439. Gulp. Sensperiment With Food.

 

  It had been some time, to my regret, since I had been able to attend one of Kaye Winwood’s GULP food experiences but finally I was able to once more head for the Jewellery Quarter to see what she was able to do. It was yet another unpleasant evening of miserable rain and early darkness and it took a lot of mental fortitude to get up and leave my warm little house and head for town and then on to the Jewellery Quarter but I was keen to revisit GULP having enjoyed myself on previous visits. This time however things were different. For a start, instead of having to mount the steep staircase in the old factory which leads to GULP’s now familiar, rather charming dining room, this time I made my way down Pitsfield Street, around the corner from the Jewellery Quarter railway station to the very smart, very modern Goodsyard JQ - trés convenient - where Kaye was holding this particular session. 

  It was difficult to identify the exact address in the darkness - no-one seems to put house numbers on their doors around those parts but eventually it appeared that the location was the brightly lit Great Western Hotel - at least I think it was a hotel, it may have been just a collection of apartments; regardless, it was the sort of place where a bell needed to be rung and a receptionist needed to let you in and then you had to identify yourself and be approved. I imagine that’s how everywhere in England will be after a couple of years of this new, oppressive socialist regime which was ushered in three months ago and which, by its threatened measures, has the hospitality industry feeling it’s very much in the last chance saloon.

  But it was all very plush, Kaye was very welcoming and the small number of participants gathered around the laid table as though they were going to indulge in a spot of spiritualism using an ouija board. A cameraman, with an annoying sniffing habit, joined us and Kaye admitted that she was rather nervous about it all but she was among friends and sympathisers. She gave an interesting illustrated talk on the relationship of non clinical psychology and the enjoyment of food, touching on her favourite subjects including the Italian Futurists, the chef Massimo Bottura, “Gastrophysics The new science of eating” and taught us about the difference between bouba and kiki (ah yes! I have you there, most probably).

  The table was laid out with little snack-like portions of various edible items which illustrated how taste may be affected by the other senses. At various times we were called upon to wear red goggles and blindfolds, to rub our hands on a box with a covering of sandpaper (which apparently makes something one is eating at the same time taste more salty than it otherwise would), to listen to sounds which brought out the flavour of a peach truffle, to eat picked onion strips to illustrate its effect on salivation and, on the whole, to have a collection of oo ah! moments. Great fun was had by all especially when consuming some puffed up crackers dipped in Kaye’s splendid homemade mayonnaise, her blackberry jellies enhanced with Szechuan sugar and her splendid home-baked lemon madeleine.

  This had been a fine ninety minutes and an excellent example of the off the beat enjoyable  dining experiences available for gourmands de Birmingham to enjoy. Kaye Winwood is a great asset to the food lovers of the city.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛🌛.

437. The End Of Purnell’s.

 At 1000AM on Monday 14 October 2024 Glynn Purnell announced via social media that his restaurant, Purnell’s, in Cornwall Street had served its last diners at close of service on Saturday 12 October and that the restaurant was now permanently closed.

  He was interviewed an hour later on the BBC West Midlands station by Kathryn Stanczyszyn and repeated that which he had stated in the social media and identified a number of reasons for his decision to end the 17 years of fine dining he had been serving up to the citizens of Birmingham and from further afield in Cornwall street. 

  We know well Purnell’s story before opening Jessica’s in Edgbaston with owners Diane and Keith Stevenson and this had included a period of work as Chef de Partie at Andreas Antona’s Simpsons and for Claude Bosi at Hibiscus in Ludlow. Jessica’s was opened in 2004 and, with Purnell in the kitchen, it was awarded a Michelin star in 2005, joining Simpsons as one of only two Birmingham restaurants to have been awarded the accolade up until then. Jessica’s closed in 2007 after Purnell decided to open his own restaurant which he did in May 2007, quite reasonably naming it after himself, and Purnell’s was awarded a Michelin star in the 2009 edition of the Michelin Guide (announced in 2008). Purnell’s retained the star until its closure.

  Purnell became a local and national culinary celebrity with numerous appearances on television and in the press and opened, and sometimes closed, other restaurants as he was eventually to do with his flagship fine dining restaurant itself as the gastronomic climate changed, costs rose, and the fall off of diners able to, or prepared to, pay significant prices for tasting menus and their ilk.

  Purnell’s is survived by its younger siblings, Plates By Purnell’s in Edmund Street and the upmarket public house/restaurant The Mount in Henley in Arden.

  A look at Blog 413 (28 June 2024) may provide the reader with at least one reason why Purnell’s finally had to close. It was still very good but it was tired, the menu had lost its thrill, its humour and wit, its flair and imagination, its sense of excitement, its oomph. Restaurants rely on their old, faithful customers coming back time and time again and while they like to see familiar old favourites on the menu, they also want novelty and for me the menu was too repetitive drawing on old glories. I’m not convinced that Glynn Purnell had not lost his interest in it all to some extent. When something’s tired and elderly, it’s time to let it rest with its memories of the glory days of fine, exciting, witty experiences and so to move on.

 And in response to the news I made a reservation to visit Plates by Purnell’s the very next day. Somehow it seemed the decent thing to do.

   I had dined just a month ago at Plates with a regular dining companion and we were very impressed. Our chosen dishes were pleading and represented good value. My only real problem with the restaurant was the general lack of space there which makes it feel just a little unwelcoming though that is certainly not a comment that one could make about the excellent front of house staff there.

  We indeed had little to complain about on this occasion - we enjoyed the platter of embutidos (cured meats) which admittedly was more a matter of curation than of culinary skill; we enjoyed some inoffensive albondigas, some cheese and basil  croquetas, some fine-looking patatas bravas (which to be fair were more patatas than bravas) and some nicely seasoned gambas al ajillo. I chose the pistachio dessert - a pistachio foam with honey and tuiles - though it only served to emphasise how unrewarding are the restaurant’s desserts. Generally we enjoyed ourselves and I felt that I shoukd like to return sooner rather than later.

  Which brings us to my solo visit to Plates one month after my previous dining experience there. In many ways I wish I had not decided to dine there. I repeated my previous order of albondigas and requested chicken thigh with romesco sauce (it was not available), ‘chip  de trufa’ - potato with truffle mayonnaise (I was informed it was a single chip which sounded a little insubstantial for £5 to say the least so I opted for good old patatas bravas, croquetas de queso y albahaca and, in the absence of the chicken, calamares with alioli. First the good news - the croquetas were good - nice and crispy though not bursting with flavour, the patatas bravas were indisputably lacklustre, the albondigas were much as one would expect them to be but the crispy squid was awful - true the coating was pleasingly crispy but the squid inside was vile, decidedly miscooked in a way which truly gave it an unchewable rubber band texture. Oh dear! This was not the standard one expects from a Michelin recommended restaurant. *What is going on at these Purnell restaurants?

   The squid was the single most unpleasant piece of food I have put in my mouth in a restaurant since a trip to China in, if I remember rightly, 1993 when I wrestled with a ghastly, grey piece of sea cucumber which had been served as a delicacy. The stuff that nightmares are made on. I pointed out the extreme chewiness of the squid to the waiter and no charge was quite rightly made for the dish and there the matter should end except that one is bound to wonder how the Michelin grade kitchen could let such a horror escape from it.

  The squid had rather knocked me back and I did not feel I could risk a dessert. Glynn Purnell needs to get a grip on this. Hopefully it’s a one off.

Rating - 🌛🌛.

  More bad news. The friend .with whom I dined on the first of my reported visit to Plates usually joins me for a ‘3 and half ounces of pleasure’ at The Alchemist prior to our sauntering off to some worthy dining establishment for our regular lunch. He was not with me on my second visit but having 45 minutes to pass prior to my reservation time it seemed like a very good idea to pop into the Alchemist and renew my acquaintance with that very soothing cocktail. Alas! I was informed that 3 and half oz was no longer being made. An instant state of crestfallenness set in. But it was suggested I substitute the Pleasure with a June Bug, the ingredients of which included gin and banana and coconut. This was good - who can resist gin with some of the ingredients of a Planter’s punch? But the embracing rum of the Pleasure would have been a nice soother on a grim, cool English mid-autumn afternoon. Perhaps June is the best month for glugging a June Bug unless you’re in Jamaica where, I guess, the weather makes any time fine. 

  We like to close with good news. A near neighbour location of Plates, the now closed Urban Coffee where Ben Tesh staged pop ups in 2016 prior to opening Folium has posters in the windows which indicate that Tiger Bites Pig will be moving in - just what the restaurant needs -a lot more space.

436. Ludlow Food Festival 2024. Part 3.

  Sunday morning at the Ludlow Food Festival started with an amusing joint cooking demonstration by Reuben Crouch (of CSons in Shrewsbury) and Mark Harris (Pheasant Inn, Neenton). They are now a well established double act at the Ludlow Food Festival. Their theme centred on potatoes and eggs and Mark Harris produced some very fine aligot as a grand finale.

  Urvashi Roe gave a useful talk on Gujarati food but lunch was rapidly approaching.

  And so it was that the  true highlight of the festival this year was a new event - Sunday lunch served in the medieval banqueting hall in a similar fashion to the Saturday evening Fire Feast. Chef Andy Stubbs of Andy Lo’ and Slo’ was the curator of the meal and it certainly proved to be memorable and thoroughly enjoyable..

  The gloriously colourful heritage tomato starter served sadly to illustrate no matter how pretty British tomatoes may have been this year, their flavour has been very disappointing. But what really mattered was  the great slab of beef waiting to be carved.

  The beef was excellent. Such pleasures may only be appreciated by the English but a great Sunday roast is a national treasure despite what trendy naysayers may opine. The accompanying vegetables were a sideshow - the beef was all - and just as well as no Yorkshire pudding was anywhere in sight but frankly, none was needed.  Such stuff are dreams made on.

  A pleasurable Basque cheesecake with macerated strawberries and autumn blackberries rounded it all off and left me wanting to live for ever so that I could return to Ludlow eternally for this fine Sunday event

  After lunch, I watched Chef Suki Pantal give a charming and useful demonstration of Indian vegetarian cooking and then it was time to head back to Fishmore Hall, where Lucy the Labrador was waiting to se what tidbits I had brought back for her. The skies were darkening, rain was threatening, and the Festival had ended for another year.

  And so, once more farewell to Ludlow and Fishmore Hall. A very. acceptable full English to see me off on the Monday morning.

429. Ludlow Food Festival 2024. Part 2.

  It has to be said that the hottest ticket in town during the Ludlow Food Festival is that for the Sausage trail held on the Saturday. Instead of walking around several stations at different locations around the town including Grand Old Duke of York-style marching up and down the impressively steep Corve Street to visit Ludlow Brewery where one of the stations was located, all sausages are now consumed at the brewery which doesn’t help in the least as the spectre of trooping up Corve Street still remains if one intends to visit the rest of the festival located inside the castle grounds. But the Sausage trail, though no longer a trail, is still fun and popular and I always buy tickets for both myself and Lucy the Labrador though her walking is now very limited and I have to take her supply of sausages back to Fishmore Hall for her to enjoy rather than her making an in-person appearance at the Festival.

  Four local sausage makers were represented. The sausage from Morgan Country Butchers was the weakest, lacking the flavour of the others and encased in a vaguely impenetrable skin and I chose the mildly spicy pleasingly textured sausage from Ludlow Farm Shop as my favourite for 2024.

  And so to the second day of the Festival proper inside the castle. Clare Thomson, a food writer, gave an interesting cooking demonstration linked to her new book on vegetarian cooking and I then took the opportunity to wander around the large number of stalls selling cheeses and dairy products, charcuterie, sweetmeats, wines, cider, gin, kitchenalia, books, meat, studio ceramics and so on, surrounded by country folk, many with dogs of which Labradors made up a large percentage.

  If the Sausage Trail, now renamed The Battle of the Bangers, is a great pleasure, the Saturday evening fire feast in the medieval Banqueting hall has, up to now, been the most important single event at the Festival. Thus it was that I returned to the now largely deserted castle’s keep in the gathering darkness of the evening to join about 70 or so others for a meal which has always been a delight to in which to participate.

  The fire stage was dramatically lit by the huge pans cooking vast pieces of lamb, the meal being curated this year by chefs Samantha Evans and Shauna Guinn (collectively Hangfire) who introduced the meal to the salivating diners. As well as the large, admirably Kentucky-style cooked lamb cutlets the chefs had created an ovine equivalent of pancetta which they named lambchetta  (well, why not?). This was accompanied by a not entirely successful burnt leek gratin in which, it must be said, the leeks were delightfully sweet. There were also butter beans, cavelo nero, caramelised onions and black sheep gravy. The main was generously portioned and served aptly utterly rustic. The main problem was that service was, I suppose inevitably slow, and hence the dramatic dish was served, sadly, cold and this took away a lot of the pleasure of it. Still, it was an exciting platter and went down well.

  The starter had been served prior to going into the banqueting hall and was an excellent grilled Cornish sardines on Malvern sourdough toast with a tangy burnt tomato, lemon and coriander salsa. I would have happily consumed a double helping of it. Prior to the main course the now familiar and completely desirable Shropshire sharing platter of Shropshire salumi (Blackhurst beef bresaola, smoked collar, Shropshire chorizo, beer sticks, Appleby’s Cheshire (there are no Shropshire-made cheeses apart from Ludlow Blue made at the Ludlow Food centre and before you ask, Shropshire Blue is made in Lincolnshire, having been invented in Invernessshire, hence’local’ cheeses mainly originate in neighbouring Cheshire), White Cheshire, Double Gloucester, Appleby’s whey butter, grilled peaches and pears and rosemary and sea salt focaccia). This in itself would have been a worthy meal but the lamb was to follow as above.

  Finally a seasonal dessert of a ‘harvest-fired’ crumble of plump local blackberries and local apples. It was very good and a little too generously portioned for me but I needed a good stockpile of energy to see me through the walk back to Fishmore Hall.

  And so to Sunday. To be continued ….