British Cuisine: the Best of Old and New
British cuisine (烹饪) has come of age in recent years as chefs (厨师) combine the best of old and new.
Why does British food have a reputation for being so bad? Because it is bad! Those are not the most encouraging words to hear just before eat: ng lunch at one of Hong Kong's smartest British restaurants, Alfie's by KEE, but head chef Neil Tomes has more to say.
'The past 15 years or so have been a noticeable period of improvement for food in England, ' the English chef says, citing the trend in British cuisine for better ingredients, preparation and cooking methods, and more appealing presentation．Chefs such as Delia Smith, Nigel Slater, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay made the public realise that cooking—and eating—didn': have to be a boring thing．And now, most of the British public is familiar even with the extremes of Heston Blumenthal's molecular gastronomy, a form．of cooking that employs scientific methods to create the perfect dish.
' It's no longer the case that the common man in England is embarrassed to show he knows about food, ' Tomes says.
There was plenty of room for improvement．The problems with the nation's cuisine can be traced back to the Second World War．Before the War, much of Britain's food was imported and when German U-boats began attacking ships bringing food to the country, Britain went on rations (配给).
'As rationing came to .an end in the 1950s, technology picked up and was used to mass-produce food, ' Tomes says．' And by then people were just happy to have a decent quantity of food in their kitchens．'
They weren't looking for cured meats, organic produce or beautiful presentation; they were looking for whatever they could get their hands on, and this prioritisation of quantity over quality prevailed for decades, meaning a generation was brought up with food that couldn't compete with neighbouring France, Italy, Belgium or Spain.
Before star chefs such as Oliver began cooking fashionable, it was hard to find a restaurant in London that was open after 9pm．But in recent years the capital's culinary (烹饪的) scene has developed to the point that it is now confident of its ability to please the tastes of any international visitor.
With the opening of Alfie's in April, and others such as The Pawn, two years ago, modern British food has made its way to Hong Kong．' With British food, I think that Hong Kong restaurants are keeping up, ' says David Tamlyn, the Welsh executive chef al The Pawn in Wan Chai．' Hong Kong diners are extremely responsive to new ideas or presentations, which is good news for new dishes．'
Chefs agree that diners in Hong Kong are embracing the modern British trend．Some restaurants are modifying the recipes (菜谱) of British dishes to breathe new life into the classics, while others are using better quality ingredients but remaining true to British traditions and tastes.
Tamlyn is in the second camp．'We select our food very particularly．We use US beef, New Zealand lamb and for our custards (牛奶蛋糊) we use Bird's Custard Powder, ' Tamlyn says．'Some restaurants go for custard made fresh with eggs, sugar and cream, but British custard is different, and we stay true to that．'
Matthew Hill, senior manager at the two-year-old SoHo restaurant Yorkshire Pudding, also uses better ingredients as a means of improving dishes．' There are a lot of existing perceptions about British food and so we can't alter these too much．We're a traditional British restaurant so there are some staples (主菜) that will remain essentially unchanged．'
These traditional dishes include fish and chips, steak and kidney pie and large pieces of roasted meats．At Alfie's, the newest of the British restaurants in town and perhaps the most gentlemen's club-like in design, Neil Tomes