280. Purnell And Roux Revisited; The Menu.

 

  How can our restaurants survive the continual slings and arrows of outrageous fortune? COVID, cost of living crisis, plague of locusts, river Rae turned to blood, plague of frogs and so on. What hard times these are for those who have chosen, no matter how misguidedly, to set up a catering business and who hope to stay in business. Well, one way at present, seems to be by holding collaborations with visiting, preferably celebrity chefs. Having only the previous week basked in the sublime cooking of  Lisa Goodwin Allen (by which I mean she was doing the cooking not that she was being cooked) at Simpsons I now found myself, very willingly, at Purnell’s preparing too eat the fruits of a collaboration between Glynn Purnell and Michel Roux Jr, true, not for the first time but on this occasion without the additional input of Tom Kerridge.

  Glynn Purnell’s latest twist on his panisse (now spiced carrot) appetiser was excruciatingly delicious and in the expression of Brummie Asian flavour recalled one of his Great British Menu winning dishes - the legendary and much plagiarised monkfish masala. Roux’s Belgian endive tart with mimolette cheese seemed a little anaemic in flavour in comparison. Purnell provided an excellent starter of carpaccio of Herefordshire beef with explosively tasty charred red wine octopus which really made the dish and it was freshened with a chive crème fraiche. Roux gave us (unplanned) Scottish halibut with smoked eel and what seemed like a completely unnecessary nori sable biscuit. Perhaps the biscuit had been planned to add more texture to the scallop dish which had been planned but which had had to be abandoned when insufficient quantities of the shellfish were not obtainable for that evening. The halibut was satisfactory but hardly exciting and was mine just a little bit over?

  Upwards and onwards. Purnell served up fine venison with an emphasis on parsnips as an accompaniment.  This was perfectly satisfactory, though I had enjoyed more Lisa Goodwin Allen’s venison dish served at the Simpsons collaboration the week before. Glynn Purnell’s dish was fine but not thrilling.

  Roux was responsible for the dessert which was mysteriously presented in cloches. This was a chocolate Balvenie whisky tart served with coffee crémeux and chantilly cream and an unnecessary shot of Balvenie whiskey. The flavour was brutally strong and the pastry far from perfect. The course was not a great success. 

 

    The mignardises, in contrast, were very pleasurable and the diners enjoyed the two man stand-up routine from the two notable chefs. I was pleased to have bought the semi-autobiography of Michel Roux’s father, Albert Roux, and to have him sign it for me. 

  Though a frequent visitor to Stratford to see what the latest travesty of Shakespeare the RSC has come up with, I have to say that my visits to the cinema are now just about once a decade - the last visit was, I think, around 2014 to see Macbeth. The news this year of the release of a movie with excellent actors - masterly, anxiety-inducing Ralph Fiennes, the very funny Nicholas Hoult and Anna Taylor Joy, the personification of attitude, centred on fine dining and associated menace put me in a state of intense expectation for several months until its recent release. 

  I was unable to go to the excellent Everyman cinema at the Mailbox on its opening night as it clashed with the previously discussed Lisa Goodwin Allen - Simpsons collaboration but I made sure that I was at the matinee performance the following day. How luxurious cinemas are now. Admittedly the performance was not well attended - only 4 or 5 other people were in the audience - but I had an excellent seat and was served coffee and a very reasonable hot dog (alas the sausage was a frankfurter and not a sound British-style pork sausage) and I settled in to view what Chef Julian Slowik (Fiennes) was serving up to his guests which, needless to say, was more than they bargained for.

  Nicholas Hoult was a fine foodie delivering some great lines convincingly and making the food-loving audience member grin and cringe in equal measure; surely even the most thick-skinned couldn’t help but recognise something of themself in Hoult’s character, Tyler. Fine gastronomy turned to uncomfortable doubt when Chef served his diners a course of butter without bread and after that the meal became something the average Tripadviser would feel they had a good reason to publish a moaning review about. Chef Slowik’s restaurant, Hawthorne, served several dishes devised by San Francisco-based chef Dominique Crenn (who describes as a creator of poetic culinaria). Tyler certainly enjoyed them. Perhaps Crenn should be sought out to come to engage in a collaboration here in the most exciting place to dine in Britain and see what happens (hopefully nothing like the outcome of The Menu).

  I was delighted to be able to obtain a poster of The Menu being sold on E Bay - it will be a fine addition to my food art collection and as I’m sure The Menu is already on its way to being a cult classic, a likely investment in that particular form of art.

251. Take Three Chefs.

 

  A one off. Purnell’s hosting a rather promising evening of three courses (each cooked by a celebrity chef - Tom Kerridge (starter), Michel Roux Jr (main) and Glynn Purnell himself (dessert) with a range of ‘snacks’ to start provided by all three chefs. Actually it was not really a one off as a similar evening took place last year (Kerridge, Angela Hartnett and Purnell) and doubtless, from the clamour for a ticket and the adoring approval at the end, more will take place in the future.

  It was very soothing sitting amongst a group of really rather nice people all united by their love of, and knowledge of, fine food. It was rather like being a member of a secret society, exclusive of the gastronomically unwashed, all of us admittedly rather self-satisfied and mildly smug but when spending £250 on a three course meal such gratifying self-appreciation is very understandable and perhaps acceptable. “Good company maketh a meal” (Old Bloke, 2022).

  The cost included a Purnell’s original cocktail - a pleasing Rhubarb cocktail (rhubarb vodka) and some excellent wines, selected by Purnell’s’ sommelier, Adrien Garnier. Purnell’s’ triumphant pain de campagne always With the snacks came a very quaffable rare champagne (2008). The snacks were a delight - along with Glynn Purnell’s own faux black canary potatoes (presumably inspired by a temporally distant holiday in Tenerife) and his black charcoal, which is more puzzling to the uninitiated than the riddle of the Sphinx, there was Michel Roux’s exceptional tarte pissaladière (which even though I have what I believe to be a rather good French accent I find to be a single word tongue twister which despite hours of practice I have failed to conquer) and the ferociously delicious contribution by Tom Kerridge of black truffle sausage roll which is luxurious and comforting both at the same time.

 And Kerridge scored again with his starter of red mullet with deeply flavoured bouillabaisse glowing with saffron and tickled up with a mustard aïoli and a herb cracker which just maybe I might not have needed.

  And Roux lived up to his heritage by bringing to Birmingham his skills which brought to the table a generously portioned, fabulously tender and flavoured piece of Wagyu, cooked - as we might expect - to perfection and precisely, almost painfully perfectly, seasoned along with a delicious, crispy pomme Anna and a gorgeous Béarnaise sauce. 

  Meantime, the sommelier had been doing his work uncompromisingly satisfactorily- with the fish he had served Cloudy Bay 2020 and the pleasing Lirac 2016 with the beef course which it matched with very happily.

    Purnell served up a very fine dessert of chocolate parfait covered by a layer of passion fruit jelly served alongside a dark chocolate and cardamom sorbet with a cocoa meringue and a brightly shining mango coulée glowing like an egg yoke on the plate. The dish found a good companion in a glass of South African sweet red wine.

  Afterwards it was Question and Answer time when the three wise chefs faced their adoring audience and told anecdotes and quipped hilariously as we might have expected them to do with Glynn Purnell as the ringleader of this merry band. Roux was more serious but joined in with the air of general merriment. A good time was had by all.

  And so to bed at The Grand Hotel, a couple of minutes’ walk away from Purnell’s. I had been kindly upgraded to a suite on the special occasion of the dog’s 11th birthday. The hotel staff had all signed a birthday card for her and gifts in the form of packets of chews and a toy were awaiting her when we arrived in our bedroom. As I wrote, a good time was had by all.

 

  Apart from the luxury of it all, I naturally enjoyed the view looking down on the cathedral and St Phillip’s Square but I also derived pleasure from the little pieces of art in the room including a clever little collage depicting a view at Gas Street Basin and another showing The Floozie out of her jacuzzi and luxuriating instead in an old bubble-filled tin bath which is pleasingly ironic given how disastrous it was given that just in the last week or two a joker emptied detergent into the real ‘jacuzzi’ outside the Council House and wrecked at great expense the mechanism which allows the water to flow in the fountain. The Council called it ‘vandalism’ though it is no worse than what they have just allowed to be done to the nearby statue of Queen Victoria by some ‘artist’ they’ve found somewhere or the other who wants to harp on again about the evil British Empire. It was all I could do to stop my gastronomic dog who also has delicate artistic sensibilities from cocking her keg and micturating on it. Birmingham - more than great restaurants.