‘British food culture is all about money’ – Hartnett
MICHELIN-STARRED chef Angela Hartnett has dismissed the notion that Britain has become a “foodie nation” – saying that people do not even know how to shop.
The former head chef at The Connaught, who trained under Gordon Ramsay, criticised Britain’s food culture, saying it was all “about money”.
Hartnett, 49, who first honed her skills by making bread and pasta with her Italian grandmother – who emigrated with her husband to Ferndale, Rhondda – said it was “wrong” to “patronise” people on low incomes about organic food.
When people say we are a “foodie nation, I genuinely don’t think we do”, she tells Desert Island Discs today. “I don’t think we’re like the Italians or the Spanish, where everyone will go and buy a chicken and everyone can afford that chicken.
“Our food culture is about money. People who have money can afford good food in this country. When you’re living on a low income, to sit there and say, ‘You’ve got to have an organic chicken’ is wrong.”
She adds: “We’ve lost home economics in a lot of schools. People aren’t taught to shop. People don’t have the time to shop and the time to cook. Everyone says we’re a more unhealthy nation than ever and yet we’re not doing anything about it.”
“I remember my grandmother, you went into her fridge, everything was covered with a saucer, she threw nothing away.”
She says she is passionate about the issue of food waste.
Angela Hartnett, Desert Island Discs, 11.15am, BBC Radio 4.