English cuisine and national character

The neighbours from the Continent never tire of making fun of English cuisine. The internationally popular French comics about Asterix the Gaul contain an episode in which he and his best friend Obelix, who isfamous for eating a lot of food, go to England where the two heroes struggle to eat normally, but even Obelix cannot cope with English food which is tasteless and liberally coated with mint sauce.

The primary distinguishing feature of English food is also its main problem: its purpose is to satisfy hunger and not to provide pleasure. The English do not make a cult of food, although many of them do take pleasure in their food.

The English themselves have an inferiority complex about their cuisine and are deprecating about it. If your English friends invite you to lunch they will straight away present you with a choice of going to a French, Italian, Indian or Chinese restaurant. In the provinces, the choice is much smaller, and may be limited to the local pub.

From the point of view of contemporary English culture, the story of one young English star, Jamie Oliver, is particularly interesting and significant. Jamie is a chef. His television show is watched by a huge audience of all ages, his books have an enormous print run, and in order to have a meal at his recently opened restaurant, you have to book months in advance.

The reasons for Jamie Oliver’s success, apart from good advertising, are that he was in the right place at the right time. First of all, he is frightfully “English”. He looks like a collective portrait of English youth. He grew up in the provinces (in Essex) and worked in his parents’ pub from childhood.

At first he used many techniques from Italian cuisine, in particular olive oil and vegetables, since the English have a great respect for Italian cooking. But gradually English items started to creep to the top of the list. Increasingly often he has made patriotic appeals to use traditional English products, to recall traditional English recipes, and to remember that the English have always been able to cook: nothing fancy, of course, but tasty.

Now he is in other programmes as well, for example, ‘Oliver Twist’. Even the title itself contains a clever pun. On the one hand, Oliver Twist is the title of the well-known book by Charles Dickens, and on the other hand you could read it as Oliver’s dodges. The idea was simple and close to the hearts of the English (and not just theirs). After a heavy night, a group of young, energetic people taken from different types of restaurant, pub and bar go home to Jamie Oliver’s for breakfast. They laugh and joke lightly and in an unconstrained way while he prepares some explosive hangover cure involving tomato juice, pepper and whatever else he can find.

After this he starts to prepare breakfast, which is naturally English and traditional. In a lively way he cleans mushrooms, fries sausages and bacon, beats eggs and makes toast. All this process is accompanied by a commentary about how to cook bacon without burning it, how best to buy sausages, which sauce to serve. Surprisingly, this simple process is rather captivating and instructive as well: here are living English traditions, not being advertised by some crumbly old grandmother but by a jolly young Englishman with his friends who eat the lot at the end with enthusiastic cries. Jamie Oliver’s work has been highly acclaimed by the country too.

In the autumn of 2003 at a ceremony in Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II personally awarded him a MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) which is awarded to people in recognition of outstanding service to the nation.

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1. In the summer of 2003 at a ceremony in Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II personally awarded Jamie Oliver a MBE.

2. The idea to give young people good English breakfast in Oliver’s home was simple and close to the hearts of the English.

3. From the point of view of contemporary English culture, the story of one young English star, Jamie Oliver, is not interesting and significant.

4. The primary distinguishing feature of English food is also its main prob­lem: its purpose is to satisfy hunger and not to provide pleasure.

5. There is the famous joke about the international contingents in heaven and hell: in hell the chef is French.

6. Everybody believed the story about the origin of lasagna read on the Internet.

7. The book about English beef was written by an economist, for the most part using statistics.

8. The English make a cult of food.

5.1.4. Ответьте на данные вопросы (работа в парах).

1. What do the neighbours from the Continent never tire of?

2. What is the famous joke about the international contingents in heaven and hell?

3. What do the English themselves have about their cuisine?

4. Where do English friends invite their guests to lunch?

5. What are the English reminding their countrymen nowadays?

6. What kind of breakfast does Oliver prefer to prepare?

7. What happened in the autumn of 2003?

8. What did he tell journalists in his interview?