Press releases

Marketing Birmingham is working with the city’s top restaurants and Birmingham City
Council on a new Europe-wide culinary network called Delice, the Good Food Cities
of the World.
 
20 European cities, including Barcelona, Milan and Lyon, are part of the Delice
network, and Birmingham is the only city in the UK to have been invited to join.   
 
The aim of the Delice network is to promote city to city sharing of cuisine and good
practice within the catering industry. Delice also encourages and develops young
culinary talent across the network cities.
 
Marketing Birmingham is working with Birmingham City Council and key city partners
on an exchange event as part of Delice. Birmingham has teamed up with its twin city
Lyon and invited four Michelin-starred chefs from the prestigious “Toques Blanches
Lyonnaises” organisation to visit Birmingham to experience the city’s food offering.  
During the visit from 2 – 5 March 2008, there will be exclusive dinners at both Opus
and Simpsons restaurants.
 
The visit will conclude with the “Lyon and Birmingham Chefs Delice Celebration
Dinner” on Tuesday 4th March. The chefs from Lyon, along with local Birmingham
chefs, will prepare a special dinner at the University College Birmingham for invited
guests.  
 
Councillor Mike Whitby, Leader of Birmingham City Council says:
 “It is an honour that Birmingham is the only city in the UK to become a founder
member of the Delice network and this is testimony to our excellent chefs and first-
class cuisine. I very much look forward to welcoming the chefs from Lyon in March
and showing them what our wonderful city has to offer.”
 
Neil Rami, chief executive at Marketing Birmingham, says:
“Birmingham is the first of the cities in the Delice network to take part in the
exchange and it is a great opportunity for Birmingham to showcase its wide culinary
offering and position itself as a leading gourmet city in Europe.”
 
Andreas Antona, owner of Simpsons restaurant is working closely with the chefs to
co-ordinate the event.  He said:   
“It’s an honour to be working with French chefs of such standing and I’m extremely
proud to have the opportunity to show them what we can do here in Birmingham.  
The standard of cuisine and expertise in this city is world-class and the Delice
celebrations will enable us to really shout about it.”
 
Photo caption: L- R David Colcombe, Opus restaurant; Coun Mike Whitby Leader
Birmingham City Council; Andreas Antona, Simpsons restaurant.
 
For more information, please contact Emma Ward, PR Executive at Marketing
Birmingham, on 0121 202 5075 or emma.ward@marketingbirmingham.com.
 
Delice Good Food Cities of the World is a network, created by Lyon, of European
cities committed to the provision of high quality restaurants, regional produce and
the development of educational skills in the catering sector.
 
Les Toques Blanches is the premier organisation for chefs in and around Lyon. These

chefs share a large number of Michelin stars between them and represent a number of different styles of cuisine. The chefs are as follows:

• Jean-Christophe Ansanay-Alex (L’Auberge de L'ile)
• Christophe Marguin (Restaurant Marguin)
• Joseph Viola (Restaurant Danielle et Denise)Mathieu Viannay (Restaurant Mathieu Viannay).

 
Bagged salad brand Florette is sponsoring the “Lyon and Birmingham Chefs Delice
Celebration Dinner” on Tuesday 4th Match at University College Birmingham.

Download delice_en (.pdf 44.02 KB)