England should cultivate a proud, modern native cuisine to replace stale Euro-centric food trends and renew national pride
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/lewis-bassett. "Admit it: the English love affair with European food has grown stale – we need a native cuisine we can be proud of | Lewis Bassett | The Guardian." October 27, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author says England's well-off diners have grown too fond of Italian, French and Spanish food, and it's getting dull. He argues England should invent a new, healthier native cuisine built on craft, backed by government policy, which would give the country something positive to be proud of.
Conclusion
England should build a new, popular native culinary culture, supported by state policy and centred on craft and health, because this would renew a positive national pride and improve eating habits, in place of the middle-class fixation on southern European food.
Premises
- The English middle classes have long favoured French, Italian, Spanish and other foreign cuisines over English food, and this 'modern European' style now feels repetitive and dull (aioli, burrata, fresh pasta, croissants everywhere).
- This preference is historically contingent rather than natural: English food tastes have shifted with class interests and politics (Georgian beef patriotism, Victorian bourgeois adoption of French cooking, postwar rationing and Mediterranean informality).
- National cuisines are inventions, and invented traditions can succeed, as the rise of a distinctly British artisanal sourdough and native craft baking shows.
- England has some of the most unhealthy and unsustainable eating habits in Europe, so a revived cuisine must adapt old dishes and ingredients rather than simply repeat them (roast beef and overfished seafood won't do).
- Middle-class artisanal trends are unaffordable for many, breeding resentment and fuelling anti-posh industrial food like Greggs, so a broad native cuisine needs state policy to raise culinary standards across the board.
- English patriotism is often seen as a blight, yet a positive, prouder national identity could help rebuild connection in a fragmented society, and pride in culinary craft is a plausible common ground for that.
Assumptions
- Boredom with current restaurant trends is a meaningful reason to change a food culture.
- A national cuisine can be deliberately cultivated, and state policy can effectively shape food culture and standards.
- Food is a viable and relatively uncontroversial vehicle for building inclusive national pride.
- Adapted English dishes can be made healthier and more sustainable while still being recognisably English and appealing.
- The tastes of the English middle classes and restaurant menus are representative enough of English food culture to justify the diagnosis.
- Pride in craft food will generalise into social cohesion rather than exclusion.