Food for thought
Joanna Blythman’s latest tome on the quality of food in this country fascinates and depresses in equal measure, finds Donald Reid.
\ idence ol a food renaixxance xeemingly aboundx with our burgeoning farmers. marketx. e\panding organic food xalex and
L‘ltelx embracing all sorts ()l.
artixanal productx from our green and pleaxanl land. Not xo fast. xayx .loanna Blythman. the lzdinhurgh-haxed food journalixt and unrepentant culinary realixt in an often xellVdelttded foodie world. In fact. hunkum. The real picture ix of a nation where one in every four houxeholdx no longer has a communal dining table. \\ here over half of all liurope‘x crixpx and xavoury xnackx are conxumed. and where 40‘; of the loud \\ e lttly is never eaten. The nation ix ‘liad l-‘ood Britain‘. the country where a ‘profound gaxtronomic illiteracy‘ predominates.
In 3004. Blythman‘x award— gathering Slurp/it'd l’ocuxed on the unhealthy power of xupermarketx in the l'lx'. It didn't make for particularly ttplifting reading. Hm! l‘imr/ [fr/min xpreadx the gloom further. It ix a hook that hulgex with indignation. cynicixm. e\axperation and withering attacks on the Britixh food extahlishment. Blythman ix unequivocal that.
\\ hen it comex to food. we're off
to hell in a xuperxonic handeart and the iii-flight catering ix ropey to say the leaxt.
\VL‘ \\;tlclt television L'ltel'x en masxe. hut ax voy eurx and not as a nation axpiring to feed itxelf better. We are divorced from the countryxide and know little or nothing about what it can produce. l‘ar too many of ottr rextaurants are xtafl'ed by inadequately trained chefx with mongrel multicultural menux relying on bought-in food. We han home—baking from xchool
THE BOOK BULGES WITH INDIGNATION, EXASPERATION AND ATTACKS ON THE FOOD ESTABLISHMENT
EAT&DR|NK
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Btythman's book argues that we’re no better than the Americans (top) when it comes to the quality of the tood we eat. She also singles out airline food (bottom) for criticism
PART TWO
New books that ask searching questions about the toad on our plates
parties. allow ourselvex to be seduced by processed food of dubiotts provenance and refuse to see cooking as a basic life skill worthy of being taught in schools.
Relentlessly. the hook lays into Britain‘s most commonly voiced ‘Bad Food Beliefs' ~ that home cooking takes too long. that good food costs too much. that a diet of processed food can keep you healthy and slim. No quarter is given. and frequently the Blythman blows are clean and palpable hits. For example: '(wel appreciate that a cheap car now might turn into a Pandora‘s box of mechanics‘ bills and personal risks later. Not so with food. ()ne of the first things a British person wants to know about food is what it costs. This single. vital piece of information dwarfs all other considerations such as ‘l)oes it taste good'.”. “How was it produced". ‘Is it good for me and my family'.". “How can anything wholesome he produced so cheaply'."
Bud I’om/ Britain isn‘t a fun hook to read. even by foodies who share her despair. You get neither uplifting tips about how to make things better — Blythman would argue that we have to accept the malaise we're in before identifying creative solutions — nor self-indulgent personal anecdotes inserted for colour or light relief. What you do get are forceful arguments laid out starkly and harshly. In particular her tirades against big food business — companies with serious financial. marketing and political muscle — are made lucidly and bravely. Few politicians are prepared to follow her lead. But then why would they bother? It's only food.
Bad Food Britain (Fourth Estate, £7.99) is out now.
10—1 7 Aug 2006 THE LIST 39