Food and Drink: A labour of Love that’s paying off
TO LAUNCH a new restaurant is a risky venture at the best of times. To do so in the depths of a recession borders on lunacy, perhaps.
But a year after launching the restaurant that bears his name, Steve Love is showing me around his newly-extended eatery.
The number of covers has gone up from 38 to 48, there’s a new bar area, a new private dining area and, in the kitchen, a “chef’s table” where diners can watch their food being cooked.
He’s a man of few words. But the success of Loves causes Steve to smile broadly as we sit for a coffee at a table gazing out over a posh part of Birmingham’s canal network surrounded by upmarket apartments.
It’s perhaps not surprising because Steve has a fearsome pedigree as a chef – having learned from masters such as the legendary Alain Ducasse and Gary Jones, in charge of the kitchens at the Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons.
He’s worked in some top establishments and shot to prominence at his own restaurant – also called Loves – in Leamington then taking over the College Arms in Lower Quinton, near his home town of Stratford.
Both establishments earned critical acclaim and gathered a loyal following of diners – many of whom followed him to Birmingham.
His foundations are firmly in the classic French traditional, though his food has evolved to take on the lightness of touch and international influences that are a cornerstone of modern British cuisine.
He also uses some of the most contemporary kitchen techniques such as cooking “sous vide” – that’s sealing an ingredient in a bag and cooking it at a precisely-controlled low temperature to ensure it remains moist, flavoursome and tender.
