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Originally Posted by homebucket
Why is that? I've never been to England but I've heard this time and time again. Is it the quality of the ingredients or they just don't know how to cook?
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They don’t know how to cook and the culture traditionally doesn’t value it. For the upper class cooking was something the servants did, down in the basement (you can still find unmodernised Georgian houses in gentrifying parts or London where the kitchen is a tiny, almost windowless room at the bottom of the house). And the lower classes have never had the time or money, but there’s also just not a tradition of doing a lot with little like you get in places like Southern Italy.
The climate probably doesn’t help; England is very green but aside from cabbages (which require frost to develop sugars and flavor) there isn’t enough sun for fruits most of the year (fantastic berries for a couple months or so, tomatoes for a week or two if you’re lucky). And despite ruling over 1/4 of the world including India for 200 years, they never assimilated any of those flavors and spices into native cuisine. Apparently they are not allowed to even have garlic in the kitchen at Buckingham Palace because Queen Elizabeth hates it so much (too strongly flavored).
But yeah, mostly people just don’t care. They are incredible cheapskates when it comes to food. Professionals making six-figure incomes in London go to Tesco for a lunchtime “meal deal” to save £1. It’s ridiculous.
You can eat very well in London but that’s because you can basically avoid English food entirely (aside from some very high end British restaurants which, like “New Nordic” cuisine, succeed in elevating it with perfect technique and optimal ingredients). But that’s mostly because London is full of foreigners, especially Southern Europeans and Asians.