How myth of
Americans still seem to think Brits all have bad teeth and carry brollies because it’s always raining, writes Jane Bradley
Ialways knew French president Jacques Chirac was a bad egg – well before he was ever convicted of corruption and diverting public funds – when he launched a vitriolic attack on British cuisine.
“One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad,” he was overheard to say in a private chat with the Russian and German leaders of the time before an international meeting in 2005. Of course, no chat is ever really off the record when you’re a world leader, and his distaste for our ingredients and methods of cooking spread around the world quicker than you could say “Jamie Oliver”.
His dislike for British food had been cemented, he added, by an encounter with former Nato secretary general Lord George Robertson, a Scot who made him try a local dish, reportedly haggis. Unless it was a particularly bad example – and I can’t imagine a supermarketvalue tinned version was served to France’s premier – I believe that Mr Chirac’s verdict on Scotland’s national dish says more about his poorly developed tastebuds than it does about Scottish food. For modern British food is among the most diverse and exciting in the world. Our cities boast cuisine from literally hundreds of different cultures, while the breadth of produce available, local and imported, far surpasses many other nations.
Our celebrity chefs’ books outsell those by cooks in other parts of the world and the variety of food eaten by the typical Brit dining out is far more varied than in most societies.
Despite all that, a report this week found tourists travelling to Scotland feel let down by a lack of local produce and poor value for money when eating in our restaurants and cafes.
The study, entitled ‘Opening Up Scotland’s Larder to our Visitors’, reported tales of woe from travellers disappointed by menus they claimed were dominated by burgers and “bland” cuisine.
Interestingly, the only bright spot in an otherwise gloomy culinary report was that despite the unappetising meals presented to them, they were still marginally better than the visitors had expected. Some