Are Brits becoming more adventurous in the kitchen?

What comes to your mind when you think of British food? Probably fish and chips, or a Sunday dinner of meat and two vegetables. Although Britain has a reputation for less-thanspectacular cuisine, Britain is producing more and more top class chefs who dominate our television screens and whose recipe books frequently top the bestseller lists.

Britons are turning away from meat-and-two-veg and ready-made meals and becoming more adventurous in their cooking habits because of TV Chefs. It seems that TV programmes have the power to bring a higher profile to cooking and are wielding real influence on what people cook at home. Many of the new celebrity chefs promote modern ‘fusion cuisine’, which blends classic ‘British’ cooking with international and exotic influences. Even the chefs themselves are younger, more attractive and much more experimental, such as Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver.

Jamie Oliver was only 23 when he first appeared on British television screens. More than 4 million people tuned in to his popular show ‘Jamie’s Kitchen’. The show began as an experiment and turned into a phenomenon. Jamie gave himself nine months to take a team of unemployed 16 to 24-year-olds, with virtually no previous experience of cooking, and transform them into top class chefs to work in his new restaurant in East London, ‘Fifteen’. Jamie left school himself without formal qualifications and believes that with a passion for food, anyone can become a good cook. ‘Fifteen’ has become a hit in London and is booked up months in advance. Jamie Oliver has proved to be a huge inspiration for British people.

A recent survey finds that the number of those sticking to a traditional diet is slowly declining and around half of Britain’s consumers would like to change or improve their cooking in some way. There has been a rise in the number of students applying for food courses at UK universities and colleges, such as those offered by the School of Culinary Arts at South Trafford College. After centuries of mediocre cuisine, is Britain now competing with countries such as France and Italy in the field of culinary excellence?