How has British cuisine gone from boring to world-leading in only 30 years?
Countryside pub The Black Swan at Oldstead in Yorkshire recently scooped the title of world’s best restaurant in the TripAdvisor Travelers’ Choice Awards in the fine dining category, beating second-placed Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, also in the UK. How has British fare gone from boring to world-leading in only 30 years?
A post shared by Belmond Le Manoir (@belmondlemanoir) on Oct 11, 2017 at 3:49am PDT
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Switch on an American talk show in the ’70s, ’80s and even the ’90s, and British food was often the butt of many a joke made by celebrities visiting London. Compared to the rest of the world, British food was still suffering the effects of post-war rationing. Food was mostly plain and boring. Common dishes for most British families consisted of pies, fish and chips, egg and chips, liver and onions with treats of full English breakfast and a Sunday roast at the weekends, and rice pudding, jelly and tapioca for dessert. Even the variety of fruits was limited to oranges, apples and bananas, with grapes in season up until the early ’80s.
London House by Gordon Ramsay, in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, serves fish and chips with mushy peas and tartare sauce.
But British food had not always been this way. Anglo-Saxon Britain produced the first meat and herb stews, ahead of Europe, and the Normans introduced exotic spices and European influences. And we have all read accounts of the lush banquets of King Henry VIII and other royals through the centuries. The British, through its empire, also introduced exotic spices from India to its cuisine. The British food scene was looking good. So what happened?
“We went through the two world wars and the style of British cuisine changed,” said British chef Gary Rhodes on a recent visit to Hong Kong.
Tracey Furniss is a freelance writer for the SCMP. She was the former Deputy Editor, Specialist Publications at the SCMP, where she oversaw special reports and publications, and was editor of Good Eating magazine, Christmas magazine and 100 Top Tables – an award-winning executive dining guide. Before joining the SCMP, she was a television journalist and an award-winning documentary filmmaker, digital editor and travel writer for a host of international publications such as Fodor’s, Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel and Passport Newsletter.
