379. West Midlands Restaurants Ignored (Again) In Bib Gourmand Awards And GBM.

 

  Once more West Midlands restaurants are ignored by the BBC in the 2024 Central heat of its Great British Menu series with the chefs chosen to represent the ‘Central region’ working in London, Ascot, Norwich (to be fair the ‘Central region’ includes East Anglia) and as a private chef in the East Midlands. True, there are two West Midlands-born chefs - Sam Ashton-Booth, originally from Worcester, and Adam Smith, born in Birmingham - but the first works at Muse in London (and has never worked in the Midlands) and Adam Smith works at Woven by Adam Smith in Ascot and has also never worked in the Midlands.

  What I want to see is not only West Midlands chefs who originally hail from the area but also those who work here and to get a glimpse of the local establishments in which they work. This is another way in which the BBC is choosing to ignore the West Midlands. I expect to be less than interested in this year’s Central heats, especially with the Judge’s episode involving an unbearable, unfunny, facetious, puerile  ‘comedian’ and dominated by a chef who guides the voting.

  Meanwhile Michelin published its list of new Bibs Gourmands for 2024 on Monday 29 January. There were 116 dining establishments accorded a Bib in 2023 of which just a single restaurant was located in the West Midlands - the Charlton Arms in Ludlow on Ludford Bridge with a grand view of the river Teme below - and twenty new Bib holders were named for 2024 and absolutely none of them are located in the West Midlands. Logic dictates that there must be more than one West Midlands restaurant worthy of the award of a Bib but apparently not.

The Charlton Arms, Ludlow, The West Midlands only Bib Gourmand holder.

  It remains to be seen how the dining establishments of the West Midlands region will be treated in next week’s star awards ceremony which ironically is to take place in Birmingham’s rival city, Manchester (for long a Michelin star desert). I am looking to Opheem becoming our first two star restaurant and The Wilderness being finally rewarded with one star but I say that every year and Alex Claridge (with, now, Marius Gedminas) has always been passed over.

  To return to the iniquities of the BBC, I should note for the record that of the 28 young chefs featured in the most recent series of Masterchef The Professionals, not one was a West Midlander. With so much talent in the region one must draw one’s own conclusions about why that should be. Perhaps, the West Midlands culinary industry will get more of a look in when filming of Masterchef begins in Birmingham. But I won’t hold my breath.

378. Opheem, Days Away From A Second Star?

 

Aktar Islam, Guest Judge on this week’s Great British Menu 

26 January 2024. 

Birmingham’s first Michelin two-starred restaurant? We have only to wait until 5 February to find out.

And if it t’were to happen ‘tis best t’were to happen quick and there is no more likely Birmingham candidate for the accolade than Aktar Islam’s Opheem.

(By the way, a little early in its life this year, but Grace and Savour at Hampton in Arden has all the makings of an eventual West Midlands two star dining establishment too. And when it come to new one stars in the city - we could have two - the long overlooked Wilderness and the immaculate Harborne Kitchen).

And so, pre-award ceremony, off to Opheem for dinner and on arrival, settling comfortably into the lovely smart  lounge area where amuses gueules and, later, mignardises are served.

  I chose to dine from the 5 course menu. To describe it as a five course menu is a litotes of the first order. The parade of ambrosial amuses gueules - no less than seven (though only four featured in the menu) - was a banquet in itself. There were the acetic and spicy mouth refreshing vials of lime green fluid to imbibe which made one suspect that one was going to shrink to enable one to slip down a rabbit hole into Wonderland, the gorgeous oyster emulsion with chilli broth and coriander oil sitting in an oyster shell, the celestial crab blinis, the tangy, sweet and smoky tuile with mango chutney, burnt lettuce and chilli, the apple macaron with date and onion and beef tartare and and duck liver parfait - a wondrous creation - and a little bowl of cured bass with ginger, mango sauce and radish. Then, with these sublime gems all indulged in and the glass of Monkey 47 and tonic close to being drained, my dining companion and I were guided into Wonderland itself, the smart, chic, beautifully lit, spacious dining room.

  But there was still one more appetiser before the first menu-listed dish is served. This was a delicious rib of lamb, perfectly spicy and immaculately tender - utterly gorgeous. For what I suppose might be called a starter there Gajar, a heritage carrot dish served with a delightful little lentil pakora. We were both purring contentedly as we consumed this beautiful dish.

  Then another surprise - a perfectly cooked spice-crusted scallop with a cauliflower korma sauce. Once more the word ‘immaculate’ came to mind. Then the dear old friend, aloo tuk, sauntered to the table, metaphorically speaking, the precisely textured pink fir potatoes under their creamy covering, with sweetness and tang from mango and tamarind. Before the pau course there was a delightful soupçon of mouth refresher and then on to the lovely milk loaf with indulgently rich-flavoured keema and then on to what one May call the main course - beautifully tender and tasty cuts of beef cheek, barbecued greens and spinach. Here I made my only moan to my companion - the slow cooked cheek was very tasty, as we would expect, but it was rather glutinous, not falling apart as one would hope, and I felt it had probably needed cooking a while longer to give it optimal texture.

  The dessert was a great pleasure - a play on Black Forest gateau with cherry sorbet, chocolate and hazelnut to give little bursts of crunchy texture and it’s always hard to complain about a dessert that has little pieces of edible gold on it.

  Replete but still ready for the final nibbles back in the lovely lounge - three different chocolates, an exciting canale and a pleasing croustade.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞

  The following evening I was off to A_D_C for what was described as Sonal’s Birthday Party (somewhat belated, it being a week after the day when the Wilderness impresario and great Birmingham food personality had arrived at his fortieth anniversary - he’s looking good for his age) which was really an excuse to sample some very pleasant wines and nibble my way through several bowls of Bombay Mix and chat with fellow Sonal fans. Great fun and home in time for the final episode of the second series of the mind-bogglingly brilliant The Traitors with Claudia Winkleman hosting it like a modern-day Hecate and a dangerously clever young man called Harry, with a feral shrewdness and artfulness, charming his way through a sea of naïve, gullible fellow contestants to a prize of close to £100000.

  The BBC does, even now, sometimes broadcast some worthwhile programmes as evidenced by The Traitors and another I still like to watch, though it has been monstrously dumbed down over the years by installing an inane comedian who is only capable of fatuous remarks as one of the judges and an all pervading though not severe case of wokeness, to name just two of its failings, is The Great British Menu, the new series of which began being broadcasting this week.

  Although this first week featured the Northeast England and Yorkshire heats, the West Midlands did have some local interest represented as one of the participating chefs, Adam Degg who is currently Head Chef at Horto Restaurant at Rudding Park in Harrogate, was born and brought up in Erdington and has worked with, and is a friend of, Tom Shepherd of Upstairs by Tom Shepherd in Lichfield as well as working as a pastry chef at Tom Kerridge’s Hand and Flowers in Marlow.

  The chosen theme of the programme for the 2024 series is the Paris Olympic Games with the winners’ banquet to be held at the magnificent British embassy in the capital of France. Sadly, Adam Degg will not be presenting a dish there as he was eliminated from the competition at the end of the first day of the heats. His canopé of buckwheat and apple blini with smoked cod’s roe emulsion and apple was well received by guest judge, Aktar Islam, but his starter, titled Egg and Spoon Race, made up of spiced cauliflower, cauliflower foam and saffron tofu presented in a porcelain ceramic egg scored only 6 points and his main, Breakfast of Champions, brill poached in brown butter filled with a fish mousse, bacon and seaweed stock ‘gold medals’, hash browns sprinkled with nori powder and topped with caviar served with pickled seaweed and lardo, mushroom ketchup, dehydrated marinated tomato and an allium flower, received a similar mark

  This is a pity not only because of his Birmingham origins, but also because of his specialty as a pastry chef - it would have been interesting to see what he was intending to deliver as his dessert. Let us hope that in the coming couple of weeks, the Central region heat chefs fare better and also that we see Birmingham’s first two Michelin-starred restaurant finally emerging.

 

377. Andy Low & Slow Takeover At Le Petit Bois

 

  The proprietors of Le Petit Bois were taking a month’s break and the Moseley restaurant had been taken over for their period of absence by Andy Stubbs of Andy Slow & Low. I was meeting an old friend and we thought it would be a good idea to ‘go French’ and since he lived a short distance from Moseley we decided to meet up at Le Petit Bois. On making the reservation, we discovered the change of chef and cuisine but that seemed satisfactory given that Andy Low & Slow is well thought of and I’ve experienced his cooking before.

  It turned out to be disappointing and all a little odd. There was a choice of three starters - two variants of fresh oysters and a dip of a cheese and spicy pepper. The dip was fine but hardly exhilarating and seemed like something I could have whipped up at home in next to no time. What was odd was that it was served with what were undoubtedly Ritz crackers. I’ve never been to a restaurant and been served Ritz biscuits before. It just seemed too lazy. Perhaps some fresh bread would have made the dish look like a professional had prepared it but this did not seem like a good start.

  For the main course I was thrilled to choose smoked sausage and chicken gumbo. This took me back, more years than I care to think about, to a trip to New Orleans and dining on gumbo one night and jambalaya another night and walking past the numerous bars on Bourbon Street and listening to the jazz that drifted out from the open doors,; what excitement. The gumbo served by Andy Low & Slow was edible enough but really quite disappointing. The only real spiciness seemed to come from the sausage, the chicken was lacking in flavour and the sauce was thin and uninteresting. The cornbread which eventually appeared was powerfully prawn flavoured - it reminded me of the bread served at 670 Grams, where I attended a 670 Grams x Andy Low & Slow collaboration last year. The bread’s texture was lovely but, unlike the rest of the meal, the flavour was just too powerful for me to find enjoyable. I felt at the end of it all, that I could have cooked a better gumbo than this at home.

  My dining companion was pleased with the six impressively large langoustines he was served and to add some carbohydrate he ordered a plate of tender, charred leeks served with beans. The dish looked exciting but tasted fairly ordinary. For dessert I ordered the only available item on that part of the menu which was buttermilk pie (which I forgot to photograph). The pie looked neat and the custard was a nice consistency but, for me, a little over-sweet. The pastry was very humdrum and certainly did not rise above that achievable by a middling home cook.

  It’s always hard to record a list of disappointments when one considers the time a chef has invested in preparing their dishes but this was not a cheap meal and for the price I would have expected something a little more exciting and accomplished and I really found it depressing that Ritz crackers were used with the dip. This was one of those meals which really did not live up to my expectations.

375. Itihaas

 

  In the previous Blog, I concluded that Dishoom was worth a visit but more for the mood and the atmosphere than for the food. The following evening, still in residence at the Grand Hotel, and it being a Monday with none of Birmingham’s top restaurants being open for business and the week beginning slowly (though it might have been more animated what with the sun being bright, the sky blue and the day crisp), I set off for Itihaas, a few minutes walk from The Grand, down Newhall street.

  It was late afternoon, many had not then yet left work so it was hardly surprising that there were only two others diners there, soon after 4PM on an early Monday evening. But again there was an atmosphere,  created not by the milling throng or the roaring crowd but by the charming plush British colonial style decor by which one was easily whisked back to days even before those that Dishoom was trying to recreate. Itihaas is comfortable, unrushed, relaxing and as atmospheric as any of the more traditional Indian restaurants in Birmingham and I like it.

  Service is somewhat formal, not over-cheerful it is true, but one feels that when the front-of-house staff have got the measure of you, then they really come into their own and you are they are in synchrony and just the right sort of bespoke service comes the customer’s way. Again, I like it. 

  I start off with a Tokyo Old Fashioned which is rather good and warming on a cold day and while taking my first sips I am introduced to January’s special menu - a ‘bottomless’ thali, of which there are three or four on offer though if I had preferred I could have dined from the à la carte menu. I opted for the ‘executive menu’, and why not?

  When it arrives, it looks very pretty and appetising and resembles a potted guide to an Englishman’s encyclopaedia of Indian food. 

  Let’s start with the colourful and very nicely cooked Jeera chawai (basmati rice in three colours with cumin spicing) on which was nestled a little, splendidly crispy jeera papadum, peppery and with the tang of softer spices too. The papadum provided the necessary texture and I asked for more which were promptly brought to the table. There were three curries and a daal - Murgh makhani - moist, tender butter chicken leg meat in a slightly over-sweet tomato sauce with cashew; my favourite, Lamb roganjosh, nicely spicy and with the right heat to it and lovely tender pieces of lamb and Goan prawn curry which was tasty but less interesting than the other curries - I was not aware of the kick of heat I might have expected and and I could not pick up any hints of coconut.  There was also a makhani black lentil daal which was satisfactory though it did not excite me, a lovely light Makhan naan, a pleasing bowl of refreshing, perfectly sour, technicolour rangey raita, thick in texture and full of cooling cucumber and finally, a gorgeously syrupy gulab jamun, unctious and a perfect illustration of what that extravagant dessert should really be like.

  The size of the meal was more than adequate to fill me though I was happy to drink a sweet, fruity mango lassi which was delicious and soothing. I do like Itihaas; atmosphere oozes out of the decor and the food is luxurious without being ostentatious. Not every dish served suited me but I thoroughly enjoyed the overall dining experience. Unlike Asha’s, located further up Newhall Street, I have not seen repirt# of Hollywood actors visiting the place, certainly not in recent years, and Itihaas doesn’t try to be flash. But the food is as good as that on offer in Asha’s, if not better, and it is so much more relaxing in Itihaas. Tom Cruise - walk further down the hill next time!

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛