478. Alas Poor Will, I Knew Him Horatio. What Happened To The Shakespeare Birthday Lunch?

  The Shakespeare birthday lunch, held in Stratford upon Avon on the first Saturday nearest the playwright’s birthday, has always been a joyous affair, held annually, only missing the years of the pandemic lockdowns. I have had the pleasure of securing a ticket for it every year since the mid-twenty teens. It has been rather splendid, not cheap it has to be said, but giving the diner a chance to see close hand, or even talk to, the likes of Dame Judy Dench, Stephen Fry, Alex Kingston, Vanessa Redgrave and the list goes on. All very glamorous though the neighbourhood rather goes down by the attendance of a load of local politicians who all manage to get themselves a ticket. The food is surprisingly good most of the time given the amount of mass catering involved.

  Alas, poor diner, no more. Or certainly not this year. In previous years, apart from three, the lunch has been supported by Pragnell, the local high class jeweller, but a few weeks ago it was announced that their sponsorship would be withdrawn. No reason was given but it was announced that the show would still go on but would be arranged by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Stratford’s town council. That’s the Birthplace Trust run by wealthy, woke, entitled individuals who recently announced that the displays at the birthplace must be “decolonised” and the Liberal Democrat council which has overseen for the last two years the torrent of business collapses in the town including some notable long-established hospitality providers. 

  Seeing who was being trusted to deliver the Birthday lunch it always seemed a remote prospect that either organisation was up to the task although up till about a month prior they were still putting it out that the lunch would take place. Then all mention of the lunch was dropped but no statement was released to say what was happening or why it was happening. And, as I have indicated, it did not happen. 

  Alas poor Stratford. Much money would have been spent in the town if the lunch had taken place. I usually pass three or four nights in Stratford during the birthday weekend spending money on hotel bills, dining, shopping, visiting attractions and so on. But not this year. Well, these are hard times, in some ways I am glad I saved the money, but I am sad not to have had my annual visit to the Birthday lunch hobnobbing with A class celebrities of theatre. Really, it’s scandalous how those responsible for organising it have let this pass and lost money for the town. But it is not surprising given the havoc the town’s council is allowing to take place in Stratford and the way that the lunatics have taken over the Birthplace Trust. Sadly, we will just have to see how they get on with their “decolonisation” - let’s hope they prove just as useless at that as the do at organising a banquet in a tent.

477. Tom Shepherd’s Cow Pie In Hopwood.

  The first principle of running a business must be to make a profit. Without profit a business can not survive and the individual who owns it will go hungry and those who work for it will lose their jobs. To make a business profitable the proprietor needs to make the products he sells attractive to and desirable to potential customers and at a price which they are prepared to pay. The business can be as glamorous or as down-to-earth as the proprietor likes as long as there are sufficient customers who are prepared to buy from it preferably on a regular basis. The business, particularly, a restaurant or dining establishment also needs to be situated in a location which is reachable and attractive and has ‘passing trade’ and it also needs to employ staff who know how to interact well with the customers. It is surprising how often, sometimes in a rush to open a restaurant, a restaurateur seem to ignore some or all of these points and therefore set their business on a course which will ultimately lead to failure.

  And so to the Hopwood Inn in Hopwood, the first village across the border from southwest Birmingham on the road to Alvechurch and Redditch. Suddenly housing disappears as one heads out across Worcestershire and fields and farms reveal themselves in the green, rolling countryside where the dairy cows of Groveley Farm are grazing very peacefully and hills start to rise up in various directions - the Lickeys and the distant Cotswolds and Malverns. These latter two hills can be viewed from High Hill which looks down on drivers on the Birmingham to Redditch Road as they cross the Birmingham/Worcestershire border and the vista gives a fine idea of the extent of the beautiful rural West Midlands. And on arriving in Hopwood, a couple of mikes from the edge of Birmingham, one finds a peaceful, pretty canal passing under the road heading from Kings Norton on to Alvechurch and beside it is the picturesque, old redbrick Hopwood House which is a grand example of just how well a hospitality business can do when the owners of a business get things right. 

  Here, everything seems to tick all the boxes - a convenient, attractive location close to a large population who find it no trouble to get to the spot, the right sort of food at the right sort of price to appeal to that population, a clean, bright, spacious, comfortable, pleasantly decorated interior with good parking and lovely gardens for the good weather and hosts who know how to welcome their guests and serve them well. The Hopwood House, sited next to the canal, and all the more attractive for that, just about gets all of that right. It’s a British rural pub, part of the Marston’s chain. It has no pretensions, it strives to feed and slake the thirst of those who go there and does not try to be something it isn’t. It’s not a gastropub and not all the food lives up to expectations. But it suits the people it aims to serve and that is a good business and generally, when leaving it, the diner’s appetite is more than satisfied with food that, in the part, has given them pleasure.

  But just at the moment, there really is something on the menu to make the diner drool with anticipation. We will recall Tom Shepherd’s success in the 2023 Great British Menu television series when his ‘cow pie’ was chosen to be the main course at the final banquet. Since then, his restaurant, Upstairs by Tom Shepherd in Lichfield, has been fully booked for seven or eight months ahead and then, it seems, tables are only available for groups of four or so. Not much chance of dining on his cow pie there then, you think. Well, Marston’s appear to have cleverly found a solution to that little problem to both its and Tome Shepherd’s benefit - 20000 of a version of his award-winning pie (‘a limited edition’) are being sold in Marston’s pubs until the edition runs out. Brilliant.

  It was for this reason a regular dining companion and myself set out for Hopwood (a pleasingly short distance from my home for once) to make ourselves comfortable in the Hopwood House, settle back and tuck into Shepherd’s remarkable creation. I had a pint of Inch’s recently introduced Riversider Herefordshire cider to get me started and very good it was too. Anticipation grew as we awaited the delivery of our pies and we were not to be disappointed.

  The pie looked good from the outside and rather better in the inside. The information displayed on a card on the table described the pie and it seemed to be consistent with the dish that Shepherd had served upin the Great British Menu, “A triple layered pie made with hand pulled beef cheek and pulled shin, sweet and garlicky caramelised onions, separated by a thinly sliced distinctively savoury, seasoned roasted potato layer, all encased within a deliciously textured beef fat pastry”.

And indeed it was highly delicious - an inarguably fine pie rarely if ever matched by the numerous pub pies I have eaten in the past. The description above was accurate, the meat tender and unctious as slow cooked beef shin and cheek should be and the whole generously portioned. The accompanying vegetables were unremarkable but the mash was as good as many a pub mash, the roast carrots nicely textured with a nice bite to them and the greens fairly humdrum but good enough. There was a good gravy or ‘rich red wine sauce’ (whichever term you prefer) with it and it all went down very well with my glass of cider.

I was immediately trying to think of an excuse to come back again to have another dive into one of these cow pies, so enjoyable was it.

  Though full, I chose cheesecake with cherries and cherry sauce. It was not distinguished in flavour but the texture was satisfactory and the macerated cherries were cheerful enough even though they were working hard to keep the flavour of cherry to themselves.

  But in the end, t’was the pie that made it. Tom Shepherd really is clever. And the view of the canal and the generally happy and welcoming atmosphere.

Rating:- 🌛🌛🌛 (sans pie 🌛🌛)

25 April 2025.

476. Being Bold At Rough Cut Wilderness.

 

  There’s no doubting that Alex Claridge is bold with his approach to what he serves to his diners. Fortunately most of them know what to expect. Or do they? Once more Claridge has sent out his e mails summoning those with a stiff spine and probably needing a stiff drink for his 2025 ‘Rough cut’ sessions where he tries out new dishes on those prepared to pay to be Guinea pigs and have the opportunity to make an honest comment or two on what they have eaten.

  The 2025 Rough Cut certainly seemed to be going boldly where no Birmingham fine dining chef had gone before - his message of summoning the faithful stated, “Alex and the band are playing with bolder and brighter for the coming months” and listed ingredients including sea urchin, smoked beef heart and lamb neck with grilled sea vegetables. All this when I feel I’ve reached a less bold stage in my life and memories of the particularly unpleasant sea urchin dish I was once served while on a tour of China and the whole beef hearts piled on a charger served to us for school lunch just the once back in 1967. Well, I thought, we’ll see.

  The menu served on the evening was similar to but not identical to the mooted menu featured in Claridge’s e mail. I was pleased with the changes as I have been served so many beef (and other) tartares in recent times that I have grown rather tired of the dish no matter what twist is put on it. On the other hand I was disappointed not to see the Basque cheesecake lined up on the final menu.

  I started off with a white port and tonic which Sonal Clare has put on the drinks menu after he recently had a trip to Portugal where it is, of course, all the rage. This pleasing, refreshing, light aperitif, which I have been ordering at various venues for the past twelve months or so, will hopefully replace the very vulgar negroni which has long dominated the preprandial drinks choice of those who think they are at the cutting edge but have long been washed away in the tide of good taste.

  The first course was excellent - a beautifully textured red prawn ceviche with a slice of tangy jalapeño, the hit of sorrel and the looming threat of wasabi, all tempered with milk curd. A dish with plenty of punch to it but finely judged. Then, very nicely flavoured barbecued mackerel with the well matched, mild ancho chilli used in Mexican cooking to bring a sweet and smoky flavour, and sweetly citrus blood orange, perhaps a little too sweet but weirdly enjoyable, and countered to some extent with mildly bitter endive. Very clever and ambitious.

  Next, deliciously sweet and perfectly flavoured confit leeks with Iberico in a creamy sauce. Little chunks of sea urchin were present but only discernible by its firm texture rather than its flavour. I think the dish would have been just as enjoyable without the sea urchin and another of God’s creatures would not have been sacrificed but I get the attempt to push diners a little further than their usual limits and bring some thrill to the dish.

  

  Then, a very fine dish of delightfully barbecued monkfish which had an excellent texture - meaty and full of body but not excessively chewy and the barbecuing had given it a truly delicious flavour. It was served on the bone as a dish for two alongside plates of impressively plump, tasty mussels enhanced by a tangy pepper sauce. 

  Then, finally some meat. This was pork jowl with a nice crispy skin though it was somewhat softened by the mustard sauce which really had no heat to it. It was a small cube of pork and though immensely tasty it proved to be a rather insubstantial dish. I should have liked pork loin - something with more substance than jowl - especially as a main course. There was some delightful apple sauce accompanying the pork and this was probably the best element of the course. The two or three shards of cabbage added little to the dish and only served to underline how insubstantial the whole dish seemed.

   In place of the hoped for Basque cheesecake, there was a delightful strawberry-based dish, sweet and full of the flavour of strawberries. One of the elements of the dish was oolong tea but the flavour did not come through to me. 

  We must remember that this was a meal aimed at trying out new dishes on the public who were invited to give their honest impressions of them. If something did not work then it was not a failure of the chef but a chance to learn about why it did not work and to put it right. Full marks for Alex Claridge and Marius Gedminas who, it seems, will be leaving The Wilderness soon and who will indeed very greatly missed by the admirers of his fine and inventive cooking. This modern world doesn’t stand still but change rarely seems to improve matters.. 

Rating:- 🌞🌞.

24 April 2025.

475. Easter Sunday Lunch At Simpsons.

 

  It was a nice treat to be invited by friends to join them at Simpsons for lunch on Easter Sunday to celebrate the birthday of one of them, And what a glorious spring day it was. The sky was blue, the sun was bright, everyone looked relaxed and full of the spirit of Easter. It was good to see that many of the diners, especially the older ones, were dressed to dine in a smart place where the food was fine and for something a bit special. If the restaurant can make the effort then the diners should too.

  I arrived somewhat earlier than my friends and was warmly greeted, within the parameters that one would expect from such an august establishment, and was soon indulging myself in a white port and tonic and ordering a bottle of Hundred Hills (an Oxfordshire winery east of Didcot) Preamble No 2 which my friends and I were pleased to drink with our canapé’s brought to us in the lounge prior to moving to the main restaurant. I enjoyed the English sparkling wine very much - crisp and refreshing without the strong acidity so often encountered in some of these products.

  The canapés, as always, were delicious - a lovely, crispy cod fritter and a delicious and equally crispy tartlet filled with fine beef tartare and garnished very prettily. A charmingly relaxed way to kick off a meal in good company. Then to the restaurant for the main event.

  There was the usual bread and butter course to start. This sounds all very routine but the bread there is so lovely that there is nothing routine about it. The brioche with duxelle was crispy and the sourdough toothsome and the wild garlic butter on this occasion was pleasingly restrained in flavour.

  We had chosen the three course Sunday lunch which experience told me was quite adequate to fill the stomach on the Sabbath and perhaps stimulate a little snooze (otherwise known in Italian, as my friends told me, to general mirth, as a pisolino, the word learnt from their Italian son-in-law, a scientist with a passion for making the perfect pizza).

  I chose the admirable Chalk Stream trout starter which was meaty though perhaps may have benefitted from a little more punchiness in its flavour. The really stand out ingredients in the dish which somewhat put the fish in the shade were the gorgeously sweet Isle of Wight tomatoes which would have been a very memorable starter in their own right.The basil, seed and olive dressing fully chimed in unison with the heritage tomatoes and much pleasure was derived from them.  One of my fellow dinners chose the scallop dish and found it to be cooked entirely to his liking.

  For my main I chose Blythborough pork (from St Margaret’s Farm, Mells, Halesworth in Suffolk, not all that far away from where my paternal ancestors lived for about 1350 years from about 550 AD to 1984 when they trooped off to Birmingham via a short sojourn in London where they ran a pub). The pork was as tender as butter but for my taste perhaps a little more seasoning might have raised it even higher. The roast potatoes were immaculate and the celeriac gel and apple sauce proved to be nice accompaniments with the vegetables all finely cooked - the hispi cabbage was spot on, the carrots had just the right texture and the cauliflower was also nicely cooked though, as I have previously written, I should love a dish of cauliflower sans cheese sauce just the once to be able to fully relish the full unique flavour of that noble vegetable. Will any chef ever be brave enough to present a dish of cauliflower exalted by being allowed to stand there nude and fully revealed and as bold as brass? 

  My hostess chose the butter poached cod and expressed no regrets.

  My hosts thoroughly enjoyed their passion fruit soufflés which I had experienced previously. Each soufflé that comes out of that kitchen is magnificent to behold and a wonder of Birmingham gastronomy. There was a nice touch when Steve Locklin, the restaurant manager who has been with Simpsons since August 2024, having previously carried out the same role in Lunar in Stoke on Trent when Niall Keating had been Executive Chef there (and where I had previously come across him) and also had been in a senior role at Hoar Cross Hall and before that at Liam Dillon’s The Boat in Lichfield, added an edible ‘Happy Birthday” decoration to the birthday boy’s soufflé. For my dessert I had the chocolate mille feuille which was splendidly crispy with pleasingly unaggressively flavoured chocolate cream.

  The final act - the petit fours - came in the form of an enjoyable chocolate cracknell, an extraordinarily sharp blackcurrant pate de fruit and a lovely little madeleine which was bringer of great joy.

  My host was given a very nice souvenir of his birthday lunch in the form of a birthday card with a picture of the restaurant from the garden and nicely signed by staff members. As a collector of menus and the ilk I couldn’t help feeling just that little it jealous.

Rating:- 🌞🌞🌞.

20 April 2025. 

473. Folium.

 

  These are difficult times for the hospitality industry. Starmer’s government’s taxation measures have made things even worse.

   The previous Conservative governments had been more helpful to hospitality businesses than those who ran them chose to accept. In particular, when Chancellor of the Exchequer and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rishi Sunak had introduced a scheme - furlough - whereby the government paid 80% of a worker’s salary and this greatly enabled businesses to retain their staff during the periods of lockdown thus avoiding mass unemployment and a vast number of businesses collapsing. After the lockdowns he furthmore reduced Value added tax for hospitality businesses for a twelve month period and also introduced an ‘Eat out to help out scheme’ whereby the government subsided the price of  meals when eaten out at restaurants and other dining establishments, all to stimulate the post COVID hospitality industry’s trade. 

  Nevertheless when the government necessarily returned the rate of Value added tax to its prepandemic level, many in the hospitality industry were enraged and felt the maintenance of the lower rate would continue to stimulate their businesses in the face of additional problems which included the rise in energy and commodity prices caused by the war in Ukraine. The Conservative government maintained the higher rate and many in the hospitality industry thought that by voting for a Labour government in the general election held on 4 July 2024 they would get a government more sympathetic to their plight and their wishes.

  They were to be sorely disappointed. Not only did the new Labour government maintain the VAT rate but in a budget delivered on 30 October 2024, the new Labour chancellor of the exchequer, Reeves, announced painful new measures which would add severe added crippling burdens to those trying to run businesses, including restaurateurs. 

  Far from favouring hospitality businesses, Reeves was hell bound on squeezing them through a mangle. Reeves’ measures included raising employers’ national insurance contributions by 1.2%, taking it to 15% and lowering the threshold at which it was to be paid from £9100 per annum to £5000 pa (this clearly affected the numbers of staff members restaurant owners could employ thus threatening unemployment in the industry), reduction of the business rates relief for hospitality businesses from 75% to 40% (thus increasing business costs) and raising the minimum wage from £11.41 per hour to £12.21 which again affected the costs of employing staff).

  As these changes only came into effect from 1 April, the potentially calamitous outcomes of Reeves’ budget are yet to unravel themselves and those hospitality industry figures who thought that voting Labour would be a good thing may well experience the same sort of buyer’s remorse as a diner in one of their restaurants who is served something on a tasting menu that they don’t want but which they’re paying for anyway.

  But that is only one side of the coin for potential customers who might be thinking of coming to eat at restaurants may be held back by a simmering cost of living crisis which has manifested itself under the Labour regime. Energy costs are exorbitant and raised artificially because of government measures attached to its green agenda. Transport costs, postal charges, water rates and inflation have all soared since Labour came to power and the result is that only those public sector employees to whom it has given enormous pay rises (junior doctors and train drivers to prevent them striking as well as members of Parliament of course) may be in a position to consider eating out at expensive restaurants. In short, the hospitality industry is tottering on the brink and disaster is just round the corner.

  On 27 April 2023, the then Mayor of the West Midlands, the much admired Andy Street, appointed Alex Claridge, Chef Patron of the Wilderness, to be his Nighttime Economy Advisor in a bid to have an expert in hospitality supporting the local industry in the region and advising the Mayor on how this support could be given. Claridge fitted perfectly into this role and it was particularly useful for the dining out industry to be represented at such a high regional level. Claridge tried to steer clear of party politics though he was not shy to let it be known that Sunak’s Conservative government needed to do more to support hospitality. The government was largely unresponsive to this after its years of going out of its way to see the industry through the COVID-19 crisis. 

  Street lost the Mayoral election to the Labour candidate, Parker, on 2 May 2024 and the Conservative government was heavily defeated by Labour in the general election of 4 July 2024. Those in the hospitality industry who had believed these changes of regime would lead to them receiving a more sympathetic and generous approach to their problems were soon disappraised of this illusion as the new Chancellor, Reeves, delivered her first budget which included the measures noted above and the new West Midlands Mayor revealed himself to be ineffectual and inconsequential. The region’s hospitality industry it seemed, had willingly, even enthusiastically, jumped out of the frying pan into the fire and had now to face the consequences. It has to be noted however that some of the leading chefs in the city had shown their keen support for Andy Street in the run up to the Mayoral election and not everyone in the dining out industry had any enthusiasm for a Labour government.

  And now April 2025 has arrived and the consequences of Reeves’ budget will begin to reveal themselves. Who will survive and who will go under? Or will things turn out to be not quite as bad as one would logically predict? Alex Claridge tweeted on X on 4 April 2025, “Previous Mayoral advisor on hospitality ….” Which was a somewhat opaque phrasing which can be interpreted either as he was the previous advisor or he was the advisor of the previous mayor while still occupying the post under the present Mayor, Parker. There has certainly been no resignation publicised as far as I can see but it is noteworthy that the rest of the tweet says, ”… Labour have created the worst possible environment for all the named uses below and de facto gone to war with the industries they claim to support. The dangerous net inflation of costs to create jobs means opening later is moot”. This was a response to a tweet by the Labour Deputy prime minister, Rayner, saying, “Our pubs, restaurants & live music venues are the beating heart of our cultural life, so it’s vital they’re given every chance to survive and thrive.That’s why new trial powers for London will back the capital’s pubs and clubs - boosting the nighttime economy and driving growth”. 

  Two days later, on 6 April, Alex Claridge again commented on another tweet put out by a government department featuring a video of Rayner’s comments on the nighttime economy industry and the rather underwhelming measures she was taking with the simple message, “Gaslighters”.

  Claridge had long recognised the dangers to his industry which had arisen in the previous five years and not hesitated to speak about them and now he appeared unimpressed by what the new government was doing to help it survive. Is he right to be as worried as he is?

  One of my most favourite restaurants in the city is Ben Tesh’s Folium - it could be the nicest place in Birmingham to relax and eat remarkably delightful food prepared meticulously to look beautiful and to taste perfectly delicious. On 9 April 2025, a tweet was posted saying, “A slow week this week. We would appreciate your support, as always. Thursday - Saturday dinner Friday/Saturday lunch”. Apart from the reason that Folium is such an excellent place to dine, it seemed right that I should also go there to give Ben Tesh and Lucy Hanson my support and so off I trooped to the Jewellery Quarter a couple of days later. 

  It was a bright, sunny mid-spring day,quite warm, and I was happy to walk through the doors again to be warmly greeted by Lucy and seated comfortably but I was sorry to see, and hear that I was to be the only diner that lunchtime though things were looking better that evening. I have reported on my visits several times before and having only recently visited there and the menu being unchanged from that visit, I shall not repeat myself except to say that this was another very fine meal with every dish completely unimpeachable. 

  I chose the shorter tasting menu if only because experience tells me that my digestive tract now has its limitations but I did add in the selection of cheeses which included Baron Bigod and accompanied by a crab apple jelly, home cooked crackers and a slice of Folium’s own delicious fruit bread. Such pleasures.

  As the only diner, I had the opportunity to talk to Lucy and we exchanged little items of news that we had come across since my last visit. This was very pleasant. I learned, among other things, that Aktar Islam is said to be opening a second restaurant in the Jewellery Quarter and there’s a bit of a buzz about chef Jonny Mills’ plans to open his eight-seater Sael in the GoodsYard next to the tram station in the Jewellery Quarter in the autumn. The front of house will be led by Asher Beardsmore who has worked previously at Couch in Stirchley and at Opheem where he was junior sommelier and most recently as bar manager at the Michelin Bib Gourmanded Tropea in Harborne.

Jonny Mills, his Sael is due to open at the Goods Yard in the Jewellery Quarter in the autumn.

Asher Beardsmore, soon to be in charge of front of house at Sael.

   I departed from Folium back into the bright afternoon knowing how much I had enjoyed myself and looking forward to another visit when Ben Tesh may have brought or two new dishes as I am now rather familiar with the splendid dishes he has been serving. I thought about the gloomy situation for restaurants at the moment and hoped all the great dining establishments in this city will keep going through these hard times despite what Reeves and Starmer are throwing at them at the moment. 

  As I walked through St Paul’s Square heading for Newhall Street I stopped to watch a very handsome song thrush indulging in obtaining his preferred form of fine dining - a luscious worm lurking in the soil beneath him. I wished him good luck, took a photo and moved on.

Folium rating:- 🌞🌞🌞.

11 April 2025.