Colegiul National Mihai Eminescu

Lucrare pentru obinerea atestatului de competene lingvistice la limba englez

FOOD EMBLEMS IN THE UK

Coordinator:

Author:

Istrate Ramona

Porumbcean Teodora

Clasa a XII-a A
2015

Contents

Introduction............................................................................................................... 2
Chaper 1.................................................................................................................... 3
Food and its importance............................................................................................. 3
Chapter 2- Food Evolution in Uk..................................................................................... 4
2.1 Brief Histry on food evolution in UK........................................................................4
2.2 British regional cuisine.......................................................................................... 5
Chapter 3 Traditionally cuisine...................................................................................... 6
3.1. Basic ingredients and traditional cuisine....................................................................6
3.2 Traditionally emblematical dished............................................................................ 7
3.3 Meals and meal times............................................................................................ 9
Chapter 4- Celebrity Chefs........................................................................................... 10
Conclusion............................................................................................................... 12
Index..........................................................................................................................
Bibliography................................................................................................................

Introduction
British cuisine has carved a niche for itself in the hearts of food connoisseurs all over
theworld. British food has evolved considerably incorporating the cooking styles and cuisines
of other countries yet at the same time retaining its originality. Each region of Britain has it
owncharacteristic culinary traditions that have played a major role in enriching the history of
British cuisine. For instance, the pork pies have been identified with the culinary customs of
the shires, whereas in Cornwall, the pasty constituted an important part of lunch of
theworkers. Some cuisines in Britain although associated with particular localities have
attaineda national recognition, like the very famous Yorkshire pudding.
I have decided to aproach this theme beacuse I perceive food as a way of expressing one
country culture and evolution.I believe that when we talk about food we should not only think
about it as something that is eaten in order to sustain life, it is also a way of describing people
lifestyle and activities.This quotidian aspect has evolved into a sample for any country and in
UK it has created a true brand in people life style.
A great part of my spare time, I have spent it watching Jamie Olivers TV shows about
preparing traditional British dishes. Because of that, when I saw this task I decided tochose it
to find more information about food in United Kingdom and offer the opportunityfor others to
find out new information.To emphasize my way of thinking I consider that I havechosen the
subject Britishfood because had always been captivated by the flavor of any dish that exists
and I havebeen interested in anything that has to do with Great Britain.Also, I consider that
the food is subject with a major importance and this is not onlybecause if you do not eat
properly you cannot have a healthy life but also because food is thesupport of everything that
lives around us. Another controversial aspect that make me chosenthis subject is the way that
British food had been influenced in history by others way of cooking.Remarkable is the fact
that the GB is a place where food and meals are an important partof people lives. In the first
place Britain is a country where everyone respects the time of ameal, and of course everyone
eats or tries to eat at the certain time. Secondly people of thispart of the world consider food
to be an important part of any event of festival. This is notonly because food is indispensable
but, also because an event or a feast that has a little of everything brings people together.All in
all, the utmost aspect which made me chosen this subject was the fact that I lovecooking and I
love learning new things about food.

Chaper 1

Food and its importance

It is often said that you are what you eat.Human evolution marked the food evolution too.If
we draw a compaarison betwwen whatever peopel used to eat long time ago, we will see a
huge development. Wild fruits and raw meat were replaced with cooked food. Each and every
culture has developed a specific type of cooking based on a characteristically set of flavours
combination unique to that culture, which evoled over time. Other differences include
preferences (hot or cold, spicy or dull,etc.) and practices. Many cultures have diversified their
food by means of preparation, cooking methds, and manufacturing.
For example in Asia, (in UK Asinan cuisinegenerally refers to South Asian cuisine)is
represented by the rice and noodles that are the mainly incredients for 80% of their recipes.

As you travel through Europe, youll find regional similarities in adjacent countries. Whether
youre comparing fruit pastries, dried sausages, cheeses, or potato dishes, youll find that each
European country has a unique gastronomic signature.

Mediterranean Cuisine
Meat lovers will revel in delicious preparations of lamb, beef, and seafood; thanks to
the extensive use of vegetables, pulses, cheeses, seeds and nuts, this cuisine is a
pleasure for vegetarians as well.
The Central European food
Hungary, renowned for its goulash and paprika-based dishes, has dozens of other
specialties to try. If youre in the Czech Republic at Christmas time, feast on the
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traditional Christmas meal of carp and potato salad. In Lithuania try the smoked meat
and fish specialties, and the tasty black rye bread youll find on every table.

Chapter 2- Food Evolution in the UK

2.1 Brief Histry on food evolution in UK

British cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions and practices associated with the
United Kingdom. Historically, British cuisine means unfussy dishes made with quality local
incredients, matched with simple sauces to accentuate flavour, rather than disguis it.
British cuisine has always been multicultural, a pot pourri of eclectic styles. In ancient
times influenced by the Romans and in medieval times the French. When the Frankish
Normans invaded, they brought with them the spices of the east: cinnamon, saffron, mace,
nutmeg, pepper, ginger. Sugar came to England at that time, and was considered a spice -- rare
and expensive. Before the arrival of cane sugars, honey and fruit juices were the only
sweeteners. The few Medieval cookery books that remain record dishes that use every spice in
the larder, and chefs across Europe saw their task to be the almost alchemical transformation
of raw ingredients into something entirely new (for centuries the English aristocracy ate
French food) which they felt distinguished them from the peasants.
During Victorian times good old British stodge mixed with exotic spices from all over
the Empire. And today despite being part of Europe we've kept up our links with the countries
of the former British Empire, now united under the Commonwealth.
One of the benefits of having an empire is that we did learn quite a bit from the
colonies. From East Asia (China) we adopted tea (and exported the habit to India), and from
India we adopted curry-style spicing, we even developed a line of spicy sauces including
ketchup, mint sauce, Worcestershire sauce and deviled sauce to indulge these tastes. Today it
would be fair to say that curry has become a national dish.
Among English cakes and pastries, many are tied to the various religious holidays of
the year. Hot Cross Buns are eaten on Good Friday, Simnel Cake is for Mothering Sunday,
Plum Pudding for Christmas, and Twelfth Night Cake for Epiphany.
Unfortunately a great deal of damage was done to British cuisine during the two world
wars. Britain is an island and supplies of many goods became short. The war effort used up
goods and services and so less were left over for private people to consume. Ships importing
food stuffs had to travel in convoys and so they could make fewer journeys. During the

second world war food rationing began in January 1940 and was lifted only gradually after the
war.
The British tradition of stews, pies and breads, according to the taste buds of the rest
of the world, went into terminal decline. What was best in England was only that which
showed the influence of France, and so English food let itself become a gastronomic joke and
the French art of Nouvell Cuisine was adopted.

2.2 British regional cuisine

In the late 1980's, British cuisine started to look for a new direction. Disenchanted with
theoverblown (and under-nourished) Nouvelle Cuisine, chefs began to look a little closer to
homefor inspiration. Calling on a rich (and largely ignored) tradition, and utilising many
diverse andinteresting ingredients, the basis was formed for what is now known as modern
British food.Game has enjoyed resurgence in popularity although it always had a central role
in the Britishdiet, which reflects both the abundant richness of the forests and streams and an
old aristocraticprejudice against butchered meats.In London especially, one can not only
experiment with the best of British, but the best of the world as there are many distinct ethnic
cuisines to sample, Chinese, Indian, Italian and Greek restaurants are amongst the most
popular.Although some traditional dishes such as roast beef and Yorkshire pudding,
Cornishpasties, steak and kidney pie, bread and butter pudding, treacle tart, spotted dick or
fish andchips, remain popular, there has been a significant shift in eating habits in Britain.
Rice and pastahave accounted for the decrease in potato consumption and the consumption of
meat has alsofallen. Vegetable and salad oils have largely replaced the use of butter.Roast beef
is still the national culinary pride. It is called a "joint," and is served at middayon Sunday with
roasted potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, two vegetables, a good strong horseradish,gravy, and
mustard.Today there is more emphasis on fine, fresh ingredients in the better restaurants
andmarkets in the UK offer food items from all over the world. Salmon, Dover sole, exotic
fruit,Norwegian prawns and New Zealand lamb are choice items. Wild fowl and game are
otherspecialties on offer.In fact fish is still important to the English diet, we are after all an
island surrounded bysome of the richest fishing areas of the world. Many species swim in the
cold offshore waters:sole, haddock, hake, plaice, cod (the most popular choice for fish and
chips), turbot, halibut,mullet and John Dory. Oily fishes also abound (mackerel, pilchards, and

herring) as docrustaceans like lobster and oysters. Eel, also common, is cooked into a
wonderful pie withlemon, parsley, and shallots, all topped with puff pastry

Chapter 3 Traditionally cuisine

3.1. Basic ingredients and traditional cuisine

Meat
The British people consume regularly all types of meat:pork, rabbits or some wild bird
species. All of these may be servedin restaurants, but, also, fish (salmon, cod, trout) is present.
Vegetables
Potato is the basic vegetable in Britain, used sincethe earliest times, when it was the principal
food for poor families,then following cucumbers, cabbage, onions, peas.
Fruit
Mainly apples grown throughout the country, but alsoberries, which grow smoothly thanks to
the cooler climateTraditional meal is rarely eaten nowadays, apart from Sundays. A recent
survey hasproved that most people in Britain eat curry! Rice or pasta dishes are now favoured
as a British Dinner.

3.2 Traditionally emblematical dished

British food has traditionally been based on beef ,lamb, pork, chicken and fish and
generally served with pattoes and one other vegetable. The most common and typical food
eaten in Britain includes:

1. The Sandwich

It was named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, an 18th-century English
aristocrat, although he was neither the inventor nor sustainer of this food. It is said that he
ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread, and because
Montagu also happened to be the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, others began to order The same
as Sandwich!. It is said that Lord Sandwich was fond of this frm of food because it allowed
him to continue playing cards while eating without getting his cards greasy from eating meat
with his bare hands.
2. Fish and Chips
Who first had the bright idea to marry fish with chips remains the subject of fierce
controversy and we will probably never know for sure. It is safe to say it was somewhere in
England, but arguments rage over whether it was up north or down south. Some credit a
northern eutrepreneur called John Lees. As early as 1863, it is believed he was selling fish and
chips out of a wooden hut at Mossley market in industrial Lancashire.
3. Meat Pies
British mea pies come in all shapes and flavours. Od time favourites can be found on
most local high streets-usually in the traditional butchers shop.
The humble pie was still very famous in Victorian times when meat pies were sold all
over England by travelling pie-men who walked the streets with their freshly made pies held
high in a basket. They sold their wares in taverns and public houses and were always to be
seen at race meetings and fairs.
4. Trifle
Layers of alcohol-soaked sponge cake alternate with fruit, custard and whippedcream,
some people add jelly, but that's for kids.
5. Welsh Faggots
Pig's liver is made into meatballs with onion, beef suet, bread crumbs,and sometimes a
chopped apple. Faggots used to be made to use up the odd parts of a pig after ithad been
slaughtered.
6. Welsh Rabbit (or Rarebit)

Cheese is grated and melted with milk or ale. Pepper, salt,butter, and mustard are then
added. The mix is spread over toast and baked until "the cheesebubbles and becomes brown in
appetizing-looking splashes".

7. Yorkshire pudding
It was invented during the war, when it was a food shortage, in thattime it was made
marking pudding with fat from the roast meat left from Sunday.Another dish, resulting in
debris but very tasty, is Bubble and Squeak, made of scraps of potatoes, cabbage and roast
cold.British import much of its food products, and I believe they have learned to live
relativelycheaply.
.3.3 Meals and meal times
Traditonally, the meals are:
o
o
o
o

Breakfast- between 7:00 and 9:00

Lunch between 12;00 and 1:30 p.m
High Tea- anywhere from 5;30 at night to 6:30 p.m
Dinner- between 7:00 and 8:30 p.m
A typical English breakfast consists of bacon, poached or fried eggs, fried or grilled tomatoes
and mushrooms, fried bread or toast with butter and sausages, all washed down with a cup of
coffee. Nowadays, however, a typical English breakfast is more likely to be a bowl of cereals,
a slice of toast, orange juice and a cup of coffee. In the winter many people eat porridge or
boiled oats.
Lunch
It is the main meal of the day, and it is served between 12:00 and 1:30 p.m.. In the
middle Ages, great nobles ate the most formal dinner, around noon. A typical British meal for
lunch is meat and two vegetables. One of the vegetables that is almost used are patatoes.
High Tea
High Tea is an early evening meal, tipically eaten between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.. It is now largely
followed by a later lighter evening meal. High tea wuld usually consist of cold meats, eggs or
fish, cakes and sandwiches. In it is origin, the term high tea was used as a way to
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distinguish it from low tea or afternoon tea. Low tea was served in a sitting room where low
tables were placed near sofas or chairs generally. The word high referred to a table, this one
on a dining room table, and it would be loaded with substantial dinner dishes- meats, cheese,
breads, perhaps the classic sheperds pie or steak and kidney pie.

Chapter 4- Celebrity Chefs

Jamie Oliver
James Trevor "Jamie" Oliver, MBE (born 27 May 1975) is an English celebrity chef,
restauranteur, and media personality known for his food-focused television shows, cookbooks
and more recently his global campaign for better food education.
Jamie grew up surrounded by good food: his parents ran the Cricketers pub in Essex and,
from the age of eight, he started cooking and helping the chefs there, and learning to
appreciate quality ingredients along the way. After an undistinguished school career, he
decided he wanted to cook for a living and studied catering at Westminster Kingsway College
in London.
During his apprenticeship, Jamie worked with some of the best chefs in London. He
was a pastry chef for Antonio Carluccio at the Neal Street Restaurant, then moved on to Rose
Gray and Ruth Rogers River Caf. It was while working at the River Caf that he was spotted
by a TV producer and his life changed The Naked Chef, the first of numerous cookery
shows to be fronted by Jamie, was commissioned.
Jamies work outside of the kitchen includes campaigning for better school meals; he
has also made documentaries highlighting the issues surrounding poultry production and the
plight of British pig farmers. His Fifteen enterprise, which now spans several cities, has
helped under-privileged young people gain valuable experience in the restaurant business.

Gordon Ramsay
Part restaurant empire-builder, part celebrity, and part sublimely talented cook, Gordon
Ramsay is one of the most high-profile chefs in the world, known for his sharp tongue and nononsense approach.
It all could have been so different. As a teenager he was on the books of Glasgow
Rangers FC, but injury put paid to his chances of a professional career. So, imbued with an
ambition never to fail again, he switched his attention to cooking and completed a course in
hotel management. After graduating, his ambition took him to two of London's legendary
restaurants - Marco Pierre White's Harvey's and Albert Roux's Le Gavroche - and then to
France where he worked under Jol Robuchon and Guy Savoy.
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Gordons first big break was when an employer offered him the opportunity to take
over as part-owner of Aubergine in London in 1993; within three years the restaurant had
been awarded two Michelin stars. However, after a bust-up with the restaurant's backers,
Gordon left and took all his staff with him to a new venture in Chelsea, Restaurant Gordon
Ramsay. It became a huge critical success, earning three Michelin stars within three years of
opening. Gordon now has several restaurants in London, as well as restaurants in New York,
Los Angeles, Florida, Dubai, Tokyo, South Africa, Ireland and France.
Annabel Karmel
Annabel is a leading author on preparing and cooking food for children. Following the
tragic loss of her first baby, Annabel a trained Cordon Bleu cook extensively researched
the topic of feeding young children. She combined her findings with her own experience and
worked with a nutritionist to produce her first book, The Complete Baby and Toddler Meal
Planner, published in 1991.
The book was a big hit and was endorsed by the Great Ormond Street Hospital for
Sick Children. Since then, Annabel has written more than 19 books on the subject of feeding
babies and young children, as well as books teaching children how to cook.
Annabel has received a number of awards for her work. In 2006, she was awarded an
MBE by Her Majesty the Queen for her outstanding contribution to the field of child
nutrition.

Conclusion
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To offer a personal conclusion, I believe that food is the most important aspect of life
thatinfluences us. Firstly, no one can live without food and that's why we learned to cook
tosurvive. But while evolving different recipes I discovered that we have seemed more
deliciousthan others, and through this way I learned to eat only what we love.But even if this
is completely true, food do not have to be a proposal in life but a way of surviving. With
regard to the way food is cooked in Great Britain I think that in Britain is aspecial place where
flavors of many countries had encounter. .Great Britain is a place where everyone can enjoy
food because here the meals are an important part of peoples life. British cuisine is not
recommended for those who want to follow a healthy lifestyle because it is too consistent in
calories. In recent years trying to revive modern British cuisine with Mediterranean and Asian
influences, but so far without great success. Forordinary people, British cuisine will always be
similar based on substantial breakfast of beans orfried fish served with potatoes.
To put in a nutshell, I think I have learned some important aspects about British foodthat
had influenced my vision that I had about Great Britain.

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Index

Fish and chips

The Sandwich

Meat pie

Bibliography

Great British Food author Heather Hay French

The Diary Book of British Food author Ebury Press
British food an Extraordinary thousand Years of History Colin Spencer,

ElizabethMartyn
Food & Bar Magazine
Good Food Magazine Kitchen Secrets Magazine
Body + Soul Magazine

Web Bibliography:

www.wikipedia.org
www.artline.ro
www.britishoppe.ro
www.google.ro/search