400. Events, Dear Boy, Events. 2024 Part 1 January To June.

 

 The four hundredth blog. 

 This seems like an excellent opportunity to highlight the most important Birmingham and West Midlands dining out events of 2024 - what has happened so far and then a rolling diary of what else occurs during 2024 providing a complete West Midlands dining out history of what occurs during the year up to 31 December. New, notable events will be added as 2024 progresses. Already, on 29 April, there is much to record….

5 January - Chef Ash Heeger and Erin Valenzuala-Heeger open the remarkable Rabbit, initially also known as Riverine Rabbit, in Stirchley.

20 January - The Bower House in Shipston on Stour announces that it has appointed Leo Kattou as its new Head Chef. Kattou had previously been Chef st Simpsons in Edgbaston and at Laghi’s at Five Ways In Birmingham.

29 January - Michelin announces its 20 new Bib Gourmand restaurants - there are no West Midlands restaurants featured in it.  In the previous year’s list of 116 Bib winners only one West Midlands restaurant was recognised with the award - the Charlton Arms in Ludlow which retained the award in 2024.

30 January - Good Food Guide announces its awards for 2024. Two West Midlands restaurants are rated Exceptional - Grace and Savour and Harborne Kitchen. Very good awards are made to The Wilderness, Purnell’s, Tropea, Opheem, Adam’s, Folium, Smoke, Yikouchi at Chancer’s Cafe, Upstairs by Tom Shepherd, Le Champignon Sauvage and The Walrus (Shrewsbury).

31 January - First episode of the Central region heats of the BBC’s Great British Menu features four chefs who do not work in a Midlands restaurant. There are two West Midlands-born chefs, Sam Ashton-Booth originally from Worcester and who works at Muse restaurant in London, and who is eliminated at the end of the first round and Birmingham-born Adam Smith, Chef Patron at Woven by Adam Smith in Ascot, who eventually goes on to be chosen to cook the fish course at the banquet.

January - Baloci, a “Silk Road” cuisine opens in Highfield Road in Edgbaston.

5 February - Aktar Islam’s Opheem is awarded TWO stars at the annual Michelin awards ceremony. Birmingham, as a result, has three ONE Michelin star restaurants - Simpsons, Purnell’s and Adam’s. At the ceremony, Salt in Stratford upon Avon loses its single Michelin star while other West Midlands restaurants - Grace and Savour (Hampton in Arden), Upstairs by Tom Shepherd (Lichfield), Le Champignon Sauvage and Lumiere (both in Cheltenham), The Cross in Kenilworth and The Royal Oak in Whatcote all retain their’s. Hence, at the start of 2024, the West Midlands has 10 Michelin-starred restaurants.

10 February - Dan Sweet opens Cuubo on Harborne High Street at the same location as his former ‘fine dining takeaway’ establishment. 

11 February - Chef Brad and partner Holly Carter open their pop-up restaurant Carter’s at 18 on the eighteenth floor of 103 Colmore Row. This is to remain open until the end of April.

27 February - Chef Andrew Sheridan, previously Chef Patron at the now closed Craft and About 8, who reopened the latter in Liverpool in 2023, participates in BBC’s Great British Menu North West regional heats but is eliminated at the end of the first day.

12 March - While retaining his Chef Director role at Smoke Stuart Deeley also takes on the role of Executive Chef at Laghi’s at Five Ways. Patrick Hukins becomes Head Chef at Laghi’s.

15 March - Adam Bateman leaves his post as Executive Chef at the Grand Hotel. On 15 April 2024 it was announced that Bateman had been appointed Executive Chef at the Pan Pacific London Hotel in Shoreditch.

2 April - It is announced that the former Pensons near Tenbury Wells will reopen on 22 May as Native at Pensons with Ivan Tisdall-Downes as Executive Chef.

6 April - Glynn Purnell announces that he has appointed a diarchy of Head Chefs at Purnell’s  - Sam Luck and Tom Blakemore, both with long records of working in the Purnell’s kitchen.

7 April - The Observer publishes a review by critic Jay Rayner of Cuubo in Harborne. He pronounces that Cuubo is, ‘as exciting a restaurant as I’ve encountered in a long time”.

15 April - The Hockley Dining Club serves as host to the West Midlands Mayoral election hustings where the present Mayor, Andy Street, takes on his Labour opponent. Two fast food stalls are serving food - both fried chicken producers.

20 April - The annual Shakespeare Birthday Lunch is held in Stratford upon Avon and celrbrities attending include Dame Vanessa Redgrave, Alexander Armstrong and Dame Floella Benjamin. Dishes served are - burrata and beetroot salad, roast chicken and Wye Valley asparagus and deconstructed Pavlova.

21 April - Chef Rob Palmer announces that his Solihull restaurant Toffs will close on 2 May and relocate to Hogarth’s Hotel in Dorridge.

25 April - Michelin includes Rabbit in the Michelin Guide.

27 April - Chef Patron Ben Taylor and his partner Zsofia Kisgergely close the much-loved Le Petit Bois in Moseley.

20 May - It is announced that Niall Keating left his role as Chef director of Stoke on Trent’s Lunar on 19 May by “mutual agreement” with Craig Wilkinson, the restaurant’s co-founder. It had previously been announced that Keating would take up a new role in a Manchester hotel in June. A few days previously, Head Chef Craig Lunn had left his post at Lunar.

Craig Lunn & Niall Keating

23 May - It is announced that Carl Riley, formerly Head Chef at the George in Alstonefield, Michelin-listed from 2011 to 2023, has been appointed to a similar role at Lunar.

May - Phil Kerry, Head Chef at Forelles in Ludlow, departs his job there following Fishmore Hotel being taken over by a West Bromwich-based hotel chain which places the emphasis very much on cost cutting. Subsequently, a previously Cayman Islands-based chef, Joshua (Nicky) Hull-Saldhana is appointed Head Chef in June 2024 but is moved to work in the hotel chain’s Droitwich hotel in late June. Two Romanian chefs are appointed to take charge of the kitchens at Forelles.

Nicky Hull-Saldhana

May - Michelin’s May list of newly recommended restaurants includes Cuubo in Harborne. 

15 June -Alex Claridge’s Albatross Death Cult opens to paying customers in Newhall Square.The restaurant serves 14 diners around its wide metallic counter, mostly sea food with a Japanese-style emphasis. 

26 June - Michelin announces its June list of newly recommended restaurants and among the eight named is 1919 at The Cottage in the Woods in Malvern Wells.

27 June - After the change of ownership of Fishmore Hall and departure of Head Chef Phil Kerry, Forelles restaurant ceases to be included in the Good Food Guide.