316. Richard Turner And Le Petit Bois Collaboration.

 

  “Chef, does this mean you will be coming back to serving the public?”, not a smile but a fleetingly temporary lightening of facial expression and, “Ask me that at midnight”. Of course, I wasn’t round late when service ended at Le Petit Bois to ask former Michelin star holder Richard Turner, now bearded and shaven headed, whether midnight had provided him with the answer to the question I had raised but I rather hoped that the answer that had come to him was, “Yes”. Time dulls memory and one forgets just how special are some chefs but the food he cooked that evening during his collaboration with Ben Taylor, Chef Patron of Moseley’s Le Petit Bois, brought happy memories flooding back and showed just why Turner had achieved such recognition during his time as Chef Patron of Turner’s in Harborne.

  

  This collaborative event brought, I think it’s fair to see, a not entirely satisfactory combination of deeply rustic Gallic dishes alternating with fine modern British, very much of the moment. This is not to say that the dishes were not enjoyable - indeed, some were very fine and delicious with admirable complexity of flavours. But the meal did jolt a little too much from one style to another. 

  As is often the case, the appetisers were lovely - a wonderfully cheesy ‘gouger’ served in a bowl hiding under a lid on which sat the simplest but most perfectly cooked Jersey Royal topped with crème fraiche and caviar. Then, served by Turner, was a red mullet soup with bottarga (salted, cured grey mullet roe pouch) alongside a tapenade chou - a highly delicious dish. From modern British sophistication to a more robust French peasant’s fare x a chou farci, stuffed cabbage - this was tasty but the cabbage was not adequately tender for me.

  A fine piece of meaty ‘swordfish au poivre’ was next served - again from the rustic side of the menu - the little bursts of pepper were exhilarating and the accompanying ratatouille complemented it all. Richard Turner weighed in with the meat course - finely cooked and tasty hogget with fresh wild garlic (which, he joked, he had been out picking in Cannon Hill Park at 6.30 that morning, though perhaps he was not joking), morels (ideally complementing the hogget), asparagus and Jersey Royal purée (which may have been the only error - both I and the couple at the next table felt that the small potatoes would have been more enjoyable if served whole (perhaps it was because we had already had the vegetable served that way as appetiser and no repeat was wished for or perhaps Turner felt he needed to be cheffy). Regardless, a near immaculate dish.

   Turner’s final contribution was actually the absolute highlight - the summary of ‘sheep’s yogurt, rhubarb, blood orange’ (frozen and scattered overall) hardly did justice to one of the most excitingly delicious desserts I have eaten for a while. And then he accompanied it with a delightful little beignet and choirs of angels sang out.

  Ben Taylor’s dessert was brimming with the flavour of bananas - there was a chocolate cake charged with banana and a fine hazelnut ice cream on a bed of crushed hazelnuts alongside a nicely caramelised chunk of banana. The helping was too generously sized for me and I hate wasting good food, being brought up as a child of those who experienced the vicious rationing of Attlee’s Age of Austerity, but there you have it, you can only eat what your gastric organ will allow you to eat. I took the charming mignardises, including a charming little Madeleine freshly cooked, home with me and they gave me much pleasure.

  So is Richard Turner planning to return to full-time ‘active service’? Given what he produced at Le Petit Bois, the West Midlands diner can only hope so.

170. Folium.

 

 

It’s hard not to like Folium. It is one of my favourite restaurants in Birmingham. Chef Ben Tesh strives to produce interesting, finely prepared and presented food for his diners. It’s always a pleasure to visit there. Ben Tesh’s partner, Lucy Hanlon, provides a perfectly pitched welcome and maintains a relaxed but spot on service throughout the meal. 

   I first ate his often brilliant food when he had a pop up restaurant situated at the Urban Coffee Company in Church Street for a few months in the latter part of 2016 until 8 April 2017. He had previously had a pop up at the Kitchen Garden Cafe in Kings Heath and he had worked at Colin McGurran’s Winteringham Fields in northeast Lincolnshire and afterwards had been Head Chef at the historically important Anthony’s Restaurant in Leeds and had worked at the even more historically important Noma under René Redzepi in Denmark. In 2013 he worked under Alex Bond at the then Michelin starred Turner’s in Harborne. He is a fine consistent chef and he and Lucy Hanlon have a smart, tasteful, modern restaurant wherein he can present his well judged dishes.

  There is not a long wine list - who really wants one? - but my dining companion and I were delighted with what was on offer and I thoroughly enjoyed the Signature wine from an Essex vineyard which was summer light and refreshing and happily accompanied several of the dishes.

  We had preordered the shorter Tasting menu and started with a delicious little morsel (tautology there I think) of a soupçon of duck liver parfait peering out from the end of a richly flavoured burnt onion tubular tuile. A perfect combination of flavours, of which more. Then what was described on the menu as, “Biodynamic grains with cultured butter” which means to you and me, bread and butter made on the premises from the basic ingredients. Excellent bread. A nice crispy crust with a tasty, light-as-a-feather cloud-like interior.

  Back to “A perfect combination of flavours”. My heart sinks so often nowadays when I visit a restaurant and find mackerel on the menu. It is hard to find anywhere that is not offering this particular fish as a starter at present. So I was not overwhelmed with pleasure when I saw that mackeral was being offered as part of this meal. The menu described the course as “kelp cured mackerel with raw vinegar and sealeek scapes”. I should not have been at all dismayed. This was an excellent dish, possibly the best of the whole meal; the mackeral, cured for a matter of just ten minutes, was mildly flavoured and beautifully complemented by the layer of jelly with its perfect sweet acidity that made taking a mouthful of the fish with the jelly possibly the best combination of ingredients I have tasted this year. A dish to retain in the memory for a long time to come.

  And so to the main courses. Firstly more fish - turbot cooked in beef fat and presented with an Arbroath Smokies emulsion. There’s no doubting doubting that this was a extremely tasty dish, there was no escaping the flavour of Arbroath Smokie but we both felt that the fish itself was lacking in flavour and I myself was not entirely happy with the texture of the turbot. This dish certainly looked attractive with the beautiful pure white of the turbot lying on the buttercup coloured emulsion all in a perfectly white dish. This was another example of the chef as artist (see previous Blog).

  And now a slight diversion. Chefs have long enjoyed presenting their food on interesting ceramics (or other items such as pieces of wood and so on) but I notice more and more as I dine out that restaurants are making quite a big thing of the cutlery we eat with. I find these little voyages into the world of cutlery to be rather enjoyable – what one can do with a knife or a spoon in terms of design now is quite remarkable. Where the chef is the visual artist the maker of cutlery is as much a sculptor as the producer of the ceramics of dining. The cutlery at Folium was nicely presented in a little wooden rack and it was a tiny little fascination to extract one’s utensils for each course from it. Food, art – the theme continues.

  

  The meat main course was “Woolley Park chicken with a cep aioli and nasturtium”. The chicken was presented as a poached ballotine with a splendid crispy coat. The dish looks very pretty indeed with its New Zealand spinach, charming mustard flower and nasturtiums and the flavour was very pleasing with the well-judged flavour of mustard permeating it. However we were both again a little uncertain about the texture of the chicken and the stalk of my spinach was rather more al dente than I should have liked.

 

 The predessert was wonderful - original and absolutely perfect as a mouth refreshing intermediate dish - “iced horseradish with sorrel and cucumber”. The horseradish ice cream was excellent though I could have put up with a little more horseradish flavour and the other pervading element - the cucumber - refreshed in a way that only cucumber can. The real dessert was modestly sized but a great pleasure - toasted hay ice cream (I wonder if that is a flavour Ben Tesh took a liking to when he worked at Winteringham Fields which, I remember from a visit there some years ago, was a restaurant where hay as a flavour was used with some devotion) on a rye crisp overlying enticing caramel. A highly desirable dessert.

  To finish an excellent coffee accompanied by two remarkably good petits fours - the first a delightful little sponge on which rested a little mound of cream flavoured with an island peaty whiskey (though to be honest I could easily have put up with a stronger whiskey flavour) crowned by a charming butterfly-shaped tuile. And finally a sensuous tiny chocolate ‘tart’ (though to me, more of a truffle) run through with lavendar. Such pleasure.

  This restaurant is one of Birmingham’s less well-known gems but it is one of the best jewels in Birmingham’s culinary jewel boxes. Long may Ben Tesh and Lucy continue to give pleasure to the diners of Birmingham.

4. Birmingham's Michelin Constellation 2017 - Peel's Is A New Star.

  Today's (3 October 2016) "Michelin Guide 2017" launch event held at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in Savoy Place in London has defined the Food Scene in Birmingham for the upcoming 12 months.

  The event was held at that particular venue as it is said to pay homage to the Guide's historic motoring background, the Guide having been introduced in France in 1900 by André and Edouard Michelin to inform motorists of where they could find good food and accommodation, the location of the most scenic driving routes and the places where driving essentials such as tyres - naturally - could be bought. Thirty five thousand copies of the first edition were printed and given away free by the brothers and 4 years later, a Belgium edition was released.

  The first edition of the British Isles version was published in 1911. The Guide began to award stars for fine dining establishments in 1926 though initially this involved the awarding of a single star with the hierarchy of 3 stars being introduced in 1931 and the meaning of each star being defined in 1936 so that:- 

  1 star was defined as representing "A very good restaurant in its category" (Une tres bonne table dans sa categorie)

  2 stars were defined as representing "Excellent cooking, worth a detour" (Table excellente, merite un detour)

  3 stars were defined as representing "Exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey" (Une des meilleures tables, vaut le voyage").

  No Guide for Britain was issued from 1931 to 1974, the first star being given in 1974 to Le Gavroche, then in Lower Sloane Street in London, founded in 1967 by Michel and Albert Roux. Birmingham's first Michelin stars were not obtained until 2005 when Jessica's (chef Glyn Purnell) and Simpson's (chef Luke Tipping, relocated from Kenilworth) were both awarded a single star.

  Since 1955 the Guide has also awarded the Bib Gourmand which recognises restaurants which offer "exceptional good food at moderate prices" - a menu offering items priced below a maximum determined by local economic standards. Bib (Bibendum) is the company's name for the Michelin Man which has been its logo for more than 100 years. 

  The 2016 British Guide included 3 x 3 stars, 23 x 2 stars and 143 x 1 stars plus 155 Bibs Gourmands where meals should cost up to £28. Famously Birmingham restaurants took 5 x 1 stars in the 2016 edition - Purnell's, Simpson's, Turner's, Adam's, and Carter's Of Moseley.  

  And so .... to 2017. Who's up and who's down in Birmingham and The West Midlands?

  Peel's Restaurant At Hampton Manor in Hampton In Arden with its chef Robert Palmer was the only winner of a new one star award in the West Midlands. There were no other changes in star status in the area - Purnell's, Simpson's, Carters of Moseley, Turner's@69 and Adam's all keep their one star. Out of 18 new single star winners the usual London-centric awards gave 7 of the awards to the capital's restaurants with a further 3 in the Home Counties. 

  Slightly further afield in the West Midlands - Le Champignon Sauvage retains its 2 star status and The Butcher's Arms in Eldersfield in Worcestershire and The Cross at Kenilworth (in Kenilworth of course) retain their single star status.

  One can only conclude that travelling out of the safe south east is just that little bit too tiresome for Michelin inspectors though a trip up to Cumbria always seems worth the effort, an underpopulated area which has 2 new star winners. There was only one restaurant which was upgraded from one to 2 stars - Raby Hunt in Darlington so it seems as though Glynn Purnell will have to keep battling on for another year. 

  The ceremony which was streamed live on You Tube was rather awkward and the audience of prominent chefs didn't really look as though they were enjoying themselves that much. Still, there were canapes and champagne served at the end to cheer them all up. 

  Spare a thought for poor old Manchester, which, every so often, claims that it's Britain's "Second City"  - it still hasn't got even a single Michelin single-starred restaurant. Perhaps the Michelin inspectors don't like the place because it rains there so much!

  Peel's new star seems to be well deserved - the restaurant won the 2016 Birmingham Food And Drinks Awards "Best Fine Dining" prize with Hampton Manor also winning the Birmingham's Best Hotel award. 

  So Birmingham moves on with another Michelin starred restaurant in its vicinity. Great!

  

3. Birmingham Food - Will The Stars Shine Next Week?

  It was really the BBC television programme Great British Menu that brought me to the new stage of my life where I like food. Before, I liked going out to eat as one of the things you do for social interaction and also because I liked going to south Asian restaurants to have curries - but I didn't go because I found food to be (a) interesting and (b) enjoyable.

  And I now I do like food and find it to be interesting. For some years I'd been aware of food - after all there were enough television programmes on the subject which were impossible to miss and you couldn't be ignorant of nouvelle cuisine, the hoohah about sustainability, the tiresome utterances from Jamie Oliver, the stuff about Delia Smith teaching everyone how to boil an egg, the foul-mouthed antics of Gordon Ramsey, the exhaustingly suggestive theatre of Nigella Lawson and so on. But nothing really caught my attention. Well Nigella's programme was, er, quite good fun to watch I suppose.

  But Great British Menu brought real, and often quite accomplished, British chefs to our screens sometimes bringing us fabulous new, previously undreamed-of, dishes (and sometimes some preposterous rubbish). Glyn Purnell was still on his way up when he scored "the perfect 3 tens" for his egg custard surprise which I knew, when I saw it, that I would have to go and try myself. And so I did. And then I discovered that I really did like food.

  And now Great British Menu is back again and I am and shall be riveted for the next few weeks to see what comes along. I like the Friday episodes when Oliver, Matthew and Pru (plus hanger on) squabble and dither about their marks for the contestants' exhausting efforts and never cease to marvel how regularly they disagree with the opinion of the chef judge from earlier in the week. 

   Sometimes I think we are gradually getting away from all that French cuisine stuff on which British chefs have been fixated since the end of rationing. Of course it doesn't help that they all dream of a Michelin star and it really does seem hard to achieve the goal without giving a respectful nod in the direction of those historical characters, Escoffier and Careme. Michelin is a bastion of French chauvinism that continues to judge British chefs on the conventions of a century or two ago which first of all sought to render the vaguely vile food of French peasants at least edible and then give some order to the way a meal was served. And of course the British public is just as bad - mention that a restaurant has got a Michelin star and the punters will flock to pay extraordinarily high prices for the cheapest cuts of meat or the tiniest pieces of fish.

   And of course, in a couple of days time on 3 October, we will know the verdict of the Michelin judges for 2017 and Birmingham chefs and restaurant business owners will either be wringing their hands or leaping in the air cock-a-hoop (that sounds like a good name for a dish - "Coq a hupe"!)

  Will the status of Turner's be affected by his change of direction? - hopefully not - his food seems as wonderful, and expensive, as ever.

  Will Purnell's finally make it over the line to a 2 star status? I had lunch there yesterday - Glynn Purnell's  autumn menu was full of a thousand tastes and surprises and pleasures and had a suspiciously French theme to it - a gorgeously unctious tarte tatin, poulet au lait and spectacularly tasty mushroom duxelles and sauce Abufera but there were also some wonderful British touches to it such as the Brixham cod with a lime pickle and various preparations of cauliflower and gravlax cured sea trout, delightfully pink-orange coloured  with tastes of fennel breaking out all over the dish.  And all (and more) for £45. What else does the man have to do to get the recognition of 2 stars? - move to London or Cumbria, I suppose.

  And then there's the immaculate Adam's. I know the new restaurant hasn't been going for long but, honestly, can it get any better? Smart, chic, spot on and fabulous food - some highly original, some rather more classical and again, such good value. I'm not sure for how long you have to show consistency in the quality of your dishes before that second star comes twinkling out but the restaurant deserves the celestial bodies' to shine on it sooner rather than later.

  Will Simpson's, where a mild service chaos seemed to exist on my last visit along with a sense of the food not really being in the top flight any more (even though "The Good Food Guide" placed the restaurant in its Top 50 UK Restaurants" list only quite recently) lose its star?

  Will Cheal's of Henley receive it's first star?

  

  All will soon be revealed after the weekend.