Since moving to his own restaurant, star of the Great British Menu Glynn Purnell admits he's discovered a second wind. Tom Vaughan went to Birmingham and found a chef possessed

Glynn Purnell's eponymous new restaurant is found on Cornwall Street in Birmingham. It opened in July 2007. It has 40 seats. Dinner is £32.95 for two courses going up to £53 for a seven-course tasting menu. The inside is contemporary with chic grey walls.

Why so curt, you ask? Well, to fully convey the depth of the man's food needs as many column inches as possible. To attempt a description of his menu in a few paragraphs would be some grave injustice, like cramming Phileas Fogg's exploits on to half a postcard.

Eating the menu with no prior knowledge of Purnell or his cooking is a treat. But there's an added depth to his menu when you hear the stories and origins of each dish, inspired by his upbringing in Birmingham. Take the starter of poached egg yolk, smoked haddock milk foam, cornflakes and curry oil. The inspiration was a dish his mum cooked in his youth, where she'd poach haddock in milk "until it almost fell apart" and then, in the fishy pan of boiled milk, poach an egg, which naturally ended up tasting mainly of haddock.

Cornflakes

Keen to recapture the flavours, he poaches haddock in milk, then feeds the softly fishy liquid into an espuma gun, serving it around a poached egg yolk with cornflakes scattered on top. Why the cereal? "When I was a kid that's what I used to snack on. I'd put a handful of cornflakes in my pocket and eat them round the house."

Purnell's cuisine is the epitome of that loosely defined genus, modern British. Old dishes are reworked and dragged into modernity with panache. "We need to look back where we came from and bring it into the 21st century," he says. "Young chefs should be cooking what they believe in, and from their roots."

His move to Cornwall Street has reinvigorated the former Michelin star holder (at Jessica's). "I've had a second wind. I'm in a more modern environment and cooking what I feel comfortable with."

His brill main course is a modern British masterpiece. Cooked in coconut milk, it's served with toffee cumin carrots, Indian lentils and red pepper purée. Indian lentils? On a modern British menu? But Purnell is steeped in his Brummie heritage. "As a kid, we'd all go out as a family and get a balti," he says. "Those spices and lentils and Asian influences are all over the markets in Birmingham."

The pairing with toffee carrot is inspired. The sweetness of the fish is complemented from either side by the spice of the lentils and the condiment-style sweetness of a red pepper purée. Different balances of ingredient realign the flavours - sometimes the brill is the star, sometimes the lentils, sometimes the purée overpowers it all, but always there's the smooth comfort of the toffee underneath.

At the centre of Purnell's star dish - classically roasted tail of fillet beef, liquorice charcoal, purple potatoes, artichoke purée, malt vinegar and black pepper - is the very heart of British cooking: roast beef.

"Fillet of beef - it's cooking by numbers really," says Purnell. "You want a Michelin star, you stick it on your menu." It's hardly necessary to mention that this is no ordinary fillet of beef dish. It's slow-roasted on the bone with the skin left on, giving that fatty edge which coats a good Sunday joint.

Then, from this simple British formula, the dish goes somewhat left-field. A liquorice charcoal dusting re‑creates another British phenomenon - the failed barbecue. "When you drop that sausage through the grill, right?" he says. "And you've got plenty but you eat it anyway, and it tastes of charcoal. That's what I wanted to re‑create."

Liquorice is something he's been playing around with, and its sweetness complements the acidity of the malt vinegar. "I thought about white wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar, but what's more British than malt?"

Mango leather

Already, with three dishes described, there's no room to talk about the salad of Devonshire crab, apple, celeriac and smoked paprika honeycomb, or the warm dark chocolate mousse with chocolate crisp, mango sorbet, passion fruit jelly and a mango leather inspired by those chewy sweets, strawberry lances.

Purnell is obviously a man possessed at present. He's cooking from the heart, from his roots and with humour. More importantly, these wacky ideas are translating perfectly on to the plate, and surely accolades will follow. "If my style of cooking doesn't warrant a star, I'm not going to kill myself," he says. "Because, right now, I'm cooking exactly how I love to."

Also on the menu

• Goats' cheese jelly, shallots, chive oil, marinated shallots, crispy sticks
• Cured salmon in coriander seeds and orange, wasabi, borage leaves, enoki Japanese mushrooms, orange glaze
• English asparagus, textures of beetroot, beetroot sorbet, beef bresaola
• Coquelet, scallops dusted in fennel pollen, avocado purée, fennel, black olive, quinoa, Parmesan
• Pollack, potato terrine, truffle, morels, parsley, leeks, natural yogurt, pork nuggets
• Cornish lamb, pressed Cos lettuce, wild garlic oil, white beans, almonds, rosemary
• Hot crispy cinnamon ravioli, double cream ice-cream, English rhubarb, meringue
• Warm dark chocolate mousse, chocolate crisp, mango sorbet, mango leather, passion fruit jelly
• Cream banana tube, pineapple and banana salad, carpaccio of pineapple, banana ice-cream

Away from the stove

"I went to Zuma in London recently. Dishes kept arriving the whole time and we just grazed and talked in a relaxed atmosphere as they came out. It just seemed effortless."

• Purnell's, 55 Cornwall Street, Birmingham B3 2DH. Tel: 0121-212 9799. Website: www.purnellsrestaurant.com/