37. The Wildness Of The Wilderness.

  

  A recent visit to Alex Claridge's The Wilderness with several friends for a celebratory dinner resulted in us all choosing to have his long and fascinating complete tasting menu with, unusual for me to do, the wine pairing. The menu is depicted here but only gives a vague idea of what was on offer.

  Claridge's 3 appetisers were all sublime and made me think someone as clever as Claridge should open an amuse bouche only restaurant - finger food paradise - and would probably do very well from the point of view of attracting customers.

  His Big Mac (surely a name likely to upset Macdonald's if the name is ever noticed by them but then again that's probably not going to worry our buccaneer chef) - a lesson in how delicious steak tartare can be - led out the cavalcade of originality and occasionally jaw-dropping dishes. His Tomato, ricotta and elderflower starter sent everyone at the table into raptures and I adored the red Thai scallop though this brought in a parade of dishes some of which had a heat and spiciness to them which was a little too much for some of the party and rather surprising. It seemed rather like 'Claridge does Southern Asia' and not everyone welcomed it.

  There were two consecutive oyster dishes reflecting Claridge's apparent wish to not do things in the way that any ordinary chef would. Several of the group found the spicy heat of the 'Crispy oyster, Tabasco, aioli and pork' to be more than they could bear though I thoroughly enjoyed the dish.

  Spiciness continued in one of my favourite dishes NAFB (standing for Not another f---ing balti) where tamarind was combined with quail in one of life's more unlikely curries. But on balance perhaps there were just too many dishes with repeating hotness that we might not have opted for with a little foreknowledge.

  One of my dining companions pointed out, I think quite rightly, that the Duck and Venison dishes were too similar though there was quite a wide space in the running order between them. Both dishes, by the way, were delicious. The several desserts were perfectly enjoyable and, mercifully, there were no ants in sight.

  The wine flight was less satisfactory with the opening spritzer being adventurous but more medicinal than enjoyable.

  I enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant, the blackness was perfectly acceptable and gave an edgy ambience to the meal though, given the choice, I might have opted for something a little cosier but I don't think that 'cosy' is something Claridge chooses to do. The music for which The Wilderness has gained a notoriety particularly among some whining Tripadvisors added to the edge of the place but the group was able to converse quite comfortably despite their likely borderline deafness that comes with old age. The music suits the place, the place suits the food and the food suits me.

  It is preposterous that The Wilderness has not found a place in this year's Good Food Guide. I can barely wait to see what novelty Claridge has come up with when he opens the new Wilderness in Bennett's Hill at the end of the year. Presumably he has something very interesting lined up for professional critics and food lovers alike (I'm not sure that professional critics are real food lovers).

36. Le Champignon Sauvage Loses A Star, No New Recognition For Purnell.

  In Blog 35 I covered some of the headlines from the Michelin Guide 2019 awards ceremony.

  While all is stable in Birmingham - one star retained by Purnell's, Simpsons, Carter's Of Moseley and Adam's - one notable blow to West Midlands gastronomy has been the loss by Cheltenham's Le Champignon Sauvage of one of its two stars. To be fair, I did not feel on both of my visits there in the past couple of years, that the food I ate at the hoary restaurant - the West Midlands gastronomic doyen - lived up to its 2 star reputation. I recall a horrific dish of admittedly beautifully cooked plaice immersed in a bowl of unpleasantly bitter beurre noisette buried under an incomprehensibly large pile of broad beans. More broad beans than are dreamed of in my philosophy, Horatio. I think that the restaurant has been receiving its dual star status in recent years on the basis of former glories rather than present day reality so while its fall from grace (well, it still has one star) is sad and disappointing, it does not come as a surprise.

  It's pleasing to see Ludlow gradually return to being a place of gastronomic pilgrimage. As mentioned in Blog 35, The Charlton Arms became one of 3 West Midlands restaurants to be awarded a Bib Gourmand in this year's awards. Lucy The Labrador and I will be setting off for Ludlow again in the near future and look forward to dropping in on The Charlton Arms. The restaurant is beautifully situated at Ludford Bridge where Lancastrians and Yorkists fought a significant battle during the Wars of The Roses and just below a splendid weir where dippers can be seen diving into the tumbling river in search of fish.

  The publication date for the Guide itself is said to be set for 22 October 2018 though Amazon was originally planning to sell it from 2 October.

  I had a wonderful lunch at Purnell's today. With a dinner appointment this evening I couldn't risk having more than the three course set lunch but it was absolutely delicious. I had the finger food faux black potatoes with his 'edible charcoal' (squid ink-dyed savoury meringue) served with a more-and-moreish chorizo dip alongside his 'sardine on toast' - a fresh and appetising piece of sardine on a beautifully crispy tiny tartlet, 3 slices of Purnell's own feather-light pain de campagne, the heavenly chicken liver parfait with red wine salsify and grains and coriander, the wondrous Thai-influenced Brixham cod served with Indian red lentils, picked carrots, coconut and coriander, and then, for once eschewing the dessert, I treated myself to the restaurant's fabulous selection of stupendous British cheeses served with crispy savoury thin biscuits and a delightful apricot chutney.

  Purnell, after more than 10 years, continues to deliver great food. The service and atmosphere in the restaurant is perfect and the front of house is in superb hands under the guidance of Sonal Clare. Purnell deserves more than one Michelin star. Perhaps he should move his restaurant to London to get the recognition he deserves though on second thoughts - don't do it! Oh, and don't even think of going to career-wrecking Manchester!

35. First Michelin Star For Stratford upon Avon.

  The Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand Awards having been announced 3 days ago - the West Midlands gained three new Bib Gourmands (Charlton Arms in Ludlow, The Leaping Hare at Stanton in Gloucestershire and The Bell Inn at Langton in Gloucestershire) and lost none -  we now know the higher awards which have just been announced at a long and tedious ceremony hosted by a very inexpert interviewer at the BFI IMAX Cinema in Waterloo. Winning chefs were asked a couple of questions each which made the ceremony drag on for even longer and it was all preceded by a toe-curlingly embarrassing interview with Gordon Ramsay whose waist seems to be expanding rapidly in his middle age.

  There were no new stars for Birmingham but Paul Foster's well thought of Salt in Stratford upon Avon was awarded one star only about 15 or 16 months after it first opened. I visited two or three times in 2017 soon after it opened its doors to the food-loving public and I posted a review on Tripadvisor which is shown below. Yes, I know I hate Tripadvisor but sometimes it seems worthwhile to write about a new restaurant if one has a positive opinion about it to give it some support.

  It's disappointing that Birmingham has not upped its star count this year but there were only 18 new stars in the United Kingdom this year plus 3 restaurants taking 2 stars. Manchester which likes to pretend it's the Second City once more failed to be awarded a single star and remains a Michelin desert. Of the 18 new single star winners it's not surprising that six are located in London and 3 more in the Home Counties. Michelin is fun to read but its opinions are only those of people who think they're greater experts than the rest of us and often prove that they are not.

34. Good Food Guide - Who's In Here In The West Midlands?

  Following on from Blog 31 let's see who gets listed in The Good Food Guide 2019  - 

Birmingham - Adam's, Carters of Moseley, Folium, Harborne Kitchen, Lasan, Opus, Purnell's, Purnell's Bistro and Simpsons.

Elsewhere in West Midlands county - The Forest (Dorridge).

Gloucestershire (north) - The Potager (Barnsley), The Village Pub (Barnsley), Le Champignon Sauvage, Koj, Lumière, Purslane (all in Cheltenham), The Butcher's Arms (Eldersfield), The Wheatsheaf Inn (Northleach), The Painswick (Painswick), The Churchill Arms (Paxford), The Bell Inn (Selsley), The Swan at Southrop (Southrop), The Old Butchers (Stow-on-the-Wold), The Woolpack Inn (Stroud), Lords of the Manor (Upper Slaughter), North Street, Wesley House (both at Winchcombe).

Herefordshire - The Riverside (Aymestrey), The Madam & Adam (Hereford), The Cider Barn (Pembridge), The Stagg Inn (Titley), The Baiting House (Upper Sapey), The Oak (Wigmore).

Shropshire - The King & Thai (Broseley), Forelles at Fishmore Hall, Mortimer's, Old Downton Lodge, CSONS at The Green Cafe (all in Ludlow), Sebastian's (Oswestry).

Staffordshire - The George (Alstonefield), 99 Station Street (Burton upon Trent), The Duncombe Arms (Ellastone).

Warwickshire - Cheal's of Henley (Henley-in-Arden), The Cross at Kenilworth (Kenilworth), No. 9 Church St., Salt (both in Stratford-upon-Avon), Tailors (Warwick), The Royal Oak (Whatcote).

Worcestershire - The Lygon Arms, Russell's of Broadway (Broadway), The Venture In (Ombersley), Belle House (Pershore), The Inn at Welland (Welland), Saffrons Bistro (Worcester).

  You'll note that Alex Claridge's remarkable The Wilderness in Birmingham is not included in the above list and this has nothing to do, I should think, with the brilliance of his cooking but rather with him having upset some customers by his responses to carping comments on the lamentable Tripadvisor. I shall be dining at The Wilderness in the immediate future and report on what an evening in his all black restaurant is like exactly.

  Birmingham had 11 restaurants in the list in the 2018 edition but now only has nine because of the closure of Two Cats Kitchen, Edmund's and Turner's at 69 while only one, Folium, has been added. Perhaps next year Richard Turner's new place of work, Maribel, will swell the number and someone will realise that The Wilderness is a serious omission.

  The Good Food Guide for some unknown reason includes two restaurants located in Wales at Hay-on-Wye and Glasbury-on-Wye in its Herefordshire listing - I have excluded them from this list of West Midlands restaurants. I have also taken it on myself to include northern Gloucestershire in this list as it's plainly in the West Midlands and not the West Country as some would try to make out. In fact without northern Gloucestershire the number of restaurants in the list would be reduced by a third.

33. Ludlow Food Festival 2018.

  The dog and I passed a happy weekend in Ludlow attending the country's oldest food festival for our fourth consecutive year.

 Just ahead of this the Good Food Guide 2019 had added three new local restaurants to its listing - Forelles located in Fishmore Hall where the dog and I were staying for the festival as we always do, Mortimer's and Old Downtown Lodge - meaning that 3 of the 7 newly-added restaurants in the West Midlands are located in this, the original, food town - Ludlow returning to its sacred old place in English gastronomy we hope.

  The Festival as ever was enjoyable and the dog was in raptures about having her own ticket for the Sausage Trail. She and I were of one mind that this year AH Griffith's peppery and spicy sausage was the clear winner but we felt we could not complain about any of the five entrants in the competition. I had to buy myself some souvenirs to take home from the event and picked up a bottle of the excellent rhubarb Gun Dog Gin made by a family business in Herefordshire and a couple of bottles of wine from the Halfpenny Green vineyards in south Staffordshire - the dreamy Late Harvest 2014 made from Huxelrebe and Bacchus grapes and a bottle of the immensely tasty Mercia made from Madeleine Angevine and Ortega grapes. I also allowed myself the pleasure of buying some packs of Droitwich salt, extracted from Roman times from brine springs in this historic Worcestershire town. The West Midlands - we've got it all!

  There were some highly interesting presentations from chefs usually with, at some stage in their careers, a connection with Ludlow. The chefs were generally young but accomplished and many talked as much about the science of gastronomy as about the art of being a chef. That I thought, is the theme for now - the science of cooking.

  The theme cropped up frequently during the talk by chef David Kelman of Cowley Manor in Cheltenham and in the following demonstration by chef Joe Gould of Forelles whose food I was to eat later that day.

  So how did the science and the modern technology fare when I dined at Fishmore Hall that evening? It all started off with a delectable amuse bouche which was basically an elegant miniature kedgeree. A starter of quail made lively with goats curd and chorizo was very good but the main course of turbot was not as tasty as it promised to be. The dish included a crab gnocchi which I couldn't identify and an accompanying strip of chicken wing was very tasty but the texture was remarkably unpleasant resembling soggy cardboard. The highlight of the dish was a stupendous and unctuous chicken sauce which allowed one to forgive almost anything (apart perhaps from the texture of the chicken wing). Chef's dessert of banana parfait with white chocolate and pineapple restored pleasure to the meal and the coffee was accompanied by some interesting petit fours.

  On Saturday, Lucy The Labrador and I had a busy day at the Festival. I started off the day having coffee with a view (the beautiful Dunham Weir) at CSons Ludlow, formerly the Michelin Bib Gourmand-awarded Green Cafe. Inside the castle I listened to Liam Dillon talking about his restaurant in Lichfield and I was impressed by what he had to say so that I feel I must soon pay a visit to The Boat Inn. It's good to have an extra reason to visit another one of our beautiful West Midlands medieval towns. I missed a number of talks which I would have liked to visit because of the canine necessity of walking around the Sausage Trail!

  A second night of gastronomy at Forelles. After another joyous dip into the immaculate mini-kedgeree amuse bouche it was on to a starter of tasty sea trout accompanied by what seemed to be deep fried Serrano ham and beetroot, neither of which really worked for me (the texture of the Serrano was far from crispy and the beetroot, though it should be a perfect companion for oily fish, seemed to be too sweet to enjoy the trout to its best). The main course however was much more enjoyable than that of the previous evening - chicken cooked in hay with another gorgeous sauce, perfectly cooked asparagus and an oyster bonbon which was not entirely successful. For the second evening the dessert was highly enjoyable and memorable - a charming and delightful 'baked alaska' with peach.

  Lucy and I passed Sunday morning at the Festival. I enjoyed listening to a talk by Reuben Crouch who with his three brothers had opened CSons in Shrewsbury and had recently taken over the Green Cafe in Ludlow. I really must head for Shrewsbury in the foreseeable future. 

  So, another highly enjoyable and interesting weekend for man and dog in Ludlow. I've already booked my accommodation for next year's festival. Regardless of what south-east and London-based critics and food guide writers might think the West Midlands is a gastronomic region of which to be proud.

32. Gin Of The Week.

  Gin of the week. Extremely delicious and greatly happiness-inducing. Whitley Neill Quince Gin and Fevertree Elderflower tonic and garnished with a slice of cucumber and sprig of mint.

  Debate - Elderflower tonic? Well, to be honest Ginventory does recommend Fevertree Soda Water or Lamb & Watt Cucumber Tonic and there is a Whitley Neill Elderflower Gin so why use Elderflower tonic with Quince Gin? Well .... it is rather nice ....

31. Barely Any 'Good Food' In Birmingham.

  Ho hum. The Waitrose Good Food Guide has just been published and provided its list of the "best" restaurants in Britain. The Guide continues along its dull, icon-admiring, London and Home Counties-centric path as we may have expected and therefore we should not be surprised to find just one of the great Birmingham restaurants featured in the list and then at the very lowly place of number 47 (Adam's restaurant in Waterloo Street). We are not surprised that 21 out of 50 of the restaurants featured in the list (42%) are located in London and The Home Counties and that just 2 (4%) are found in the West Midlands (Adam's plus Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham). Perhaps it is not surprising that, based on my experience there a couple of weeks ago, Simpsons has lost its 2018 place in the top 50 (no. 40).-and is not placed.

  Claire Smyth's Core makes the highest entry ever into the list. I once joined friends for an expensive lunch at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay when she was in charge there and we were less impressed than we would have expected to be. In fact one dish was rendered horrible by the placing on the plate of a vile rubbery and unidentifiable item which one of my dining companions recalled that it must be a duck egg mentioned on the menu. Presumably Clare Smyth is not delivering such horrors at her new establishment.

  The well thought of Harborne Kitchen is the West Midlands winner of the Best Local Restaurant award 2019 though the overall award goes to The Old Bank in Snettisham in Norfolk.

  Clearly the Good Food Guide 2019 is of little use to those wishing to dine in the West Midlands as it appears to discriminate against our region yet again.