Blanc space

By Paul Fulford on Feb 15, 08 01:46 PM

I ate many times at Brasserie Blanc - or Le Petit Blanc before it was renamed - and will be sad to see it close.

Though the food seldom caused me to dance with joy, the dishes were always well conceived and skilfully executed.

And it helped banish the notion that Birmingham was a culinary backwater. For that Raymond Blanc deserves our thanks.

I met him several times at the restaurant and was always impressed by his enthusiasm and zeal. So much enthusiasm and zeal, in fact, that on a couple of occasions he sent glasses and cutlery flying as he waved his arms around wldly to emphasise a point he was making.

He didn't always succeed in passing on this enthusiasm, however.

His account of the invention of tarte tatin by two French spinsters, delivered in a heavy French accent, included the rather bewildering and unsettling observation: "It was their...orgasm!"

It's a dish I have never quite seen in the same light.