18. Richard Turner Closes Turner's at 69 and Ben Tesh Opens Folium.

  Richard Turner closed Turner's at 69 in Harborne on 15 January 2018. Turner had opened the restaurant, known simply as Turner's for most of its life, in 2007 and it won a single Michelin star in January 2009. The restaurant was highly thought of throughout its existence but in August 2016 Turner changed the restaurant's style to some extent and the restaurant lost its Michelin star in the 2018 edition of the Michelin Guide. At the beginning of 2018 Richard Turner has announced that he closed the restaurant on 15 January 2018. This is despite the fact that Harborne has a busy dining scene with the opening of Jamie Desogus' Harborne Kitchen which one Harborne resident I know who likes to dine there describes as "almost as good as Purnell's but less expensive".

  Folium duly opened in November 2017. It got off to a slightly stuttering start in that I had a reservation there for lunch a few days after opening but my reservation had to be cancelled due to the non-appearance of a sous-chef. However I'm very pleased to be going to lunch there in a few days' time. I look forward to enjoying Ben Tesh's food having thoroughly enjoyed it in his former 'Pop up' restaurants. I'm pretty sure it will be worth the wait.

  Islam Akhtar, the chef director of the Lasan restaurant group, has stepped down from the role. He has made a number of television appearances including in three series of The Great British Menu where his soft shelled crab dish, which I ate at Lasan, won a place in the Banquet itself. Lasan was awarded a Michelin Plate in the 2018 Michelin Guide.

13. 2018 Michelin - Turner's Loses Its Star.

  This year's entrants in the Michelin Guide were announced at a live event on Monday 2 October 2017 held at The Brewery in east London.

  Last year's event was held at the Institute of Engineering and Technology in Savoy Place in London and was streamed live and looked like a very uncomfortable affair (see Blog 4).

  The Michelin Guide Great Britain And Ireland 2018 will be published on Thursday 5 October.

  This year's event confirmed that it's really all about London and its elitist classes who dine there. A sushi bar off Regent Street which seats just 9 diners and where a meal costs £300 became the fifth U.K. Restaurant to be awarded 3 stars. Meanwhile Claude Bosi, previously of Ludlow, saw his restaurant Bibendum in South Kensington achieve 2 stars making it the 9th restaurant in London to be so rewarded. Six more London restaurants were awarded single stars meaning that there are now 70 Michelin starred restaurants in London. No London restaurant lost a star except that one restaurant in the city closed.

  Yes, it really is all about London. We one eye yokels (to paraphrase Giles Coren - see Blog 6) who live in the provinces, clearly can't recognise a great meal when we see one or smell one or taste one. What a load of rubbish. And yet we still think that Michelin is the be all and end all of judging food quality.

  Birmingham chef, Richard Turner, last year decided that he'd had enough and purposefully gave up ridiculously expensive tasting menus and flim flammery in the full expectation of losing his Michelin star for his restaurant Turner's At 69 and the result is that has indeed lost his Michelin star this year. I don't suppose it'll bother his regular customers that much.

  Otherwise the situation in Birmingham remains unchanged - Purnell's, Simpson's, Carter's of Moseley and Adam's all retain their single stars but no new restaurant has been awarded a star nor have any of those established on the list received an additional reward. Slightly further afield, Peel's at Hampton Manor and The Cross at Kenilworth both retain their single stars and in Cheltenham Le Champignon Sauvage retains its 2 stars.

  So no real advance in the Michelin stakes for Birmingham and the West Midlands but what can we expect from a publication so centred on London and the south-east?

  But spare a passing thought for Manchester which likes to fantasise that it is Britain's "Second City" (which it isn't of course) - the 2018 Guide has not brought it any stars and so the city has not had a Michelin-starred restaurant for 40 years! Doubtless the Conservatives attending their party conference in Manchester this year will be looking forward to 2018 when it will again be held in Birmingham, Britain's real second city and gastronomic second city as well.

So, well done again Birmingham, given the uphill struggle in the face of Michelin inspectors who think that civilisation begins and ends in London, there's much to be excited about still when it comes to food in the city.