In the first place, I must warn you that I found the video difficult to understand. Some foreign accents, fragmented English, a few dishes I had never heard of... I don't know. Anyway, six of the most celebrated chefs in Britain (no Jamie Olivier, surprise, surprise), Raymond Blanc, Brett Graham, Ruth Rogers, Atul Kochar, Angela Hartnett and Fergus Henderson tell us their ideas of British food.
Self-study activity:
This is an activity for strong intermediate students, but it is more suitable for advanced students.
A. Watch the video through and note down the dishes and names of foods that are mentioned.
B. Watch the clip again and say whether the following statements are true or false:
1 London is one of the greatest gastronomic cities in the world.
2 British cuisine has changed a lot in the last few years.
3 Every cuisine in the world can be found in London.
4 Sustainability is key for most English chefs at the moment.
5 Markets and local shops are getting more and more important for people.
You can read the transcript below.
A great British menu…
Oh, dear, that’s a long one.
Well, it’s just a… a menu… thank you very much…
Ultimate British?
It’s a…
Oooh…
It would be rice chicken.
Great Stilton.
Asparagus.
Spiced smoked salmon.
Cheese, blue cheese.
Best end of roe deer baked over Douglas fir.
Cornish pasty.
Probably an apple.
Tandoori pigeon served in a Yorkshire pudding cup.
It’s about the produce, it’s about meat, it’s about two veg.
I still love crumble, to me, I’m obsessed by crumble. That is a beautiful dish. It should be known across the world.
I think most people think we overcook our beef. Everyone just eats fish and chips or soggy vegetables. I don´t think, certainly not accurate. We certainly do great fish and chips still.
London is definitely one of the great gastronomic cities, not just in Europe, but in the world.
I think people who were returning to Britain after maybe living abroad or people who are just coming here on holidays, they see a massive change in the cuisine that is offered in Britain and the type of food that is being offered at the moment in restaurants and they seem generally really surprised.
I think you can sit there now and go… what do I want to eat and you can pretty much go round the world.
You have smells, and you have taste, and you have colours. I go to a local market, it’s like taking a trip into another (this one is grammatically incorrect on her part) countries.
From Vietnamese, from French, from Italians, from Mongolians, Japanese… we’ve got every cuisine under one capital.
Look out the window in this office and be told there are five little pop-up restaurants across the street.
My cuisine has been enriched by your multicultural society. Does it divide you my frenchness and my type… No! It enriches it.
Sustainability is my religion. Anything that is not sustainable will not be on my menu. That community of chefs is massive in the UK. We all strongly believe into that, and we follow those ethos very strongly.
The British chef knows where his food comes from, and the consumer too.
And I think the food scene is getting better and better, which is we are using more local stuff, we’re really going back to artesan and producers and not rely so much on the supermarkets, markets are coming back. People are going to their local shops.
So, so exciting over here, seasons, game birds, I mean, natures hurling lunch at you, pay attention.
Food before was separated from us, now it’s part of it, it’s part of our consciousness, here as well.
I don’t think anybody can take away that from us. And I feel very good that I stand at that podium as a British person.
Key:
All the five statements are true.
