restaurants in London (one has recently set a new record for the most expensive meal served in a British restaurant at a rather shocking, and distasteful £750) but for me every bite was an enormous pleasure and coupled with Sonal Clare’s choice of wines, the new Atelier represents a very exciting new dining opportunity here in Birmingham. Floreat Atelier.

  Delights included mackerel, lobster and wagyu and at the end of it a new species of the recently discovered genus of Wilderness chocolate frogs.