FOOD HALL OF FAME The 20 foods us Brits are obsessed with, and where to eat them

From Marmite to ketchup, pancakes to puddings, when we Brits love something we REALLY love it. Here, we explore our passion for 20 British dishes and ingredients

The food we buy, the restaurants we visit, even how we photograph our meals has become a national obsession. We’re shouting about it, celebrating it, and executing it with passion. From the ingredients defined by our land and seasons, to Britain's multicultural heritage, nowadays, the best chefs are busy reinvigorating British classics and creating hybrids, piled with influences from Sri Lanka to Singapore. What all our ‘hall of fame’ ingredients and dishes have in common is their timelessness, their potential when done well. Whether it’s fish with crisp batter, the old school pud weeping with cream, or an unpretentious packet of crisps, here we celebrate our love affair with all things British.

Nostalgic puds

Throwback drinks such as Blue Nun and Babycham will, we hope, never make a comeback. School-dinner puds, however, we welcome. Trailblazer chef Fergus Henderson at London’s St John (stjohnrestaurant. com) started the celebration with his treacle tart and Eccles cake in his book, Nose to Tail Eating. Recently, much acclaim was lauded on chef Jeremy Lee’s nostalgic rice pudding (made with arborio rice). Readymades are flourishing, thanks to Norfolk-based pudd’eng ( puddeng. com), a start-up selling spotted dick.

Fish & chips

Fish and chips may be rivalled by new arrivals on the high-street. Defra recently announced that the number of us ordering a portion of battered haddock from our local chippy more than halved between 1974 and 2014 – BUT it remains an iconic dish we’re besotted with. The chaps keeping it fresh are the National Fish and Chip Awards, this year celebrating their 30th birthday. The best to try for 2018? Millers Fish & Chips in York (millersfish.co.uk) won the mighty chippie gong, with Burton Road (burtonroadchippy.co.uk) in Lincoln coming second.

Biscuits

In biscuit-capital Manchester, 96% of the population have a biscuit daily, according to research by Mintel. Down south, Bea Vo, previously head pastry chef at Nobu and founder of Butterscotch Bakery in White City (butterscotchbakery.co.uk) is likewise a fan, and ‘can’t imagine having a cup of tea without one.’ Vo makes everything from gingerbreads to vegan chocolate cardamom melting moments. The love affair is evident among chefs, too. Ben Murphy’s Jammie Dodger amusebouche on his tasting menu at Kensington’s Launceston Place (launcestonplace-restaurant.co.uk), is savoury playfulness.

British charcuterie

Well-reared meat and gentler farming are reactions to the impacts of intensive farming i.e. unhappy animals and poor-tasting meat. Keeping with this zeitgeist is the British Charcuterie Awards (britishcharcuterie.live), championing quality meat. Co-founder Henrietta Green, says, ‘People really understand charcuterie now – the sweetness in flavour with the tiny salt cut, how it should be cured.’ Chefs are propelling it, too. Tomos Parry from the newly opened Brat (bratrestaurant.com), where Carmarthen ham is on the menu, says, ‘According to legend, Italian parma ham is originally Carmarthen ham. The story has it the Romans invaded and took it back to Italy when they left.’

Baking bread

Regional breads are mushrooming across menus: Staffordshire oatcakes, laverbread and soda farls. The biggest rise though (ahem!), has been in sourdoughs of all colours and creeds, with almost 50,000 people searching for recipes on bbcgoodfood.com every month.

Smoked salmon

These days, smoked salmon is as popular for breakfast as it is at a cricket tea. One million smoked salmon meals are eaten in the UK every week, according to scottishsalmon.co.uk. As a result, startups like Max Bergius’ Secret Smokehouse (secretsmokehouse.co.uk) and Essex’s Sean Jackson of Lambton & Jackson (lambtonandjackson.com), which produce silken full-flavoured hand-crafted slivers, are flourishing. Check out our smoked salmon Scotch eggs cover recipe on page 31.

Pancakes, injeras, hoppers, dosas

Pancake mania has gripped the nation. On Pancake Day this year, 2.5 million people visited our website bbcgoodfood. com to search for the perfect pancake recipe. A gamut of pancake-styles are venerated in new restaurants across the UK, including the Ethiopian injera, Sri Lankan hoppers and dosa (the southern Indian pancake).

Porridge

Since the Ready Brek-eating days in the Eighties, porridge has, quite rightly, been put on a pedestal. Last year, healthy fast-food chain, Leon (leon.co), ramped up expansion plans, with its ‘porridges of the gods’ being attributed to boosting sales by 58%. Mouth-watering mash-ups are mainstream. At 26 Grains (26grains. com) in Covent Garden’s Neal’s Yard, founder Alex Hely-hutchinson bowls up banana cacao with date syrup and rhubarb and cardamom variants among others. She reckons her menu’s popularity ‘has to do with grains’ versatility.’ Why not give savoury porridge a try? Turn to page 20 for flavour inspiration.

Scotch eggs & then some

It’s unlikely Scotch eggs are Scottish. Some believe they’re inspired by the Mughlai dish, nargisi kofta, in India. Others argue it’s North African and ‘scorch’ eggs (an Elizabethan word with ribald connotations). And Fortnum & Mason claim ‘the original Scotched egg was created in 1738 as a pocketstored meal on the move’. History lesson over, the recent phenomenon is thanks to The Scotch Egg Challenge, an annual battle between top chefs. Last month, the crown went to Robert Juer and Meedu Saad of Shoreditch’s Smoking Goat (smokinggoatbar.com). Their winning entry is a cross-cultural triumph – Thai spiced fermented crab with Tamworth pork egg.

Ketchups & condiments

Bottles of sauce in grungy new packaging are appearing every month, taking on the big brands. Glasgow’s Mega Death ( facebook.com/ Glasgowchilliguy), Rib Man’s Christ on a Bike (theribman.co.uk), and Dalston Chillies sauces (dalstonchillies.com) are just some. We may think of it as a British invention, but ketchup is actually westernised from catsup and katchup, and from the Hokkien Chinese word, kê-tsiap (pickled fish brine or sauce).

Marmite

So embedded in our culinary culture is this iconic pot (alongside spam, bully beef and condensed milk), that it was in soldiers’ rations in WWI. The original recipe was brewer’s yeast with salt, spices and celery. Chefs love it for its punch of umami. Spaghetti with Marmite and parmesan is the one to try – see bbcgoodfood.com for a recipe. Turn to page 26 for our Marmite sausage rolls.

Mexican

Yes, we know it’s controversial, but Mexican food has transformed many a British family’s mealtime over the past decade. Sizzling chicken or beef fajitas served with bowls of salsa, refried beans, grated cheese, guacamole and a stack of soft tortilla wraps are the perfect grab-and-share experience. It gave us a taste for all things Mexican – from chilli to tacos to enchiladas – as evidenced by the fact that 56% of respondents to our 2017 Good Food Nation survey said they were very keen to try the cuisine. ‘Now, UK chefs are upping their taco game, and applying traditional nixtamalisation techniques (a process of fermenting the corn) to local grains,’ says Ollie Templeton of Carousel (carousel-london.com). Nationwide, Abby Talbot, head of own-brand products at Booths – northern England’s high-end supermarket chain – says, ‘alongside beef chilli and enchiladas, we’ll be making salmon tacos in our kitchens, too.’

Cheese

The Queen rejoices in the wall-toceiling of cylinders in Paxton and Whitfield’s shop on Jermyn Street ( paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk). At home, we slice, grate and sliver our wedges into Ploughman’s, jacket potatoes, Welsh rarebits, and cauli cheese, among others. Even at Roux at The Landau (rouxatthelandau.com), French chef Nicolas Pasquier admits he ‘has been won over by British cheese.’

Herbs, roots & shoots

Many of Britain’s herbaceous shoots make robust salad ingredients. Food authority Jessica Sneddon, says, ‘Expect to see ingredients like sweet cicely, purslane or alexanders in dishes instead of Little Gem or salad leaves.’

Curry

Sainsbury’s revealed that Brits spend over £30,000 in a lifetime on curry. Yet tastes, they are a changin’. An antidote to decades of bland chicken korma, it’s now all about hyperregionality and authenticity. Bombay Bustle, the new Mayfair Indian restaurant (bombaybustle.com), is making noise with dum nalli, rugged with spices and Cornish lamb (see page 16 for more of their top dishes), while malai stone-base tikka is a Jamavar signature ( jamavarrestaurants.com). On the menu at Soho’s Kiln, punters simper over the Burmese wild ginger and beef cheek curry (kilnsoho.com).

Wild garlic

In kitchens up and down the Dales and valleys, you’ll hear a resounding cheer as the first spring allium comes from the woods to chefs’ larders. Chantelle Nicholson, chef-patron of Tredwells in Covent Garden (tredwells.com), explains why: ‘Wild garlic adds such a hit of pungent, but rounded, garlic freshness to everything it goes with.’ See Rosie Birkett’s wild garlic labneh recipe on page 88.

Crisps

A snack that can be eaten on-the-go and straddles dinner parties and pubs? Ker-ching, the crisp! It may be fried in oil and seasoned in salt, but we’re devotees. From salt & vinegar to Thai sweet chilli, we eat six billion packets a year. In restaurants, crisps with riffs are frequent. A USP at Zoe Adjonyoh’s new residency (zoesghanakitchen.co.uk), at the Institute of Light in London Fields is cassava crisps dressed with fresh lime, cayenne and salt. Soho’s Cantonese Bun House (bun.house) also does some splendidly holey lotus crisps.

Pies

Lately, pie making has developed its own subculture. Discerning eaters can be overheard discussing flake ratios and structure as if they were studying architecture. The go-to names are Richard Corrigan and Calum Franklin. Corrigan focuses on seasonality, oxtail & prune pie being a star dish at Corrigan’s Mayfair (corrigansmayfair. co.uk). Meanwhile, Franklin, once dubbed ‘Pie-chelangelo’ by critic Tim Hayward, has just opened the Pie Room at Holborn Dining Room (holborn diningroom.com) – see his top piemaking tips on page 124.

Fried chicken

Deep-fried sticky chicken started rivalling the burger for top position in the UK fast-food stakes a decade ago. Since then, they’ve proliferated. So what constitutes a decent one? Buttermilk, house pickles, and kimchi wings. If in the capital, head to Chick ‘n’ Sours (chicknsours.co.uk) and, just opened, The Butchies (butchies.co.uk) for an initiation of the new style.

Fermented anything

‘A fermented ingredient can elevate a dish,’ reveals Pip Lacey, who this spring opens Hicce in London (hicce. co.uk), which specialises in curing and pickling. Kefir – a cultured, fermented milk drink, similar to yogurt – even made it onto Radio 4’s The Archers. For a guide to kefir go to bbcgoodfood.com/ howto/guide/health-benefits-kefir.