I know I moan about London from time to time, especially when stuck on the Tube, but surely nowhere is ‘Cool Britannia’ more in evidence than in our capital city. London has been totally transformed since the 1980s and must be one of the top culinary destinations in the world for pure choice. You can eat or drink anything in the capital and the London Coffee Festival illustrated how London has become a haven for top quality coffee. From pop-up stalls to sit-down cafés, you can really enjoy your caffeine-in-a-cup like never before. There are clearly too many coffees to mention, but I particularly enjoyed the strong and delicious Neapolitan style from Kimbo and the delightfully smooth Vietnamese coffee from The Saigon Coffee Company.
A Sense of fun : Olympic proportions !
So the Olympics have finished, but the smiles remain, even if the full benefits won’t be felt for another 20 years, or so we are told. Hopefully, the Paralympics will be a fantastic success too (although can’t the Olympic flame be continued until those Games have finished ?). A real sense of fun has pervaded the atmosphere, which leads me to the following observation. Has food and drink become more “fun” recently? I think so and about time too!
National Food Stereotypes
Every nation is justifiably proud of its culinary traditions. France, the home of "gastronomie", has a worldwide reputation for culinary excellence. Similarly, Italy is famous for quality food and drink and increasingly, the diverse flavours of Asian cuisine are winning plaudits from a global audience. British food and drink, on the other hand, have for decades been subject to negative connotations, despite the rise of award-winning British chefs and Michelin-starred restaurants, specialising in British recipes and ingredients.
Although there are historical reasons for this, including changes brought about by the industrial revolution, post-war rationing, 1970s kitsch and preferences for tinned and processed food over home-cooked, today’s reality is markedly different from the enduring global myth of impoverished British cuisine.