Why does British culinary culture not stand out in Europe?
Because we were the first to suffer the effects of the gastronomic regression caused by the Industrial Revolution.
Did you eat worse in the factories?
There was so much demand for labor in the city that we abandoned garden and farm cooking en masse… and, in a few years, we were left without local cuisine or good products.
Wasn’t an industrial gastronomy born?
When you lose contact with the land, you lose contact with its flavors: its cereals, fruits, cheeses… And we abandon them all to eat poorly in factory canteens.
And didn’t the upper class defend its flavors?
In that Victorian era, the sensory pleasures of meat, all meats, were considered ignoble and typical of the lower classes and they renounced good dishes.
And the lower classes weren’t looking for one?
Read Dickens and you will get an idea of ??the disaster.
Is that why you write about flavors?
I have become obsessed with them, and know that we British have recovered a lot of gastronomy lost since the 70s, starting with reclaiming farm species; forgotten vegetables, fruits and dishes. Our cheeses once again have the flavor of yesteryear.
I don’t know if I see it in English supers.
Because that is the other problem with flavors: there is no point in talking about them if only four privileged people can afford them.
In Spain, haute cuisine is expensive and, on the other hand, also very popular.
The majority of Brits cannot, do not want to or do not believe that it is worth paying more to eat better quality.
Are you against ‘dark kitchens’ and messengers carrying it through the streets?
It is the last part of the industrialization of flavors that we have suffered since the 19th century. XIX. But I am encouraged by the number of quality bakeries opening in London.
Do we have any ubiquitous and mediocre sushi left over?
If you don’t know what flavors good sushi should have, you won’t be able to tell the difference. That’s the English problem. And to start, buy a good knife.
The most disgusting yet tasty taste you remember?
Disgusting and tasty…?, for example…?
Andouillette sausages? They smell when you eat them as if they had already been eaten.
Have you cooked elder fruit?
Never. Those little black balls?
They often smell like urine when boiled. That’s why it’s not a popular dish today. Other flavors that have shocked me to the point of becoming unforgettable are well-fermented kimchi…
It is strong because it is fermented; but it doesn’t repel.
And there are all the algae in such a variety of aromas, flavors and textures that I have dedicated a chapter to them. And that diversity is free: they are available to anyone who dares to pick them from the sea and cook them.
You must have known them before.
They require a previous culture that only Asian peoples, such as the Japanese, have, due to the powerful iodine flavor that defines them.
Do you defend the ‘fish
We Brits have wonderful crustaceans and crabs on our coasts.
What a treat!
But, due to regrettable prejudices, the majority of Britons do not find them tempting…
Well, worse for them…
On the other hand, they love fish
Isn’t it fried fish with questionable fats?
I love fish
Also delicious?
Well look, yes, even the aroma of the oily newspaper was appetizing.
If you say so.
They were cod and haddock with a delicate flavor, which we enhanced by frying them. Don’t they intensify it here by salting it?
It was a conservation strategy.
El fish
Try olive oil: for your own health, I tell you.
If the fish
No offense: the fryer reduces all flavor to that of (sometimes poorly) fried.
Open your mind! In Scotland they even fry Mars chocolate bars like fish
There they: there was also cannibalism.
On the other hand, tofu provides all the flavors with exquisite gradation in its lightness: there are 80 varieties that barely differ in slight nuances, some just shadows of the previous one. So I make mine the same way I connect other flavors like coffee with yogurt.
What do you discover in the mix?
That the coffee expresses itself as if it were a fruit in the yogurt, which instead acquires smoky nuances: sweet, acidic and slightly bitter, like black currant.
