Britain's Poor Culinary Reputation


Ever wonder why the rest of the world has a poor outlook for British cuisine? Travel to anywhere in the world and ask the first person you come across what they think of British food and more often than not they'll sneer and say it consists of nothing better than greasy fish, chips and peas! In fact most people, including many British citizens have no idea of what true British cuisine really is.

Britain has a rich and colourful culinary history that many historians have chosen to ignore. Yet how could one possibly forget that at one point Britain was the world's largest imperial might with colonies spreading across a fifth of the world? Britain not only had the greatest navy but was indeed one of the most prestigious merchant and trading forces that the world has ever seen.

Britain was the world's hub and everything flowed through it. Not only gold and treasures but information, skills and spices. As Britain began to swell its muscles (starting with Henry VIII and ending with Queen Victoria) new and exciting changes began to occur. Spices, herbs and exotic ingredients began to appear and following these were a great wave of immigrating and visiting dignitaries, travellers, merchants and tradesmen, all of whom brought new culinary techniques, 'know-how' and experience with them. Britain's expanse and imperial might did wonders not only for the empire's wealth but for its cuisine. With all of these factors a new style of cooking was born; 'sweet and savoury'.

This style of cuisine was seen in the imperial court, in the residences of the lords, ladies and 'well-to-do' merchants. Trickle-down economics saw not only wealth cross Britain but a new level of expertise, 'sweet and savoury' quickly crossed the land. It appeared in the 'Eccles' cakes of the north, in the spiced chutneys of the rustic countryside and was also to be seen in the 'honey, clove and cinnamon roast pheasant' available in roadside taverns.

As new and exciting ingredients came from the orient, the new world and the great arabic empire Britain quickly became awash with a tidal wave of new cuisines. Eastern myth and health practices influenced the royal court to such an extent that gold leaf was served as a garnish (thought to promote good health.) Thousands of soldiers stationed in India during the Raj brought back with them recipes for curries, preserving and peppered soups (forever imbedding the British love for Indian cuisine) Merchants crossing the Atlantic brought back with them vanilla and chocolate, influencing and changing the British tradition for sweet and dessert.

But all of this stumbled to an abrupt halt after the second world war. It was the war that not only crippled Britain's economy but forever tarnished the world's view of our cuisine. Rationing and scarcity of commodities butchered the British way of cooking and for all the foreign armed forces stationed in Britain during the war this inevitably influenced their opinions. They returned home with horror stories of the Brit's culinary ineptitude not realising that most skilled chefs had left their kitchens when they were drafted to fight and for those unfortunate cooks filling in had very little available with which to cook. Canned and preserved foodstuffs reigned supreme, sugar, confectionary and spices were suddenly a rarity. British food and its reputation took an abrupt nose dive and it was only the emergence of the 1990's that saw new chefs clawing back any esteem.

However British food has made a strong comeback, as people begin to realise what a large variety of vegetables, meats and native herbs are readily available and as old, traditional recipes are dusted off so the cuisine once again begins to flourish.