Why is British food stereotyped as bad?
 

When travelling abroad, I have found that when you say you are British, often people will make some jovial remark about how bad British food is, or recite some anecdote they heard about how bad British food is.

I find this attitude towards British food somewhat strange, because I think British food is just like anywhere else.

If you pay low prices, you generally get low quality and if you pay top prices, you generally (but not always of course) get top quality.

Surely that principle is pretty much the same everywhere you go?

It seems to me that it is just a deeply ingrained stereotype. Like how people will always say that French people are particularly rude and surly, despite the fact in reality they are probably no more rude and no more surly than most other nations and in many cases less so.

Most stereotypes are over exaggerated for sure. Now, with regards to British food.....I am not saying you cant get a good British meal but put me in the category of people that doesn't really find my meals that great in my trips to the UK. I do believe you are partly right in your point as it relates to price and quality of ingredients but some people just cook better. Take the French for example, I don't care for French food at all but I think the French cook as good as anyone in the world. I rarely eat French food in France but every meal I have is pretty darn good.

Ah, because it is. I don't like typical British food, or German food or Eastern European food. (I don't like traditional Southern US food either and that's what I grew up with.) Fortunately in GB there's lots of Asian food available. Some of the best Indian food I've ever had was in a tiny town in Wales. (Of course, the plaques on the wall indicated the restaurant was voted one of the very best in GB.)

My sister loves pub food and I really don't like that either.

In my personal experience, with many visits to London, the difficulty I have faced is that intermediate prices just get you low quality at a higher price. There are IMHO many more intermediate quality levels for restaurants in France and in Italy, for example, where paying slightly more will get you a measurably improved experience.

Moving this thread to the DiningBuzz forum. Thanks for your understanding.

Jouy31
TravelBuzz co-moderator

British food is similar to LA food. If you're dining on an expense account, you can find fabulous food.

Spent 3 nights in London last month. Couldn't find a NYC style corned beef sandwich. 8-(

I believe the stereotype of bland, overcooked food dates to the early 20th century. In centuries past British food was known as being rather spicy, as it incorporated lots of spices coming from the colonies.

As I understand it, the downfall came with the advent of canned food and industrialization, and was cemented by the deprivations and rationing of WWII and the postwar era.

Today I think it's certainly possible to find excellent food in the UK, although much of it is going to be of the ethnic (Indian, Chinese, other Asian, etc.) variety. While you can get excellent, "traditional" British food (beef, pies, etc.), that probably comes at a higher price point because it caters to, well, older people.

I will say that I absolutely love an English breakfast fry-up.

Until 15-20 years ago British food really was bad. I think it relates to either the post-war years or the 1970s processed food revolution. The quality of food in some of the minor towns is still some of the worst I've ever had outside of the former USSR.

There is a bright side though which is that London is now one of the world's great foodie cities. Whilst it's true that the most obvious good food is at high prices, there's a rapidly increasing number of reasonably or even cheaply priced high quality food. UK supermarkets are also leading the world in high quality, fresh partially prepared foods.

British fare is fairly simple and can be good even if it is simple. However, in addition to the above, there was an air of indifference by some restauranteurs, as well as boil-in-a-bag type food all to prevalent.

Nigel Slater's Toast is an interesting recollection of this era.

really disagree with these statements. Much (most?) food I find in urban city centers or high tourism centers is mediocre & high priced.

do you not have any 'cheap' restaurants you go to where the quality is terrific?

back to topic: Pub food is a favorite of mine, despite my love of strong flavors, spice & heat, and I wouldn't say that is expensive nor low quality all the time.

That said, we usually don't fine dine when in the U.K., no real reason why other than that the Mrs & I are going to end up at a pub at some point in the evening, so why not just eat there as well. We did have a wonderful meal at L'Autre Pied www.lautrepied.co.uk in London but that isn't exactly British food other than being prepared in the U.K.

In my opinion the quality of local ingredients available in the UK is just not very high compared to some places (Australia, NZ, Canada, Mediterranean countries, Japan, I would say). While paying more does get you better in general it just can't compare with what is available elsewhere. Imports are frozen or not as fresh. So even if the chef is amazing, there is only so much (s)he can do with lower quality starting material.

Saw a lot of good comments here, and some unfair underlying generizations. Only been to the UK twice and I am in my early thirties so I can't speak to the 70s, 80s era. I have some outstanding food in London, but again that when I am going and paying for the pleasure of dining at a 2 Michelin star type restaurant and better have a great meal. As noted above, Indian food is great in England. I much prefer it to American and I live in Chicago with an awesome Indian area called Devon St. Curry...yum!
The bottom line is, most global cities have thier own traditional cuisine (maybe not Vegas!) but the influx of expats and immigrants brings with a style of fusion cuisine and straight up ethnic dining.
Being Irish-American I used to take a lot of grief about how our have horrid food. From fine dining and late night pub food in Dublin (some of the best meals I have had), to seafood in Limmerick or Galway I can assure you the Irish can cook.
Fresh, locally sourced ingredients and decades of perfecting the preparation makes it hard for any developed country to have food that is universally "bad."
This was a good read as I sit here for my lunch at one of the finest restaurants in all the land: Ruby Tuesdays in Iowa!

s/b Devon Avenue. Pronounced de-von'.
There are many Indian restaurants in the Chicago suburbs too

This is my experience too. In the UK it tends to be difficult to get a good meal at a reasonable price. Pub food in the UK is very hit and miss. If you're not at a gastro it can seem the food is more of an afterthought.

The thing with pub food in the UK is knowing whether it's home made or not. You can be pretty certain that if you're getting a variety of 50 different types of dish for £3, then you haven't got a chef out the back preparing it from fresh. But pubs are suffering, and almost all of them need the additional revenue from food sales, so they get it in. And if their clientele want ready meals for £3, so be it.

However, there's also a question of appropriateness. I've had colleagues from overseas complain that the fish and chips they had in a pub wasn't particularly good. My initial reaction was to look at them slightly askance and wonder why on earth you'd go to a pub if you wanted fish and chips...

I do find the notion that good produce is unavailable to be utterly baffling. Maybe I'm lucky to live in an area with a tradition of market gardening, but I'd stick most of the veg we get up there with the best - and plenty of it as good as it gets (this season's asparagus has been superb).

However, I do agree that the incursion of big chains into the mid-level UK restaurant market has led to some fairly expensive, average food, particularly in London (a small, overcrowded, insular little corner of the country ;))