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> The combination of the class system and the war rationing absolutely wrecked British cooking in the 20th century I don’t think this explains it. Being the fi

> The combination of the class system and the war rationing absolutely wrecked British cooking in the 20th century I don’t think this explains it. Being the first place in the world to get processed food has more to do with it. Britain’s been importing a lot of calories for a long time and canning and other flavor destroying methods of preservation really didn’t help. Rationing is unlikely to be relevant. British food was widely considered dreadful long before WWII. See any description of boarding school food or just consider the paucity of decent cheese in the UK in the 50s. The US didn’t have post war rationing and food in DC was terrible well into the 70s going by restaurants. Anglos have never beg known for great food culture like the Italians, French or Spanish.

082349872349872 6y ago
Canning was yet another cultural triumph of the military-industrial complex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canning#History_and_development_of_canning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canning#History_and_developmen...
mmmBacon 6y ago
The impact of the Great Depression on food in the US cannot be overstated. The Depression followed by the war was a relatively long period of time and for an entire generation the food of this time became what they were used to. Additionally prior to WW2 the middle class was fairly limited and most people in the US didn’t have lots of money. Industrialized food was simply less expensive and kept for long periods of time. I had plenty of great food in the 70’s and 80’s just not usually in restaurants. I’d imagine in the U.K., they probably didn’t have enough farmland to feed everybody given a rapidly growing population during the industrialization period. If you have to import food, it had to be preserved and again you acquire a taste for poor quality food because that’s what’s available. Italy, France, and Spain did not industrialize anywhere near the scale that existed in Britain or the US.
- barry-cotter 6y ago
  > Italy, France, and Spain did not industrialize anywhere near the scale that existed in Britain or the US. ??? Northern Italy has been among the richest, most developed parts the world non-stop since the renaissance. They didn’t achieve that without industrializing. France was so rich that it conquered half of Europe after 1800 and then it got richer with the Industrial Revolution. Paris was one of the biggest cities in the world for over 200 years by any standard. No history of the West, or the world would make any sense without France since the Revolution. You do not manage to acquire imperial possessions on every continent without industrializing early and fast. Spain, sure. It, Portugal and Southern Italy did not do as well as most of the rest of Western Europe.

082349872349872 6y ago

Canning was yet another cultural triumph of the military-industrial complex: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canning#History_and_development_of_canning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canning#History_and_developmen...

mmmBacon 6y ago

The impact of the Great Depression on food in the US cannot be overstated. The Depression followed by the war was a relatively long period of time and for an entire generation the food of this time became what they were used to. Additionally prior to WW2 the middle class was fairly limited and most people in the US didn’t have lots of money. Industrialized food was simply less expensive and kept for long periods of time. I had plenty of great food in the 70’s and 80’s just not usually in restaurants. I’d imagine in the U.K., they probably didn’t have enough farmland to feed everybody given a rapidly growing population during the industrialization period. If you have to import food, it had to be preserved and again you acquire a taste for poor quality food because that’s what’s available. Italy, France, and Spain did not industrialize anywhere near the scale that existed in Britain or the US.

barry-cotter 6y ago
> Italy, France, and Spain did not industrialize anywhere near the scale that existed in Britain or the US. ??? Northern Italy has been among the richest, most developed parts the world non-stop since the renaissance. They didn’t achieve that without industrializing. France was so rich that it conquered half of Europe after 1800 and then it got richer with the Industrial Revolution. Paris was one of the biggest cities in the world for over 200 years by any standard. No history of the West, or the world would make any sense without France since the Revolution. You do not manage to acquire imperial possessions on every continent without industrializing early and fast. Spain, sure. It, Portugal and Southern Italy did not do as well as most of the rest of Western Europe.