As a British person myself, I completely disagree that our food is anything you would call top tier.
We have some nice food (as you mentioned) but it’s the exception, rather than the rule.
As a child I was forced to eat a lot of Sunday roasts at the grandparents that were bland and anemic and mushy, with veg boiled within an inch of its life, and where the meat was the only good part. I don’t think my experience was atypical.
British food these days is getting better all the time, but mostly because modern British food is a cultural fusion of tastes and techniques from everywhere in the world, and thanks to the Internet people are actually learning how to cook. Good roasts these days have sweetly caramelised oven-roast veg with olive oil and herbs and seasonings, and are a million miles from the mush I was served as a child.
But has British food historically been good? No, it has not.
As a child I was forced to eat a lot of Sunday roasts at the grandparents that were bland and anemic and mushy, with veg boiled within an inch of its life, and where the meat was the only good part
And I used to date an Indian lass who was the worst cook I’ve ever met in my life, the food she made was truly disgusting. But that doesn’t mean all Indian food is bad.
I know self-flagelation is a time honoured tradition of ours, but the whole “Britain bad” circlejerk is just getting annoying now.
I’m not being self-deprecating for the sake of it - I’m speaking what I feel from personal experience. And on the basis of that experience I would rank the average state of British food well below the average state of food in a pretty wide spread of other places.
And that’s what I’m basing it on - averages, not exceptions.
As a British person myself, I completely disagree that our food is anything you would call top tier.
We have some nice food (as you mentioned) but it’s the exception, rather than the rule.
As a child I was forced to eat a lot of Sunday roasts at the grandparents that were bland and anemic and mushy, with veg boiled within an inch of its life, and where the meat was the only good part. I don’t think my experience was atypical.
British food these days is getting better all the time, but mostly because modern British food is a cultural fusion of tastes and techniques from everywhere in the world, and thanks to the Internet people are actually learning how to cook. Good roasts these days have sweetly caramelised oven-roast veg with olive oil and herbs and seasonings, and are a million miles from the mush I was served as a child.
But has British food historically been good? No, it has not.
And I used to date an Indian lass who was the worst cook I’ve ever met in my life, the food she made was truly disgusting. But that doesn’t mean all Indian food is bad.
I know self-flagelation is a time honoured tradition of ours, but the whole “Britain bad” circlejerk is just getting annoying now.
Sure, there are always exceptions.
I’m not being self-deprecating for the sake of it - I’m speaking what I feel from personal experience. And on the basis of that experience I would rank the average state of British food well below the average state of food in a pretty wide spread of other places.
And that’s what I’m basing it on - averages, not exceptions.
Yeah I’m getting a bit tired of it myself. It’s fun to banter but there’s not really much banter left.
Oh boy. You should Google that, because you couldn’t be more wrong.
Edit:
Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forme_of_Cury XIV century cookbook. Damn, oldest known recipe for macaroni and cheese comes from it.
XIV - XV century whole Europe was jelly for English cuisine.
XVI you were the capital of pastries and sweets.