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.