93. Restaurants “Will Be Among The Last To Exit Lockdown”.

  In a television interview, the senior government minister, Michael Gove, said, in response to a question he was asked in an interview, that “it is true that areas of hospitality will be along the last to exit the lockdown, yes that is true, they will be among the last ....”. Grim news indeed though not surprising nor even shocking.

“Areas of hospitality will be among the last to exit the lockdown”

  Which restaurants will survive this predicted very prolonged period of closure in Birmingham and the West Midlands remains to be seen but it looks as though a grave prognosis for the industry must be given at this stage. The one good piece of news is that our local notable restauranteurs are clearly people of steel who have risked much to open, build up and keep their restaurants going through good times and bad and so in the medium to long run I expect that they will lead the charge back to restoring our shining local restaurant industry and taking it to even greater heights.

  In Blog 90 I described the first Central region heat of the 2020 Great British Menu and focused on how Birmingham’s own Alex Claridge fared in the heat. As we know with his somewhat radical menu he did not survive to demonstrate his main course and dessert course to the guest chef judge who right from the word go seemed to signal who was going into the regional final so it was not surprising that after the main course, “pre-pooding pooding” (as the ghastly comedienne chosen to  host the programme insisted on repeating endlessly) and the “pooding” - dessert to you and me - Dom
Robinson who was brought up in Derbyshire but works in Berkshire was eliminated from the competition. It’s fair to say that the two remaining competitors made a good fist of the Central region final but not at all surprising that Niall Keating (“proud to be doing this for Stoke” but works in Wiltshire) won out against Sally Abé (born in Mansfield but works in London). It has to be said that some of the dishes in the final looked wonderful and the welcome faces of the usual judges, though the comedienne did her best to hog the screen, told us just how good the dishes tasted.
  In subsequent regional competitions the producers of the programme seemed to have realised just what an awful decision it was to have the comedienne host the programme and her time on screen seems to diminish more and more as the weeks go by. Unfortunately she still manages to squeeze the highly unhilarious “pre-pooding pooding” words into at least one programme per week. The programme retains its delights however - hilariously Oliver Peyton has become even more of a grumpy old man than Matthew Fort and their little squabbles continue wonderfully though not enough airtime is given to them and I hope if another series is made that the comedienne will be banished back to whatever comedy club she came from and that GBM’s own Waldorf and Statler will be given much more time on the screen so we can hear one or the other deliver those immortal words, “I don’t like it” as they pick at yet another over-complicated dish set before them.

  And so we wait to see how long it will be before Covid-19 is sent to bed with no supper and not allowed to get up in the morning. And while Covid-19 is being seen off the premises perhaps the GBM producers could take the programme back to a simpler time when there were no guest chef judges, no comediennes, no pre-pooding poodings, the chefs needled each other a little more rather than plating up their rivals’ dishes for them and Anthony Worrall Thompson burned his faggots’ bottoms.

Anthony Worrall Thompson, Great British Menu, series 1, 2006

Worrall Thompson’s burnt faggots.