Towards the end of my two weeks of monastic isolation (staying up in Birmingham at Alasdair’s mum’s house), I treat myself with a Michelin star meal, because what else have I spent my money on recently? Birmingham does surprisingly well with its restaurants, and I’m excited that Adam’s has now got an a la carte menu, so I’m not weighed down fully by a tasting menu of a Thursday evening. Doubly so when I realise I still get the snacks and petits fours. The snacks are an early treat, with a cheese espuma and a Yukon Gold potato crisp, a caviar mousse tart that marries the flavour and texture well, and particularly a perfect one-bite fried raindrop of lamb ragu, bursting in the mouth like a popping boba. The breads, two sourdoughs with two butters are good, but the real highlight is the ginger and Bovril pastry, somehow both flakey in texture but rich and deep in flavour, every bite a dremam. I start with a celeriac and comté cheese agnolotti, with proper thick shavings of truffle, served on a bed of whey. The main is your classic fine dining “here’s how many different ways we can do this meat”, this time with venison, served practically melting as two filets, as well as an adorable little sausage. It’s accompanied by a smokey egg parfait, hiding underneath it a mix of truffle and Alsace bacon, cutting through the richness of it all nicely, as does the slices and gel drops of pear. All of that is nothing compared to dessert, though, a chocolate parfait made of 40% Valrhona Jirava chocolate, encaged in a beehive of a sesame tuille topped with sobacha ice cream, and in the depths of it all, a gorgeous yoghurt and thick, tangy reduction of sobacha, adding an almost balsamic note to the proceedings. I savoured each and every bite. A herby marshmallow and a pretty generously apportioned pastel de nata serve as the petits fours with my peppermint tea seeing me into the evening. An early contender for meal of the year, surely. (A baffling side note: five minutes after I got there, a well-dressed and clearly well off couple turned up with a reservation, sat down, ordered a glass of champagne each, looked at the menu, went “no”, paid for the champagne, and left without even finishing. How on earth do you end up in that situation?)