Is British Food REALLY the Worst?

I say this as an Italian, British food doesn't deserve the hate. It's warm, comforting, cozy and hearty. It's the perfect food for a cold dreary day. Wholly underrated. Much love from italy.

Toast sandwich is NOT a thing in the UK - often mentioned as a joke. The fact it's actually from a real recipe in the 19th century is news to me!

tbf for European standards of bad food, UK gets too much bad rep. Their neighbor across the sea, the Netherlands, has a much worse cuisine, possibly one of the blandest in Europe.

Toad in a hole, Bangers and Mash, Cornish Pasty, Steak Pie, Full English, Yorkshire pudding, England has many really delicious savory dishes. English cuisine also has a mean desert game.

Swedish people squeeze fish roe mixed in with mayonnaise from a tube onto crackers with hard boiled egg slices for breakfast. The only reason why Brits get a bad rep for food is because they are a more well-known country with a higher volume of tourism.

I think the key missing component to British cuisine that will never translate to an international audience is the cold rainy weather. Most signature dishes that evolved on the British Islands did so in order to be both warm and filling. It isn't a cuisine that adapts well to warmer and drier climates in the same way that the appeal of a banana split is largely lost on people living within the Arctic circle.

As a Brit I just assume that fellow Brits who think that British food is terrible just had mothers who couldn't cook. Our takeaways often suck yeah, but actual British meals/recipes are great. Anything can suck when put together by an unskilled person. Also beans on toast (usually with egg) is great but heinz are one of the worst brands for it these days.

from the UK, never heard of a toast sandwich before this video.

As someone who's lived in the UK for a time and visited a lot of different parts of the country, I've had the pleasure to try a lot of traditional dishes (or at least ones informed by them), and many of them were delicious. Particularly the desserts! One thing I think has resulted in this stereotype is poor eating habits. Like you say in the video, cooking is often regarded as a chore in the UK, and as such a lot of people opt for ready-made meals and take aways. It's like that joke about "British Tapas" being nothing but fries, hash browns, nuggets, and beans, in other words, foods that are already prepared and which you only need to heat up. Like you Matthew one of my parents (in my case, mother) is from the UK, but I think she introduced me to all the wrong aspects of British cuisine and eating habits. If it wasn't for the fact that I grew up right next door to my Portuguese grandparents, then I don't think I would've had much in the way of proper meals!

I'm honestly sick of jokes about English Food. Oh yeah, all our food's brown and yellow and grey. Never heard that one before. I find it very Classist, this idea we don't eat other colours, cause that sort of stuff is most often eaten in low income areas of the UK. Yes I am English.

Ngl, most of the time it just feels like a stereotype created and perpetuated by Americans (who are notorious for stereotyping) who've never been anywhere near the UK, or if they had, they had their view shaped by ONE bad experience. Definitely pales compared to other cuisines, but the simplicity and comfort of it works for many. Also thought it was weird how other countries can have odd food combinations that look weird to the rest of the world and most people wouldn't bat an eye

Homemade Sheppard's pie can't be beaten on a winter's day. But 100% this is due to Brits having lost their connection with their own food culture, not being able to cook properly and subsequently over relying on factory made prepared garbage. There are a lot of local dishes that are actually delicious, when someone who can cook takes the time to cook them well. Let's not mistake microwave lasagne for Italian food, or Heinz for the extensive sauce and fermentation traditions that existed in these isles for centuries. For reference I have British parents but grew up in Ireland & NZ- and moved to UK about 7years ago. My experience of Brits is that nobody has ever really taught them how to cook, and when someone does it's seen almost as extravagant or poncy/posh/showoff. If you want to eat well here you tend to cook at home a lot.

I’m British and have never heard of a toast sandwich.

Honestly british cuisine has some great gems like beef Wellington

But their Pie Culture is amazing

The reason for American stereotype of British food is bland is because of world war 2 when Americans where stationed in the uk and the uk was under rations so people had to make food last longer and use what they had available, so lots of boiled and bland food because of it.

aside from food, the UK public transport is light years ahead of US. All cities and towns have public transport and rural areas have some buses. This does not exist in the USA outside of a couple of cities - mainly on east coast and Chicago, and none of them match average towns in the UK

French cuisine was fashionable in Britain for a long period which coincided with the growth of modern literature and journalism. What we would now call influencers looked down on native (peasant or provincial) dining compared with the smart ideas from Europe. Thus we made our own bad rep. In recent years, that trend has been reversed, with media chefs emphasising more traditional cookery methods and ingredients. Plus the growth of country pub dining, which also reflects those more local influences. Incidentally, the wartime rationing regime was carefully designed by a group of young nutritionists to be well balanced and healthy within the limitations of the situation (the UK, even then, imported a lot of its food and was just coming out of a severe agricultural crisis during the preceding decade). Indeed, it was one of the best diets the nation has ever had. Rationing actually got worse in the years after the War, when the country was virtually bankrupt and had lost a lot of shipping.

I'm English and I'd never heard of a toast sandwich until this year. You're mostly on the money though, the only part that's truly disagreeable is the UK having worse public transport than the US and that wasn't even a food opinion

Ive found that British and many other more northern European cuisines are not based on fanciful flavours or colours. Its about being hearty and filling. Something to keep you warm on a bitter winters night