"the wilderness", founded by alex claridge, began life as "nomad" in april 2015, a "pop-up" restaurant initially situated at the kitchen garden cafe in kings heath. the restaurant opened in the birmingham open media building in dudley street in november 2015 with brian smith working as head chef with claridge. the restaurant aimed to serve british food with ingredients often taken from the restaurant's own allotments as well as from foraging but it closed on 7 may 2016, after being threatened with legal action by the nomad hotel in new york, and reopened as the wilderness on 25 may 2016 with new internal decorations. prior to founding nomad, claridge had worked at the "warehouse cafe" in digbeth and "bistro 1847" in great western arcade. claridge closed the wilderness on 29 december 2017, intending to reopen in february 2018 in the building in bennett's hill which was formerly occupied by 'adam's' when it had styled itself as a "pop-up" restaurant but work was delayed and 'the wilderness' was reopened in march 2018 in a temporary location in warstone lane in the building which had formerly housed "two cats kitchen" and before that, "la toque d'or". the new restaurant was finally opened in bennett's hill in november 2018 with the name of 'nocturnal animals' while 'the wilderness' continued to operate in the jewellery quarter. the head chef of 'nocturnal animals' (named after the 2016 movie which was notable for the 1980s music played in it which was also the case in the new restaurant) was brett connor, a former competitor on bbc's "masterchef the professionals". the food served there was heavily influenced by japanese and far eastern cuisine but it was felt that customers were confused by the restaurant’s theme and so its name was changed on 20 march 2019 to "kisama" with pedro miranda, who had previously worked at rofuto in the park regis hotel in broad street, as head chef and the theme of japanese – far eastern cuisine was emphasised. miranda left the post in july 2019 and claridge ended his involvement with kisama on 9 august resulting in the restaurant’s closure on 13 august 2019. meanwhile stu deeley who won the bbc1 television series “masterchef the professionals 2019” was head chef at ‘the wilderness’ until december 2019 when he left to open his own restaurant in the jewellery quarter and was succeeded by marius gedminas who had been a sous chef at the restaurant.