The English contribution to world cuisine - the chip.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
A fellowship to Oxford acquainted me with the depths of English cooking. By the twenty-first century, London's best restaurants are as good as Paris's, but not in the 1950s.
I was brought up in a way that when you're at a dinner party, you don't grab a chip unless it's been offered to everyone else. It's the manners of being brought up by English parents.
What worries me is that, because of the amount of media coverage of food, Britain seems to have become a foodie nation - but I'm not sure it actually has. I'm not sure there's been a huge change in the pantry at home or what we cook for supper.
I think that curiosity happened on these reviews where I was just a guest of the reviewer, because it introduced me to new cuisines and to the idea of cooking as a mechanism for studying other cultures and understanding other parts of the world.
When a dish really hits a nerve with the American palate, it can really take off across the entire country, facilitated by food vendors' freedom to copy good ideas.
Food culture is like listening to the Beatles - it's international, it's very positive, it's inventive and creative.
Food is a lens for culture.
American cooking is one of the unknown cuisines in America.
I think, British food, it's had a bad rap.
If you ask what people say what American cuisine is, they cannot really do it. I don't know what it is.