Saturday 26 May 2007

Great British Menu -The winners

The Final of Great British Menu.
I was pleased with the general results most of the dishes had a feel of these islands and weren’t frenchified clones of UK food. It will be interesting to see how “star gazey pie” goes down with our Gallic cousins. I am a little sad Atul Kochhar didn’t win anything; I fear that this might be hidden racism amongst the foody classes. I half felt he should be asked to do his fish course as an appetiser but this would be patronising. There was a hint of Daily Express “England as thatched cottages and suet puddings” about his exclusion; I’d hoped that he might corner the Britano-asian vote, sadly not.

The robustness of dishes is heart warming (all puns intended) I see it as triumph for us downcast Saxons, Celts and other assorted migrants against our oppressive Norman foody overlords (see most food pages) it’s a 941 year old year battle but one we might win. When we do, Beer will be as honoured as wine (Is there a regular beer review in the broad sheets?) cheddar will be as praised as parmesan, the heat and tang of a well made curry as lauded as an “authentic” Daube and the singular beauty of a well made slightly caramelised Eccles cake as championed as a chewy and bland Nata. It will mean editors and writers have to go to Tadcaster and Lough instead of Florence and Aix-en Provenance for their jollies but that’ll be good for the environment too.
past posts on GBM

2 comments:

It's The Gardening Lady said...

Mmmmm, I've not found an Eccles cake as good as the ones they used to make (and hopefully still do) in the bakers in Carshalton...

BLTP said...

They are the one's every other is judged, it was the spices as well that were delish and the burnt sugar I should go to Eccles and chorley to taste them at source!