Famed Brummie chef Glynn Purnell says to keep on promoting the city’s food scene, though admits the hospitality centre is going through a ‘difficult’ moment.

Earlier this week, renowned Brummie chef Glynn Purnell was honoured at Birmingham Airport’s brand-new Icons Wall.

For Glynn, this was a massive honour, having grown up near the airport in a council estate.

In recent months, Chef Glynn Purnell’s main focus has been his brand-new Birmingham restaurant, Trillium, which opened in December 2025.

The new restaurant had opened following the closure of his flagship Michelin-starred restaurant, Purnell’s, in October 2024.

Purnell’s had operated in the city for 17 years.

In recent weeks, The Mount by Glynn Purnell located in Henley-in-Arden had to shut its doors on March 15, 2026, due to unsustainable rising costs.

Despite all of this, Glynn was keen to share his thoughts on Birmingham’s vibrant food scene:

He said: “Food in Birmingham is so important it got criticised so much in the 90s, going to the early 2000s, saying it was the culinary desert of Europe.

“We’re actually twined with Lyon, which is the gastro centre. Birmingham has had many transitions, and it’s got such a wealth of great food and culture. I think it’s really important that we keep on promoting that, keep pushing how great our food scene is,” Glynn told the Express & Star.

When asked about how he felt the food scene in Birmingham appeared to seem, Glynn shared that things are “difficult” at the moment, but said that new restaurants were opening in the city.

He said: “It’s obviously really difficult at the moment, in the hospitality sector. Eating and travelling go out the window first when you can’t afford to do that. But I do think there’s restaurants opening, I recently opened up a restaurant three months ago, and that’s a thriving restaurant. There’s lots of restaurants closing, I’ve closed restaurants myself. I think it’s having that faith and that confidence to open it and give people what they want.”

To end our exclusive chat with Glynn on a positive note, he recommended some of his favourite places to eat in the city.

He said: “Best place to eat in Birmingham, if you want a really special night out, you should go to my friend Akhtar Islam whose got a restaurant called Opheem.

“Obviously my own restaurants, but I still have to pay and I still have to tip.

“I like Happy Lamb, a hot pot place in the China Quarter, that was great and you can eat as much as you can.”

Happy Lamb Hot Pot is situated in the heart of Chinatown at 21 Ladywell Walk, Arcadian Centre, Birmingham, B5 4ST.