The English at Table

The modern English congratulate themselves that their food is rather good. It was not always so, they say, but the way we eat at home, the standard of our restaurants and the variety of foods available in our shops have been revolutionized. The national palate is, they claim, becoming more 'discerning'. It is all nonsense. Just look at what is eaten daily in homes, restaurants, offices, hospitals, schools, airports, planes, and on beaches and pavements. This daily food is not good - it is awful. The English food of old was dull and insular, but at least there was an abundance of butchers and fishmongers with locally produced food, and English women shopped at them and cooked thrice-daily meals, which their families sat down to eat together.There are more exotic ingredients in the shops, and there are a few good, expensive restaurants. There is also a plethora of second-rate industrial cheeses, meats and vegetables, and third-rate takeaways, fast-food outlets and formulaic 'Indians' and Chinese. We now see a refusal to make the daily effort necessary for good meals, the turning of eating into an excuse for showing off, and the relentless pursuit of novelty and celebrity. The bad old traits coexist with these new ones. "The English at Table" documents the awfulness of English food and the shallowness of English food culture and media comment. "The English at Table" is illustrated by "The Spectator's" cartoon editor, Michael Heath.