I have stated before that Alex Claridge is a genius. Sometimes you wonder if he’s a mad genius though when you see him calmly cooking and supervising the preparation of his frequently extraordinarily clever dishes there’s no hint of madness just an exceptional culinary artist at work.
I recently took myself to the latest of his Maybe A Restaurant By The Wilderness gastronomic extravaganzas in which the emphasis was very much on south Asian-style food plus some east Asian influence thrown in which was held at Nocturnal Animals on the hottest day of the year. It was all very thrilling. The occasion had also trailered a guest chef appearance by Kray Treadwell which seemed like too good an opportunity to miss after seeing his spectacular dishes on Great British Menu but he pulled out in the last couple of days or so which was a pity but the meal presented was good enough to not really care about his absence.
Alex Claridge, working here in Birmingham not some trendy northern city, with his excellent assistants and friendly and knowledgeable waiting staff, certainly knows how to bring excitement, originality and deliciousness to dining out. Last year The Good Food Guide failed to mention The Wilderness which was an incredible and outrageous omission which must surely be corrected in this year’s edition. But back to the hottest day of the year.
Prior to eating, what to drink? I was overheated and relieved to be in the marvellous air-conditioned space of Nocturnal Animals but I still needed a long drink. South Asian food lay ahead of me so it had to mimic a ‘curry house’ experience and therefore lager was needed but which from the list to have? I could not resist opting for The Wilderness’ own Lager For Life sold in a can decorated by a hilarious picture of what looks like Brian Blessed accompanied by two adoring female gorillas. The beer is flavoured, highly successfully and pleasurably, with yuzu. I was in a good mood as I drank it down and studied the menu.
To start, an immaculate trio of appetisers to be eaten in order from right to left - Tomato cured mackerel, rasam vail and ginger; a spectacular sliver of Orkney scallop, sour apple and Keralan onion (a little bite of sheer genius) and a memorable Red prawn with smoked wagyu and Goan glaze. I remarked to the superb waiting staff that if that had been the meal by itself it would have been a sheer delight but I was rather relieved that there were more wonders waiting in the wings.
On to what may loosely be termed the ‘starter’ - ‘Glazed Veal Sweatbread’ (sic) (‘Caramelised onion - Smoked cheese - Citrus’) - fabulous dish with wonderful sweetbreads which were cooked superbly. This course is as pleasurably memorable a week after eating it as are several of the other dishes on this menu. The meal was proceeding splendidly.
A spectacular highlight was the ‘Oxtail vindaloo bun’ (‘Batata palha - Onion oil - Oxtail sauce’) which established just what chefs should be doing with their slow-cooked pieces of meat. Spicy hot approaching but not reaching excessive hotness, deliciously pleasurable and possibly the highlight of the meal but at least two of the dishes could challenge it for that title.
On to the ‘Crispy Tikka Chicken’ (‘Smoked paneer - preserved lemon - mint yoghurt’). The chicken was indeed crispy, the flavour was immaculate, the pleasure was all mine. By the way I enjoyed the ‘preserved lemon’ which made a very fine chutney to accompany a south Asian-style dish.
The next course was ‘Roasted ajwainy monkfish’ (‘Biryani granola - roast chicken butter’). It’s hard to eat a spiced monkfish dish without thinking of Purnell’s Great British Menu’-winning ‘Masala Monkfish but Claridge’s offering lost nothing in the comparison. The finely cooked, meaty monkfish with chicken butter was well-partnered by the very tasty biryani granola.
Then to a course which might have been better earlier in the meal but which was subtley spicey and tasty - ‘BBQ cauliflower’ (‘aloo gobi - Big Mac crumb - cheese custard’) - the grilled cauliflower was fine but greatly lifted by the texture of the crumb and the bliss of the cheese custard.
The first tasty dessert was ‘Mango Lassi Sandwich’ (‘cardamom yoghurt - honey waffle’) which is an excellent idea given the style of the meal but the honey waffle which served as the bread of the sandwich was soggy and there was a hard lump of ice in my yogurt suggesting a little more defrosting may have been useful. The mango flavour ruled the dish and I didn’t really get the taste of cardamom. The dish was tasty and refreshing but not without its faults. I spared it its blushes by not photographing it.
And so to one of the great dishes of our time - ‘Banana Wannabe’. If it looks like a banana and it sits on the plate like a banana and it quacks like a banana (well it doesn’t actually make any sound to be honest though I was doing a lot of contented purring whilst eating it) then it must be a banana. But no, it isn’t. No peeling is necessary. A faultlessly clever and delicious dessert which looks like a banana but appears to be a variant (barely recognisable visually as such) of a white chocolate bombe with a bit of arctic roll thrown in but described on the menu as ‘papaya - banana caramel - passion fruit’ rounded off the meal with the most intense pleasure and amazement at the originality and cleverness of the dish leading one to think again that Claridge is a very real genius. Claridge’s brilliance and originality remind me only of Birmingham’s doyen of gastronomy, Glynn Purnell, and no-one else. We have a number of very fine chefs here in the city but their strength lies mainly in their ability to cook very fine food indeed rather than creating dishes which astonish. I wonder, and this is almost heresy for me, if Claridge actually surpasses Purnell in the extraordinary creativeness and cheeky humour displayed in his dishes. No matter what may be the case this episode of ‘Maybe A Restaurant ByThe Wilderness’ makes me tremble with anticipation of what comes next.
