When Roger Brown rings late at night, you know it is something special. In hushed tones, the butcher tells me he has pulled off a coup. After years’ of negotiation, he has convinced a local farmer to let him have his prized possession: a quartet of four-year-old Dorset Poll. This, …
I will go out on a limb and say it is the first time Wagyu beef has been served four different ways in one meal in the West Midlands. The breed commands a premium so it makes sense for an inventive chef to use every part of the beast, which …
It is the time of the year, only it’s a bit late, when the most insignificant awards in dining are bestowed. Yes, it’s the MADs, the McComb Awards for Dining. It’s Birmingham’s culinary equivalent of the Oscars, which means they are done on the cheap, aren’t very good but are much …
It puzzles me that Birmingham, the second biggest city in the UK, does not have a bona fide five-star hotel. This, of course, assumes you pay heed to star ratings, the Michelin Guide, the AA, the Caravan Club’s Top B&B Tips For Where To Stay When Your Box Is Off The …
I missed saying “hurrah” when Birmingham won a fifth Michelin star last week as I was eating my way around China. So a belated “hurrah.” Or rather a qualified “hurrah.” Much has been written about the latest Michelin milestone, much of it nonsense. Lots of newly-opened mediocre/poor restaurants have been lumped …
Give a bottle-fed, four-month-old baby a sweet drink, courtesy of a 10% sucrose solution, and he will look content. Swap sweet for sour, using a dash of lemon juice, and the baby will look decidedly unimpressed, wrinkling his nose and pursing his lips. Then try out the nipper’s palate by substituting …
Take one salt marsh lamb, a butcher, a good cook and a convivial host and what have you got? You’ve got a lamb masterclass in the middle of Birmingham, that’s what you’ve got. Kitchen School, run by Jayne Bradley Ghosh, is one of a growing number of food schools and …
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, prevent the critic from barking with a juicy bone… Because I think I’ve already had it: Birmingham’s Lunch of the Year. I know it is only July, but I can’t see how my experience at Purnell’s is going to be topped. It’s poetry on a …
