Food in the British Isles has improved exponentially since my childhood...

I wrote that sentence, and then -- and this is why I'll never get my novel finished -- I wondered: Is it? Really? To what extent? Why? Who agrees?

And there we were. Off down a rabbit-hole again...

A quick internet search reveals, not surprisingly, that opinions vary.

Way back in 2002, Will Skidelsky and Peter Gordon were arguing the toss over whether British food really had made gains (Skidelsky was sceptical, seeing British food culture as "shallow and inauthentic"; Gordon felt that a gradual improvement was under way). Aisling McCrea, writing in 2020, describes British food as "terrible": She blames the culture, which "simply does not prepare us emotionally to provide others with lovingly prepared food". Jonathan Miller, on the other hand, argues in 2021 that the food in Britain is now much better than what is on offer in France (bold claim...). Tim Hayward, who has obviously been following this topic for a long time, talked in 2011 about a "British food renaissance", and still feels, in 2021, that British food, having shed its cultural cringe, is "exhilarating": "Modern British food is about an honest joy in eclecticism and diversity." Richard Tresidder, in a 2019 article, feels that continental Europe influenced food culture in the UK for the better, but wonders whether the impact of Brexit (complicating the free movement of skilled personnel and of ingredients) will push things backwards again.

And, of course, the soaring prices of food and drink at the moment are likely to divert culinary attention to cost rather than quality or innovation.

My two penn'orth, as advertised at the beginning, is that there has been considerable improvement, both in terms of the availability of ingredients, and the skills with which they're put together.

I grew up in a very conservative culinary environment (the announcement by one of my parents' colleagues that she was making a moussaka was regarded by our family as screamingly funny, demonstrating a level of pretentiousness that would keep us entertained for days). I didn't meet eggplants or capsicums or blue cheese or dry white wine or any variety of "ethnic food" until I went to university... Before that, if we went out for dinner for a special treat (trailing along in our 1970s maxi-skirts), the ladies would start with orange juice (to avoid getting too full, which you always did anyway), but on the menu there would usually be soup, or a brilliantly coloured prawn cocktail aimed at the adventurous (our family had a profound distrust of seafood); on offer for the main would be something like grilled steak (which our family would always request to be well done...), or roast chicken, or fried scampi in a basket (I was never sure why there had to be a basket); and finally there'd be my favourite bit (and the only element, I think, where there's never been any doubt about British Isles competency) -- the "sweet" (generally not, back then, the traditional nursery puddings that came roaring back into popularity in later years, but rather something like sherry trifle or lemon meringue pie, or for those diners with a total lack of imagination, ice-cream).

What we now regularly cook at home or go out to eat surpasses those experiences by a country mile.

Some examples, from our current expedition:










So there we have it. The result of my totally unscientific, absolutely subjective survey is that British Isles food has improved dramatically. Big tick, and keep up the good work.