I recently watched the documentary Rick Stein's Secret France on BBC Two.
The host of the film is very popular in the UK. Not only is he a chef himself and runs restaurants, he has also filmed many cooking documentaries. This time he traveled all over France, photographing some lesser-known restaurants. What impresses me most is that at the end of the series, Stein sighed in a seaside restaurant in the south of France:
"Some people say that the level of French restaurants seems to be not as good as before, is it that French cooking has regressed? In fact, I think, This is because the British cooking standard has improved and the distance from French restaurants has narrowed."
This is a bold and original insight. I can't tell if he's right, but I can agree that British cooking has improved.
British food is notorious for being the "worst in the world", which the British themselves joke about. Once I watched one of the films Hitchcock made famous and returned to the United Kingdom to shoot in "Murder", the sheriff in it said something like this: "In England you have to eat three breakfasts a day if you want to eat well. "
Later I learned that these words first came from the mouth of the British writer Somerset Maugham. I think Somerset Maugham is right. The first English breakfast I had was at a small hotel in Edinburgh. On a large plate there were eggs, sausages, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, all fried; and since it was in Scotland, there was a fried haggis (haggis); with boiled soybeans, bread toast, and A cup of English tea, very delicious.
If English breakfast is the best British food, then some other "traditional British food" is the joke.
In the British TV series "Detective Poirot", the sheriff invited Poirot to his house for dinner and brought out a dessert "Spotted Tintin" (raisin suet pudding), which scared the Belgian Poirot, who was particular about his diet, almost out of breath.
Other traditional dishes that have given British cuisine a bad reputation for being greasy and rough include jelly eel, stargazing (grilled sardine pie), toad in the hole (sausage baked in ghee dough), sausage mashed potatoes, and stuffed beef kidney cakes etc.
Maybe you haven't heard much of these British dishes. In fact, even young people in the UK rarely eat these traditional dishes. British cuisine has changed a lot in recent decades, most importantly learning to draw on culinary techniques and tastes from around the world, with celebrity chefs and media personalities like Rick Stein playing a big role.
After World War II, Elizabeth Davey pioneered and published the cookbook "Mediterranean Cuisine", which described in detail the production process of special home-cooked dishes from all over the Mediterranean coast, so that the British people who are still suffering from food rationing realize that the taste is full of color and flavor. The dishes are not out of reach. The book was a huge hit at the time, opening the door for future cookbooks and food TV shows.
After the war Britain absorbed a large number of immigrants, who also enriched the British menu. Now the most common dishes eaten by young people in the UK, except for fish and chips, which are British dishes, others such as curry rice, pizza, etc. are all "introduced" from overseas.
As tastes have become more discerning, restaurants in the UK have continued to improve, the best example being the gastropub that became popular in the 1990s. Hot food served in British pubs used to be very simple, while gastropubs excel in finer food than pubs and casual atmosphere over restaurants.
Gastropub offerings are also flexible and often not tied to one particular cuisine, with steak, fish and chips, curry rice and pasta appearing at the same time. Gastropubs are a great option for meeting friends for dinner or family gatherings.
I'm skeptical that British restaurants can catch up to France, but it doesn't matter. The general increase in British demand for restaurants is a boon for someone like me who has an eclectic mix of cuisines from all over the world.
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