When it comes to Michelin-starred dining, Birmingham and its surrounding areas have things pretty sewn up. The likes of Simpsons, Purnell’s, Carters of Moseley and The Cross at Kenilworth each offer menus the inspectors have deemed worthy of a star, with everything from great pub food and classically influenced cooking to more playful, contemporary cuisine. Peel’s Restaurant – located within the beautiful Hampton Manor just south of Solihill – is one of the latest to join the ranks. But while the country house hotel (now rebranded as a restaurant with rooms) may make you think of stiff service catering to an older generation, the reality is anything but.
This is thanks to head chef Rob Palmer, who worked his way up the ranks in the kitchen to create a stripped back, refined, contemporary interpretation of modern British cooking that takes influences from all over the world. Swapping out classical fare for dishes like mallard with turnips and a damson hoi sin sauce, he’s put Peel’s on the map and won his first ever Michelin star in 2016. Seeing as he’d never worked in a Michelin-starred kitchen before, this was a seriously impressive feat.
‘I always enjoyed baking at home with my parents and all that, but it was when cooking started to become quite big on the telly when I was around twelve that really influenced me,’ he explains as I ask him how he got into cooking. ‘They made it a bit trendy and glamorous to be a chef, so when I left school at sixteen I went straight into an apprenticeship at the Hilton at the NEC. It was a massive operation and I spent four years there before moving onto a place called The Forest in Dorridge, a small hotel with two AA rosettes.’