Why the UK has no gastronomy at all?

Answer 1

we just don't have the telescopes.

Answer 2

"No gastronomy at all" is rather overstating the case, as so often in these pages.

My experience is that there is better food to be had in cheap British restaurants than in French ones charging the same price, to take the example which always presents itself to the rest of the world as culinary heaven. That's because the foreign influence in the UK at that level is predominanlty from two countries with wonderful traditions of cuisine, the Indian and the Chinese. Not to mention Italian, Greek, Turkish, Spanish and now Thai and Vietnamese.

The American influence is popular at street level, as it is all over Europe, indeed the whole world, with burgers and buns, but I don't think that would aspire to be called gastronomy.

At the intermediate level there are many excellent British dishes made in private houses where most foreign visitors wouldn't encounter them.

At the luxury level, French cuisine used to be tops in the UK but now there is a fusion of all kinds of styles. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

The specifically British contribution to all this is imaginative thinking by chefs who aren't bound to any constricting national tradition, and fresh ingredients. There are varieties of fruit and vegetables available in the UK which have been standardised out of existence in many other countries, and the meat (since the mad cow scare of some years ago) is more hygienically produced than is some other nearby countries where it is stuffed with hormones to increase yield, at the expense of the consumer.

Answer 3

I really don't understend all this stuff about "cuisine"
People eat the food they like - not always to the benefit of their health.
Traditional UK cuisine was based on loads of calories to keep warm, and undertake hard manual labour.
That was for the masses, the Aristocracy ate the delicacies of the French court.
We now have a wonderful choice of eating anything we like, from a calorie laden cheeseburger, to spanish strawberries, and Kenyan beans out of season.
They are all flown in - -------?
The first recorded British cuisine was Epicaius - the gastronomy of Roman Britain - a book up in my library.
Egon Ronay and Michelin may or may not agree but around here we can eat wonderful, natural food in season, that hasn't been flown from the other side of the world (except for the olive oil - and it's only come from Greece)
Good food simply cooked, not processed,packaged and preserved cannot be bettered
That is now the modern UK cuisine

Answer 4

Just to add a (yawn) historical dimension, it goes back to the time of Henry VIII, before then English cuisine was similar to continental cuisine, but when the Church of England was established all the trappings of Roman Catholism and continental life - decorated churches, and flamoyant food was replaced with basic simple living - or so I heard.

Anyway, it's not so bad. If you don't have an overwealming national cuisine, you tend to get a lot more variety from elsewhere - hence the UK international food market is by far the the biggest in Europe. And British cheese is great as is dripping on toast.

Answer 5

I am assuming you are American and that you have never been to the UK for any length of time. Excuse me if I am wrong. The food we would normally eat (always cooked from scratch) is nutritional and tasty. We have also incorporated foods from different countries which many people cook at home. There are many Indian and Chinese takeaways and restaurants and these are used more frequently now but many also cook ethnic cuisine at home too. The only fast food takeaways and restaurants that I do not frequent and encourage my children and grandchildren not to frequent are beefburger and such takeaways. This is not anything to do with them being primarily American but because concerns have been raised about American beef. There is currently an embargo on American beef throughout Europe as it has been brought to our attention that hormones, both testosterone and oestrogen, have been injected into American cattle to make a super-sized breed therefore providing more meat as a economy measure. There is apparently an increasing concern that this may contribute to cancers, such as prostrate cancer and breast cancer. I do not approve of ANY additives to foods but they are hard to avoid as we do not always know what is added. We are striving over here to have adequate labelling of foods so that we know what is in them. It is true as said before that our restaurants have as many Michelin stars as France and I would suggest that the writer of the question thoroughly researches before judging. Many of the good basic food eaten by your forefathers in the USA after all came from here but Americans as well as the British have succombed to the easiness of eating fast food. We are now, I believe, addressing this problem and many more people are eating organic food. Hope you do come back here and eat properly in the many good restaurants we have. But make sure you ask first where the beef came from! We have a problem which is being tackled now of our children becoming obese and much of this is put down to eating American fast food. It is such a shame.

Answer 6

UK restaurants are amoung the best in the world, in fact the Fat Duck in Brey was voted the worlds best restaurant.
Also UK restaurants have more Michelin stars than the entire US and the same number of 3 star Michelin restaurants as France.

Answer 7

Because the UK is a multicultural society, there is a diverse amount of food, from traditional Sausage and Mash, Roast beef and Yorkshire puddings, Fish and Chips, to Chinese, Indian, Italian, Tibetan... the list is endless.

Answer 8

How can you say that? You may prefer the food in whichever country you live in but it doesnt make yours better. Just saying UK is a joke. Scottish, Welsh, Irish and English food can be so different. You need more experience before you pass comments on our food...Some is bad and some is amazing...just like yours probably...

Answer 9

I have visited the UK 19 years ago, and again last month, and I have to say the food I ate was much improved over that time. You have a long bad tradition of nasty foods to overcome, but your nation is getting better very fast.

Answer 10

Rubbish.
A lot of the problem can be traced to post WW2 food production policies,and the continuation of rationing,leading to a whole generation not really being able to eat well
Prior to this UK food was good

Answer 11

No gastronomy! Poppycock!

What about Spotted Dick, Toad-in-the-hole, beans-on-toast, mushy pea fritters, haggis & neeps, boiled kidneys for breakfast, a nice steak & kidney pie, egg & chips, egg, chips & beans, a nice piece of meatloaf with mashed potatoes, chips, gravy and toast...

I'm not so hungry now...