469. Simpsons.

 

  One can not be sure what the future holds for Simpsons given that Andreas Antona has put the restaurant up for sale and there are rumours of Luke Tipping preparing to retire (there is no substantial evidence that I have heard to say that Tipping is preparing to leave the stage on a high).

  Regardless of all this, my regular dining companion and I resolved to have lunch at Simpsons. On the day we visited, Luke Tipping did not appear to be in the kitchen. The restaurant was certainly quiet - possibly about half a dozen of the tables had diners sitting at them. I have seen Simpsons much busier at a mid-week lunchtime in years past.

  In the last three years, Luke Tipping has delivered some fabulous dishes and Simpsons has been at the top of its game. But would the food coming out of the kitchen in the absence of the Chef Director be as consistently good as I had come to expect in recent times whenever I have visited Simpsons? 

  We chose to dine from the ‘Prestige’ tasting menu, cost £140, and at that price we were looking forward to some fine dishes, accurately cooked with some luxury items.

  The meal started with three pleasing canopés  - admirably crispy potato rosti which was slightly oily, crispy coated cod which was very pleasurable and a tasty beef tartare tart. An individual brioche and a slice of sourdough were accompanied by what amounted to some taramasalata and some wild garlic butter, moderately potent Wikd garlic butter, the garlic, we were told, had been foraged that morning.

  Then to the first course proper - a curious smoked cheddar dumpling with the texture of a panna cotta, reasonably tasty with fermented carrots, mushrooms, black garlic and dill pollen. I shoukd have liked the dumpling to have more body to it but the overall dish was pleasing enough. Then came a finely cooked, plump Orkney scallop with a toffee-like flavoured Jerusalem artichoke purée which did detract from the flavour of the scallop, Exmoor cavia, miso and katsuobashi dashi.

  The third course was undoubtedly the star dish of the meal - superbly well cooked skrei cod with chopped mussels which I liked very much, trout roe and a wonderfully buttery smoked eel cream which brought the word “sensational” to my lips. Gorgeous to look at and even more gorgeous to taste.

    This was followed by a slightly exhausting dish which brought an example of almost everything you can do with a beetroot to the table. There was a generous slice of golden beetroot, more of it than either of us could summon up the energy to finish, a toothsome beetroot sorbet, a nicely crispy beetroot tuile, an apt wasabi cream and best of all, little strands of sweetly pickled beetroot which added a thrill to a dish which had too many elements.

  The main was very problematical. Some lovely sirloin pavé was served but it was undoubtedly overcooked, having a dryness to it and, felt my companion, a slight toughness though I found my slice to be tender. I have had some lovely meat dishes at Simpsons in recent years but this one was wide of the mark. Perhaps the apparent absence of Chef was the reason for this inaccuracy being sent out of the kitchen. The dish was lifted by some well-cooked new season asparagus, a morel, the reappearance of wild garlic in the form of a purée, a blob of truffle purée and macaroni, vigorously al dente, covered with cheese which, for me at least, did not travel happily with the sirloin, the cheese’s flavour too harsh for the beef. This is a dish, striving hard to incorporate the produce of the gathering spring, which needs some new thought put into it.

  There was a pleasant first dessert of accurately cooked seasonal rhubarb which I had been looking forward to eating and which did not disappoint me, accompanied by vanilla cream and ginger crumble of which there was a little more than I wanted to deal with. But it was a happy, seasonal dish and served as a light, gentle introduction to the very impressive passion fruit soufflé filled with mango sauce and coconut Chantilly cream. It was a little sweet for my taste but was otherwise a fine soufflé about which no-one could have cause to complain.

  I have had some very fine meals at Simpsons in recent years but this particular lunch was not quite to the standard I have grown to recognise - the overcooked sirloin, the overpowering of one or two key ingredients by the flavours of some other lesser ingredients. Perhaps it reflected the absence of the most senior chef in the kitchen.

Rating:- 🌞

13 March 2025

468. Pretheatre Dinner At The Theatre Royal.

 

  The brooding darkness surrounding the local and national restaurant industry has been exemplified by a social media posting by Kray Tredwell, Chef Patron of 670 Grams in Digbeth, in which he pointed out that he may have to close his Michelin-listed restaurant in the coming months if the number of diners coming through his doors does not pick up.

  I myself have not visited there for a while. I find Digbeth unappealing and getting there, though in reality it is a perfectly simple thing to do, to be a prospect too unappealing to enable me to pluck up the energy to strike out and head in that direction. The problem is that chefs think these areas with their ‘cool and hip’ (two adjectives, I fear, almost certainly to be sneered at as uncool and unhip by those who feel they are cool and hip) shabby chic, hipster inhabitants will be home to a younger trendy population eager to eat a relatively expensive, multicourse meal. But it seems that they are not so eager to do so as I was told by a senior front-of-house figure at a restaurant in the Jewellery Quarter - when the restaurant first opened in the Jewellery Quarter, the young and the well heeled were expected to flock to the location - instead it turned out to be the older (and well-heeled) inhabitants of the Jewellery Quarter who made up a sizeable part of their clientele. Cool locations are fine if the cool locals are prepared to turn up and support a restaurant located there but it seems those particular individuals are not so keen to do so when they can stuff premium burgers and upmarket pizzas down their gullets.

  Kray may have a problem. 

  On a different note, I travelled to London sitting in the excellent Premium Standard carriage of Avanti West Coast heading for the Theatre Royal Drury Lane to see what turned out to be the theatre’s latest execrable production of a Shakespeare play, Much Ado About Nothing, which starred Tom Hiddlestone whom, it seemed, the audience made up largely by women in their thirties, had turned up to see regardless of whoever was the playwright. They giggled ecstatically whenever he declaimed a line (via a microphone) though if he had been reciting The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck I expect their reaction would have been no different. 

  On two occasions during the play Hiddlestone contrived to bare his torso which thrust his female audience (and probably some of the males as well) into excited enrapturement. It was a grim night for Shakespeare. It was predictable I suppose, the moment I bought the pink programme. Pink programmes always spell doom for a Shakespeare production. The RSC has sold a good number of pink programmes in recent years and the production has inevitably always proven to be disastrous and dire.

  Despite the appalling waste of money involved in buying a ticket to see Much Ado About Nothing as well as the additional cost (£10) of the pink programme, there was a silver lining to visiting the theatre. It seems, the theatre has recently introduced a pretheatre dinner service in the gorgeous chanderliered Grand Saloon on the upper floor of the theatre and this seemed like a very useful place to eat prior to sinking into one’s seat and enjoying - or otherwise - the play.

   Firstly, as I arrived early an Eliza Doolittle cocktail in the Cecil Beaton Bar, nicely atmospheric and mood setting and ultimately relaxing, and then an accompanied trip to the Grand Saloon to take in the the pleasant spaciousness of it, the remarkable art, the grand chandeliers and to be comfortably seated, though my chair was a little low for the table, to study the menu and order the food and wine.

  This was a simple three course meal with four appealing choices for each course. The dishes were unpretentious, good value - especially for London and served in such an attractive setting - and enjoyable. The menu was bistro-style and included for starters, parsnip soup which almost lured me, smoked salmon, a warm goats cheese salad and my choice, a tasty pork terrine served with a sweet but pleasingly acidic half pickled onion - though a whole one may have been kinder - and a couple of cornichons.

  The main course was about as straightforward as one might wish - tender ox cheek Bourguignon with a couple of perfectly cooked carrots, a tasty mash and watercress. Straightforward and enjoyable - the meat nicely unctious in its sauce and well seasoned. Who could ask for anything more? There were alternatives - I might easily have chosen an alluring fish pie or perhaps the roasted chicken breast with lardons, winter kale and mash. I had a glass of very drinkable Spanish Malbec to accompany it.

  My least favourite dish was the dessert which was a Black Forest coupe containing some rather unusually textured cubes of chocolate brownie which I didn’t particularly enjoy with some pleasing brandy cherries and cherry sorbet and whipped cream. I might have chosen sticky toffee pudding or crème brûlée or a cheese platter (Bath Blue, Baron Bigod, Tor pyramid with quince jelly) which, given my general lack of enthusiasm for desserts, might have been my best choice.

   Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the dessert, I had enjoyed my meal and I was pleased with the price. I descended to the front stalls in a contented frame of mind though this was soon dispelled by the appallingly crass production of a Shakespeare play which was then to be unraveled in front of me. Had it not been for the pleasing dinner, my evening would have been an utter washout. 

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛.

467. Great British Menu Central Region Heats (2).

 

  Continued from Blog 466 …

  Thom Bateman chose to present a pork-based dish for his main course and titled it Origin of the Species which celebrated Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution and illustrated his theme by centring it on the evolution of the wild boar to the domestic pig. The dish was made up of braised and shredded wild boar shoulder and collar served on a pork fat boulangere with barbecued mangalitsa pork fillet glazed with black garlic and honey accompanied by barbecued Granny Smith apple and a pickled walnut ketchup, celeriac purée and pork sauce.

Wild boar collar and shoulder

Ingredients for Original of the Species - Mangalitsa to right of the picture.

When delivering his verdict on the dishes Tommy Banks noted that only once before had a pork dish won the right to be the Great British Menu banquet main course. Banks made very positive points about the dish and had no negative points to mention. He awarded it 9 points.

  For his predessert Bateman served what he described as a chive biscuit ice cream sandwich to honour the scientist Dorothy Hodgkin and her work on X rays. The predessert was made from homemade pine oil, sugar and citric acid in the form of a spruce sherbert, a cherry gel and the ice cream was replaced by a pistachio yoghurt. When judging it Banks felt that the bone shape made it look like a dog biscuit which he found off-putting but he placed it second out of the three presdesserts.

  For his dessert course, Thom Bateman presented a dish titled The First Tycoon which celebrated Josiah Wedgwood. This took the form of a chocolate mousse marquise made from black tea infused cream with a bowl of cocoa nib, soya bean crumb and sherry gel topped by raw milk ice cream, caramel and blond chocolate crisps, all to celebrate what Bateman described as the “really famous tearoom” at the Wedgwood factory site. The marquise was not wholly convincing as a jasperware decoration and looked somewhat rough edged though the overall dish looked attractive plated up as it was on beautiful blue jasperware pottery.

   When presenting his conclusions, Banks felt that the dessert was “quite sweet” and he did not feel that Bateman had “got the balance quite right” and consequently awarded Bateman’s dish seven points giving him a total of 32 points which was not sufficient to keep him in the competition. 

  The West Midlands had therefore lost its two representatives and Sally Abé eventually won the third round of the heat and was selected to go forward to represent the Midlands and East Anglia in the final selection of those chefs who would cook at the 2025 banquet. In the final heat her main course was iawarded a perfect 40 points and she proved to be a worthy and charming winner of the 2025 Midlands and East competition.

466. Great British Menu Central Region Heats 2025 (1).

 

  For the second year running the Central and East regional heats of BBC’s The Great British Menu, now in its twentieth year, were scheduled to be shown towards the end of the programme’s 2025 run.

  There was much to dread - the judges still included the jollily bullying Tom Kerridge, the not at all funny comedian Ed Gamble and a new judge in the form of a stony-faced, dour Scottish woman chef with the disapproving, unsmiling demeanour of a dreich day in the Highlands and the sense of us all being ‘doomed’ (to recall Private Fraser). Perhaps it is unkind to label the trio as ‘The Bad, The Worse and The Miserable’ or perhaps not. Of course, this trio was balanced by the excellent Andi Oliver full of energy, discernment, knowledge and ebullience - there could be no better celebrity to front the programme than she in her colourful glad rags and distinctive look, less a wet weekend in Edinburgh and more a calypso on an Antiguan beach.

  The region’s four competitors included only two who worked in the West Midlands, the others inevitably working in London. This latter pair were Sally Abé with her East Midlands roots who seems to be a perpetual Great British Menu competitor though always very charming and Harry Kirkpatrick from Norfolk, Head Chef at Trinity in Clapham, that well known Midlands/East Anglia suburb.

  The West Midlands however was well represented by two chefs - Thom Bateman, chef proprietor of The Flintlock in Cheddleton in Staffordshire, who has previously appeared in the programme although he was beaten on the Judges day by Tom Shepherd, and Grace and Savour’s and Kynd’s David Taylor, originally from Nottingham but now well established as a star of West Midlands cuisine. I have dined at Taylor’s restaurant several times and enjoyed watching demonstrations by Bateman at last year’s Ludlow Food Festival.

Kirkpatrick, Thom Bateman, Andi Oliver, David Taylor and Abé.

  This being the 20th anniversary season of Great British Menu the theme of British heroes, in particular those local to the individual chefs’ regions, was chosen, presumably implying that the BBC and all who sail in it are also heroic in some way or the other. The West Midlands has its fair share of heroes of national significance and it was inevitable, and quite right, that our chefs should give the nod to the likes of Shakespeare, Josiah Wedgewood, Dr Johnson and their ilk.

  The meal started with canopés - David Taylor’s took the form of Jerusalem artichoke crispy skins filled with fresh artichoke with bay leaf pickle and apple and thyme while Thom Bateman served a Staffordshire cheese custard and salt-baked beetroot tart with black garlic ketchup. Unfortunately the guest chef-judge, Tommy Banks, felt that David Taylor’s canopé did not have “the depth of flavour” he was hoping for and the canopé was his least favourite of the four. Thom Bateman’s canopé was placed third because it appeared to have too much flavour, “enough for a main course”. Too much, too little, interesting.

David Taylor’s canopé 

Thom Bateman’s canopé

  And so, on to the starters. Here the chefs were obliged to provide a vegan course. David Taylor based his dish, Talking Potatoes on, er, potatoes dedicating it to a trendy 20th century Birmingham poet of Caribbean heritage who apparently grew his own potatoes which he used to make samosas. The potatoes were confited with spiced coconut, onion velouté finished with a variety of roasted nuts and a vegetable samosa. Bateman’s dish was titled Po-tay-toes and inspired, he said by the works of JRR Tolkien. The dish involved confiting pink fir potatoes and then barbecuing them and serving with a plant-based pomme soufflé ‘ring’ (“one ring to rule them all”).

  Sally Abé’s dish was a tribute to Florence Nightingale and saw the obliging David Taylor dressing up in a 19th century nurse’s costume and carrying a lamp for the presentation of the dish. This reflected the wonderful spirit of cooperation and friendliness in which the heat was carried out by all the chefs, for years the Central heat has always been the happiest of the regional heats due to the generous and well-balanced personalities of those who work in the hospitality industry in this geographical area.

  At the judging Andi Oliver expressed the view that this had quite possibly been the strongest start ever to a regional heat and Tommy Banks felt that Taylor’s dish represented what “modern Britain is - on a plate” and that Bateman’s dish’s link to “the brief was bang on the nose”. Banks awarded Taylor’s dish nine points and Bateman’s eight but Sally Abé’s received a remarkable ten points which put her in the lead.

  Next came the fish course. Taylor served a dish titled Perseverance which honoured Dr Samuel Johnson, who, in passing, it is worth nothing was one of the great English gourmands of his time. The dish took the form of poached brill in a herb butter, with a crispy herb stem salad and pickled shallot, and a leek cream sauce with oyster leaf. Bateman meanwhile served The Bard of Avon celebrating of course, William Shakespeare, which was brined halibut dusted in nori powder and poached in brown butter and served with dashi gel and a Stratford upon Avon wine sauce containing leek, fennel, shallot, pink peppercorn, kombu, dill, parsley and finished with smoked butter.

   When the judgement on the course was delivered Andi Oliver stated that they were “standing in the kitchen with four exceptional chefs”. When commenting on David Taylor’s dish Banks said that he would have preferred the poached brill to have been roasted a little more to give it more flavour and texture. Banks felt that the dish “lacked a little bit of oomph and a little bit of seasoning in the overall dish”. He felt that another element might have been included “to bring it together but it certainly had potential”. He awarded the dish 7 points.

  Banks had nothing negative to say about Thom Bateman’s dish and awarded it eight points. 

  When all the points had been delivered it was clear that while Abé was out in the lead, the three other chefs, including the two from the West Midlands, were all tied on the same score and, this being the case, David Taylor was eliminated on the basis of his canopé being judged to have been the least satisfactory. This obviously came as a surprise to all, if not a shock, but Taylor took it well and hopefully he will return in a future season for another attempt to win. Meanwhile Thom Bateman lived to fight another day and battle out the second day of main, predessert and dessert courses.

To be continued ….