ANDY Waters is sitting in his newly opened restaurant as the lunchtime service draws to an end, customers finishing off the last drops of red wine.

Though he's an attentive and friendly companion, his eyes dart round the beige room with its stylish light fittings, contemporary art works and smart table settings.

For Andy is determined that this 40-cover restaurant will be flawless - the menu, the meals prepared in the kitchen, the service, the decor, the drinks list, the pricing, everything.

One lighting fitting isn't as ordered, the wrong chairs have been delivered and a large painting planned to hang on the restaurant's main wall hasn't arrived.

Plus delays to the building work meant Andy and his brigade of five chefs were not able to get in as soon as they hoped to develop the dishes they will be offering so he said it's been a steep learning curve.

"It's a bit like pre-season in football," says Andy, born and raised in Bromsgrove.

"You go through all the hard work in training then you come out and get thrashed by Everton in the opening game!"

These are the fears of a perfectionist - a chef who, during his 27-year career, has worked with the likes of the legendary French master Paul Bocuse.

And his past record suggests that Andy will very soon get things running smoothly: he was head chef at Simpson's when it was located in Kenilworth and received its first Michelin star, and was awarded another star when he opened his own restaurant, Edmunds in Henley-in-Arden.

That restaurant closed a couple of years ago, but has now been reborn in Brindleyplace close to Cielo, where Andy will retain his role as consultant chef as well as running the kitchen at Edmunds, named after his dad.

He thinks that his new venture may have opened too late in the year to gain a Michelin star in next spring's famous guide, though the glint in his eye suggests he hasn't ruled out the possibility.

Certainly the menu reads well - starters such as lobster and Cornish crab served with macademia nuts and a delicate spice dressing, main courses such as belly, trotter and fillet of Wiltshire pork with a Calvados infusion and a vanilla puree and desserts such as croquant of pistachio parfait with milk snow chocolate and raspberries.

Andy says the menu has evolved from the one in Henley.

"I've tended to go a couple of steps up because we're in the city centre and I think people expect a little bit more in a city centre restaurant," he explains.

The standards he has set are challenging, he adds.

The chocolates he serves as part of a plate of petit four, for instance, have gold leaf set into them.

It's a craft that should be familiar to Andy whose mum was a talented confectionaire whose skill inspired him to become a chef.

He says his cooking in in the classical tradition and that he hasn't embraced so-called molecular gastronomy - the style exemplified by Heston Blumenthal - candidly admitting that the science leaves him baffled.

Meanwhile, the interview over, he saunters off to a table to find out the views of he last remaining customers.

Perhaps cooking isn't a science. Maybe it's as simple pleasing the punters.

* Edmunds is located at 6 Brindleyplace, Birmingham. Phone 0121 633 4944 or visit www.edmunds.birmingham.com