Food culture
England's Food Culture
Breakfast
Among English speakers, "breakfast" is usually used to refer to the first meal of the day, but it can also refer to a meal that contains traditional breakfast foods such as eggs, porridge and sausage.
The word refers to breaking the fasting period of the prior night.
Dishes
Full Breakfast meal: The common full breakfast meal consists of bacon, eggs and sausage.
Irish Breakfast: The Irish breakfast is Ireland's version of the British full breakfast meal, with slight variation to personal taste
Ulster Fry: An Ulster fry is a dish similar to the full breakfast meal. It is popular throughout Ulster, where it is not only eaten at breakfast time but throughout the day as well. Often includes soda bread and/or potato bread.
Source missing!
Jamie Oliver
Another important figure in the food culture is Jamie Oliver, he is a celebrity chef most well known for his English cuisine.
He was born 27 May 1975 in Clavering, Essex and he was working in Antonio Carluccio's Neal Street restaurant as a pastry chef before getting discovered by BBC.
He started off his TV career with the show "The Naked Chef" in 1999, "The Naked Chef's" his intention was to go back to the basics and strip the food naked, followed by "Jamie's Kitchen"
Another big thing he did for the British food culture, was to get better food for schools across the country, in his campaign (originally called Feed Me Better) the goal was to get rid of junk food in schools and get healthier options. This campaign was so successful, the government eventually backed him and the campaign spread to the US as well as Canada.
Today
Nowadays Jamie is writing a book and a series called ¨Cooking with Jamie¨ and is has written a couple of books the latest being ¨JAMIE OLIVER'S CHRISTMAS COOKBOOK¨
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Oliver
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-Y4dIxGHj8
British Supper/Dinner
In England the evening meal is called dinner, tea, or supper. The evening meal tends to be the main meal in England. The main meal usually takes place around 6:30 pm. Typical food for British dinner is meat and two vegetables. They usually put hot brown gravy on the meat and vegetables. Usually one of the vegetables are potato. Soups and stews are popular dinner meals but there is no set menu.
Dishes
Toad in the Hole: it is a meal made of sausages and Yorkshire Pudding, it is normally served with vegetables and onion gravy.
Fish pie: It's made of smoked fish in either cheese sauce or white sauce
Bangers and Mash also known as Sausages and mash, with a variety of sausage flavours and other vegetables to serve with it.
Tea
The United Kingdom has been one of the world's greatest tea consumers since the 18th century. The British Empire has been essential for spreading tea from China to India where the British controlled the tea production.
The first tea to be introduced in Britain was the green tea which was exported from China to the coffeehouses of London it sold as well as the chocolate and coffee. Ever since then, tea has been an important piece of British culture and society.
The average yearly supply per person (in the UK) is 1.9kg
The average yearly consumption of tea per person (in the UK, 2014) is 2,79kg
Afternoon Tea:
It is a small meal (the traditional 4 o'clock tea) which consists of either coffee or tea with one of the following
Freshly baked scones: scones with jam or cream (can have both at the same time).
Afternoon tea sandwiches: cucumber sandwiches with the crusts off.
Assorted pastries: assortment of cakes.
Källa: för afternoon tea, för Tea, För British Dinner/Supper
British Comfort Food
A lot of people only think of hamburgers, pizzas and fries when you say comfort food, but in the UK, comfort food can be very fancy.
McDonald's, Burger King, KFC and Nando's are the most popular fast-food/comfort food chains, but there is a lot of other options too.
For example:
The famous Fish n' Chips, a dish made of fried fish sticks and French fries. This dish on the more simple side of comfort food and often found in different food trucks.
Shepherd's Pie
Another very famous comfort food, the shepherd's pie is made of mashed potatoes on top with broiled minced meat with some vegetables under, a very easy one-pot dish to make when you are lazy.
Chicken with curry and rice is another easy dish you can make even if you can't cook, and you can make it under 20 minutes, just broil some chicken in a pot, then add water, curry and vegetables and cook some rice and you've got yourself a meal.
British lunch is usually eaten between 12 am and 1.30 pm. British Lunch traditionally was not part of the main meals, but nowadays people usually count the British Lunch to the meals too.
People who have more time during lunch can go to restaurants, pubs or fast-food restaurants and eat hamburgers, pizzas or other dishes.
Families usually go out for lunch during weekends.
But generally children as well as adults usually bring a" packed lunch" to their work or school. They usually contain a sandwich, a pack of chips, a fruit and a drink, usually juice or a soda. This lunch is kept in a plastic container for easier transport and less spilling.
These sandwiches can be made of tuna, ham, pickle or anything you want basically. Some part of the UK called this dish "butty" or "sarnie".
Another very popular type of food is something with curry, because the British loves their curry.
British Brunch
A newer eating tradition has surfaced recently and that is brunch, a meal eaten between breakfast and lunch, or as a late breakfast or early lunch. These dishes are usually served in cafés and pubs, they are a bit "heavier" than breakfast but not as filling as a lunch dish. These dishes are usually just a smaller portion of a lunch dish.
Sources:
https://projectbritain.com/food/index.htm
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/brunch
20.02.2017
Gordon Ramsay
Is one of the most known chefs in Britain (probably the most known chef worldwide). He was born 8 November 1966 in Scotland. He was brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon(England). Before he wanted to become a chef he aspired to become a professional football player but due to an injury he had to stop playing football. After that Ramsay went to college to complete a course in hotel management which led him to train with some of the world's leading chefs, like Albert Roux and Marco Pierre White in London.
When Ramsay was at the age of 31 he set up his first own restaurant (Restaurant Gordon Ramsay). Nowadays his restaurants have been awarded a total of 16 Michelin stars. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay is London's longest running restaurant to hold the three Michelin stars. Gordon has appeared on many TV programmes about competitive cooking and food for example ¨Hell's kitchen¨ and ¨MasterChef¨.
Source: Gordon Ramsay link 1 och link 2
Social Media on British Food
Social media have helped the British food culture a lot, especially recently with promotions of healthier food, better alternatives and campaigns such as Jamie's "Feed me Better".
It has also helped to promote exotic dishes or exotic spin on traditional dishes, which have opened people's eyes to new food and new experiences.
TEXT: Jon, Isac and Hans-Erik