Admit it: the English love affair with European food has grown stale – we need a native cuisine we can be proud of | Lewis Bassett

It’s boring to see aioli, burrata and fresh pasta on menus everywhere. Especially when we have salad cream, custard tarts and stuffed chine

No discerning dinner party host in England would dream of serving their guests a traditional English ham. You might find jamón ibérico, of which Spain is so proud, but never stuffed chine, a shoulder cut of salted pork marbled with parsley, once a delicacy in Lincolnshire. It sometimes seems as if the English middle classes are so concerned with other countries’ proud artisanal products that they miss the potential of our own.

We’re more likely to find cookery writers and experts in nutrition advocate for Japanese foods than traditional English fare. The Chinese diet, too, has its passionate advocates in England. We barely need to mention the English middle classes’ long love affair with France and Italy and Spain.

Lewis Bassett is a chef and the host of The Full English Podcast, and the author of The Full English

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