Birmingham has retained its four Michelin stars in this year's new guide - and welcomed a new star at Warwickshire restaurant The Cross.

The 2015 guide shows Birmingham's four Michelin stars have been retained at Purnell's, Simpsons, Turners in Harborne and Adam's, making it the only UK city outside the capitals of London, Dublin, Edinburgh and Cardiff to boast four Michelin-starred venues.

Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool again missed out in the guide.

The Cross, a pub-turned-restaurant in Kenilworth, was launched by Simpsons owner Andreas Antona just 12 months ago and is being led by former Simpsons head chef Adam Bennett.

Mr Bennett has won the star at the same time as training for and competing in the prestigious international culinary contest, the Bocuse D'Or.

On finding out this morning, he said: "It's absolutely incredible. I really didn't expect it at all.

"It has been a tough year, we've had a very young team and we've had to really work hard together to get to where I want us to be.

"The Bocuse D'Or is a distraction, of course it is, and it's hard work to ride two horses with one back side but we have really worked hard on everything and this is a great achievement for the whole team at The Cross."

With backing from sous chef Kristian Curtis, Mr Bennett spent a month training at a specially created replica Bocuse D'Or kitchen at University College Birmingham for a full day before returning to The Cross for a night running the kitchen.

At the turn of the year, Mr Bennett appeared in the Birmingham Post's Top 100 People to Watch list, which predicted success for the year ahead.

It said: "It almost seems unfair to urge readers to look out for accolades for The Cross during 2014 (no pressure, Adam) but accolades are so richly deserved for this venture (see our recent restaurant review) that it also seems unfair not to."

The Post's review of the restaurant last December, concluded: "This is dining out at an Olympic standard and Kenilworth has got its gold back."

Speaking about this year's guide, editor Rebecca Burr said: "The eating out scene in Birmingham has really come on apace over the past ten years.

"It has a very strong selection and some of the food offer in the city is exceptional."