British restaurant named best in world non-shock

[mandragora]

Watching HIGNFY tonight I saw that The Fat Duck at Bray has been named the world's best restaurant for 2005.

Not exactly a surprise. Nor was it a surprise that Britain had 13 restaurants in the top 50 compared to France's 8 and the US's 6.

Arguments aside whether the 50 named restaurants are *really* the best in the world (doubtful, I mean, how would you know? Has any of the judges visited *every* possible contender - I think not), it is a sure sign of what is well known in Britain. Which is that the (well-deserved) past reputation of Britain as a culinary desert is just that. Past. Nowadays British cuisine is actually really rather good. Which is why Britain has more restaurants than any other country in a list of what are undoubtedly 50 very good restaurants (even if they're arguably not the 50 'best').

So, to anyone thinking of travelling to Britain and some local trots out the usual "Oh but the food is just *terrible*" rubbish, tell them just that - they're talking rubbish. (Mandragora thinking with irritation of the New York investment banker she met on a bus in Barcelona who *insisted* that British cusine is crap, even though he'd never actually been to Britain and even after Mandragora informed him that Britain has more Michelin starred restaurants than the US does.)

ETA: Actually, it wasn't 13 of the top 50 restaurants were British but 14. I had missed out the winner!

Comments

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

Possibly Britain has so many good restaurants because they are consciously attempting to overcome the longstanding stigmatization of British food as terrible. And people over a certain age who remember the days when the food sucked are so thrilled by their ability to go to a restaurant and get a really nice meal that they eat out a lot for the sheer novelty and pleasure of it, thus allowing all these restaurants to survive economically. And the younger generation, accustomed to good food, expects it to continue. And then you get a virtuous circle of positive reinforcement for good restaurant food, and non-acceptance of lousy food.

I have always had very good food at restaurants in England. And the widespread popularity of the table d'hote menu (everything is a la carte here) means you can get a very nice dinner at a less ridiculous price. The only time I had lousy food in England was at a Chinese restaurant in southwest London. Now, I'm picky about Asian food, living in a Pacific Rim city with a huge immigrant population, and lots of extremely authentic Chinese restaurants (and lots of extremely authentic other Asian cuisines, also). But I thought that food was absolutely crap.

Now, I could've just struck out with one particular restaurant, or it could be that Twickenham doesn't have a big Chinese population, and therefore no demand for good Chinese food. Come to think of it, I rarely saw a non-white face in Twickers, and it usually belonged to someone who was obviously there in a service capacity rather than as a resident.

[mandragora1.livejournal.com]

Re your first paragraph, I think you're onto something there. Certainly British eating habits have changed, at least in the cities. It's routine for people my generation on down to eat out several times a week. And we all grew up travelling abroad on holiday and tasting the food there. So, when we eat out we're not prepared to settle for anything that isn't decent. Plus, the more good restaurants there are the more there become in order to compete. Which is all to the good.

On the Chinese restaurant in Twickers front, I would say that Chinese restaurants in the suburbs can be very hit and miss. If you go to Chinatown in the West End, or one of the Chinese restaurants in Queensway, you're pretty much guaranteed a decent meal (even the very cheap Chinese there tend to be at least edible). And some Chinese restaurants there are world-class, absolutely superb.

But if I'm going out for a Chinese near where I live in North London I only go to the ones that I know are decent, which is probably about 1 in 3. I have the advantage that I know which ones are good, but if taking pot luck odds are I'd end up at one of the not-so-good ones. I suspect living where you do with a large Chinese population you're better off in the consistently good Chinese stakes than surburban London. Incidentally, my local Chinese takeaway is the best one I've ever come across. Which makes me very happy. *g*