I had an amazing meal yesterday at Nottingham University. Lunch was cooked by Nottingham’s only Michelin starred chef -Sat Bains. And as of a few days ago he has not one but two of these stars…

I was at an event about sustainable futures (and more of that in a later blog post) – which was fascinating. It is reckoned that next week the population of the world will pass 7bn. This population growth needs feeding – there will be much more pressure on the food chain.

Sat Bains prepared a meal which had all been sourced locally – he calls it his NG7 menu. We had food foraged from hedgerows – herbs, blackberries, pears. Local cheese and Venison rounded it off. It was delicious.

The last time I ate at Sta Bains was four years ago – and I remember it then being a real experience.

There had been a huge amount of effort put in our meal, but it did show that we don’t always need the food miles to be like telephone numbers. There is real food on our doorstep – and it was very tasty. The slightly amusing thing was that after dessert we were served herbal tea. Coffee plant, of course, isn’t prevalent in Lenton…

The Vice-Chancellor in his introduction of Sat Bains likened a Michelin star to a Nobel Prize. There was certainly plenty of talent on show! And Nottingham is lucky to house that talent.