International Cuisines

Great Britain (British Cuisine)

History Although the British Empire occupied once a quarter of the world’s land, had a quarter of the globe’s population, and is responsible for the industrial revolution, its cuisine has been described as a simple and even very poor. However most of these comments have more to do with the stereotype of British food as boil meat and vegetables. This is not British food, and never has been!

The climate and the fact that it is an island affected the cuisine. From the warm climate of the south, to the cooler north. Golden wheat fields, and the fat cows of Jersey England produces amongst the finest produce available anywhere in the world. During the British Empire era, ingredients and cooking concepts were brought from the European countries with which Britain interacted, as well as from as far afield as The Americas, India and Asia and were incorporated widely into British food.

The Britain saw the beginnings of World Cuisine as we know it today. While Escoffier, is considered by many the "Father of modern Cuisine" it is largely forgotten that he spent a large part of his working life working in English kitchens. And that many of his best remembered recipes were created at the Savoy and Ritz hotels in London.

While it is also true that World Cuisine largely passed Britain for decades after the Second World War due largely to the heavy rationing still in place well after the war ended (in fact it finally finished altogether as late as 1954). British Chefs and food taken the world by storm over the past few years.

Regional Cuisines of Great Britain British Cuisine is broadly broken into 4 Regions (English, Scotish, Welsh and Northern Irish) :-

A) English Cuisine - English cuisine is shaped by the country's temperate climate, its geography, and its history. The latter includes interactions with other European countries, and the importing of ingredients and ideas from places such as North America, China, and India during the time of the British Empire and as a result of post-war immigration. Since the Early Modern Period the food of England has historically been characterised by its simplicity of approach and a reliance on the high quality of natural produce. This, in no small part influenced by England's Puritan heritage, resulted in a traditional cuisine which tended to veer from strong flavours, such as garlic, and an avoidance of complex sauces which were commonly associated with Catholic Continental political affiliations.

Traditional meals have ancient origins, such as bread and cheese, roasted and stewed meats, meat and game pies, boiled vegetables and broths, and freshwater and saltwater fish. The 14th century English cookbook, the Forme of Cury, contains recipes for these, and dates from the royal court of Richard II. Other meals, such as fish and chips, which were once urban street food eaten from newspaper with salt and malt vinegar, and pies and sausages with mashed potatoes, onions, and gravy, are now matched in popularity by curries from India and Bangladesh, and stir-fries based on Chinese and Thai cooking. French cuisine and Italian cuisine are also now widely adapted. Britain was also quick to adopt the innovation of fast food from the United States, and continues to absorb culinary ideas from all over the world while at the same time rediscovering its roots in sustainable rural agriculture.

Traditional food of English Cuisine

The Sunday roast The Sunday roast was once the most common feature of English cooking. The Sunday dinner traditionally includes roast potatoes (or boiled or mashed potatoes) accompanying a roasted joint of meat such as roast beef, lamb, pork, or a roast chicken and assorted other vegetables, themselves generally boiled and served with a gravy. Sauces are chosen depending on the type of meat: horseradish for beef, mint sauce for lamb, apple sauce for pork, and bread sauce for chicken. Yorkshire pudding normally accompanies beef (although it was originally served first as a "filler"), sage and onion stuffing pork, and usually parsley stuffing chicken; gravy is now often served as an accompaniment to the main course. The practice of serving a roast dinner on a Sunday is related to the elaborate preparation required, and to the housewife's practice of performing the weekly wash on a Monday, when the cold remains of the roast made an easily-assembled meal. Sunday was once the only rest day after a six-day working week; it was also a demonstration that the household was prosperous enough to afford the cost of a better than normal meal. An elaborate version of roast dinner is traditionally eaten at Christmas, with almost every detail rigidly specified by tradition. Since its widespread availability after World War II the most popular Christmas roast is turkey, superseding the goose of Dickens's time. Before the period of cheap turkeys, roast chicken would be more common than goose, goose being unsuitable for small groups of diners. Game meats such as venison which were traditionally the domain of higher classes are occasionally also eaten by those wishing to experiment with a wider choice of foods, due to their promotion by celebrity chefs, although it is not usually eaten frequently in the average household.

Afternoon tea It is believed by some that the English "drop everything" for a teatime meal in the mid-afternoon. This is no longer the case in the workplace, and is rarer in the home than it once was. A formal teatime meal is now often an accompaniment to tourism, particularly in Devon and neighbouring counties, where comestibles may include scones with jam and clotted cream (together known as a cream tea). There are also butterfly cakes, simple small sponge cakes which can be iced or eaten plain. Nationwide, assorted biscuits and sandwiches are eaten. Generally, however, the teatime meal has been replaced by snacking, or simply dispensed with.

Tea itself, usually served with milk, is consumed throughout the day and is sometimes also drunk with meals. In recent years herbal teas and speciality teas have also become popular. Coffee is perhaps a little less common than in continental Europe, but is still drunk by many in both its instant and percolated forms, often with milk (but rarely with cream). Italian coffee preparations such as espresso and cappuccino and modern American variants such as the frappuccino are increasingly popular, but generally purchased in restaurants or from specialist coffee shops rather than made in the home. White sugar is often added to individual cups of tea, or brown sugar to coffee, but never to the pot.

For much of the 20th century Britain had a system where fresh milk was delivered to the doorstep in reusable glass bottles in the mornings, usually by electric vehicles called "milk floats", though it has now been largely replaced by supermarket shopping.

Fish & Chip shops and other takeaways England is internationally famous for its fish and chips and has a large number of restaurants and take- away shops selling this dish. It may be the most popular and identifiable English dish, however before potatoes were imported from the Americas the 'chips' would have been sections of roasted root vegetables seasoned with herbs, and salty butter. In some regions fish and chips were served with a side order of mushy peas with salt and vinegar as condiments. Foods such as scampi (a deep fried breaded seafood dish) are usually on offer as well as fishcakes (authentically a fish slice between two potato slices) and a number of other combinations.

The advent of take-away foods during the Industrial Revolution led to foods such as fish and chips, mushy peas, and steak and kidney pie with mashed potato (pie and mash). These were the staples of the UK take-away business, and indeed of English diets, however, like many national dishes, quality can vary drastically from the commercial or mass produced product to an authentic or homemade variety using more carefully chosen ingredients.

However, ethnic influences, particularly those of Indian and Chinese, have given rise to the establishment and availability of ethnic take-away foods.[3] From the 1980s onwards, a new variant on curry, the balti, began to become popular in the West Midlands, and by the mid 1990s was commonplace in Indian restaurants and restaurants over the country. Kebab houses, pizza restaurants and American-style fried chicken restaurants aiming at late night snacking have also become popular in urban areas. Fusions such as chips with curry sauce, chips with kebab meat and so on are also found.

Sausages English sausages, colloquially known as "bangers", are distinctive in that they are usually made from fresh meats and rarely smoked, dried, or strongly flavoured. Following the post World War II period, sausages tended to contain low-quality meat, fat, and rusk. (Reputedly the term "banger" derived from the excessive water added to the mix turning to steam while cooking and bursting the casing with a bang.) However, there has been a backlash in recent years, with most butchers and supermarkets now selling premium varieties.

Pork and beef are by far the most common bases, although gourmet varieties may contain venison, wild boar, etc. There are particularly famous regional varieties, such as the herbal Lincolnshire, and the long, curled Cumberland with many butchers offering their own individual recipes and variations often handed down through generations, but are generally not made from cured meats such as Italian selections or available in such a variety as found in Germany. Most larger supermarkets in England will stock at least a dozen types of English sausage: not only Cumberland and Lincolnshire but often varieties such as Pork and Apple; Pork and Herb; Beef and Stilton; Pork and Mozzarella; and others. There are estimated to be around 400 sausage varieties in the United Kingdom.

Sausages form the basis of toad in the hole, where they are combined with a batter similar to a Yorkshire pudding and baked in the oven, this can be served with an onion gravy made by frying sliced onions for anywhere over an hour on a low heat then mixed with a stock, wine or ale then reduced to form a sauce or gravy used in bangers and mash.

Black puddings and white puddings A variant of the sausage is the black pudding, strongly associated with Lancashire similar to the French boudin noir or the Spanish Morcilla. It is made from pig's blood, in line with the adage that "you can eat every part of a pig except its squeal". Pig's trotters, tripe and brawn are also traditional fare in the North. There are also white puddings, similar but lacking blood.

Pies and pasties The English tradition of meat pies dates back to the Middle Ages, when an open top pie crust was used as the container for serving the meat and was called a coffyn. Since then, they have been a mainstay of English cooking. Different types of pastry may be used, including the lard-rich pastry of a raised pie. Meat pies generally contain fillings such as chicken and mushroom or steak and kidney (originally steak and oyster).

Pork pies are almost always eaten cold, with the Melton Mowbray pork pie being the archetype. Open pies or flans are generally served for dessert with fillings of seasonal fruit. Quiches and savoury flans are eaten, but not considered indigenous. The Cornish pasty is a kind of small pie originally used by the tin miners of Cornwall. The thick, tough crust was held in the hand while the clean pastry covering and filling were eaten; the crust would have then been disposed of due to the transmission of dirt from the hand. Pasties have also been seen deep-fried in Mexico City, having been brought over by the Cornish miners imported to work in the Mexican silver mining industry.

Another kind of pie is topped with mashed potato instead of pastry—for instance, shepherd's pie, with lamb, cottage pie, with beef, or fisherman's pie.

Cured meats and vegetables Bacon and kippers - Northern European countries generally have a tradition of salting, smoking, pickling and otherwise preserving foods. Kippers, bloaters, ham, and bacon are some of the varieties of preserved meat and fish known in England. Onions, cabbage and some other vegetables may be pickled. Smoked cheese is not common or traditional, although apple-wood smoked cheddar has become available in many supermarkets.[citation needed] Meats other than pork are generally not cured. The "three breakfasts a day" principle can be implemented by eating bacon sandwiches at any time. (In parts of northern England these have local names such as "bacon sarnies" or "bacon butties".) Sandwiches - England can claim to have given the world the word "sandwich", although the eponymous John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich was not the first to add a filling to bread. Fillings such as pickled relishes and Gentleman's Relish could also be considered distinctively English. Common types of sandwich are ham, cheese, salad and non-traditional forms such as the "ploughman's lunch" (cheese and pickle).

Dishes of Indian origin Kedgeree, a popular breakfast dish in the Victorian era.

In the Victorian era, during the British Raj, Britain first started borrowing Indian dishes, creating Anglo- Indian cuisine. Kedgeree and Mulligatawny soup are traditional Anglo-Indian dishes. The many varieties of Indian curry of which Chicken tikka masala and balti are best known are more recent. The word curry, meaning 'to spice', has been used since the medieval period. The chicken tikka masala is now considered one of Britain's most popular dishes.

Pickles, preserves and condiments Pickles and preserves are given a twist by the influence of the British Empire. Thus, the repertoire includes chutney as well as Branston or "brown" pickle, piccalilli, pickled onions and gherkins. The Asian influence is also present in condiments such as tomato sauce (originally ketjap), Worcestershire sauce and "brown" sauce (such as HP). Because Britain is a beer-drinking nation, malt vinegar is commonly used. English mustard is strongly-flavoured and bright yellow; served with meats and cooked with cheese; internationally noted for its pungency; and particularly associated with Colman's of Norwich. Pickles often accompany a selection of sliced, cold cooked meats, or "cold collation". This dish can claim to have some international influence, since it is known in French as an "assiette anglaise".

Cheese Cheese is generally hard, and made from cows' milk. Cheddar cheese, originally made in the village of Cheddar, is by far the most common type, with many variations. Tangy Cheshire, salty Caerphilly, Sage Derby, Red Leicester, creamy Double Gloucester, pungent Lincolnshire Poacher and sweet Wensleydale are some traditional regional varieties. Cheddar and the rich, blue-veined Stilton have both been called the king of English cheeses. Cornish Yarg is a successful modern variety. The name 'Cheddar cheese' has become widely used internationally, and does not currently have a protected designation of origin (PDO). However, the European Union recognises West Country Farmhouse Cheddar as a PDO. To meet this standard the cheese must be made in the traditional manner using local ingredients in one of the four designated counties of South West England: Somerset, Devon, Dorset, or Cornwall. Sheep and goat cheeses are made chiefly by craft producers. Continental cheeses such as French Brie are sometimes also manufactured.

Puddings During the Dessert course, puddings such as bread and butter pudding, Eccles cake, rhubarb crumble, apple pie, treacle tart, spotted dick, summer pudding and trifle are served. An accompaniment, custard, sometimes known as crème anglaise ("English sauce") is a substitute to "eggs and milk" made from cornflour and vanilla. These dishes are simple and traditional. There is also a dried fruit based Christmas pudding, and the almond flavoured Bakewell tart originating from the town of Bakewell. Crystallised Ginger or a Peppermint Sweet might be offered after a heavy meal to aid digestion.

Savoury course Another English culinary tradition, rarely observed today, is the consumption of a savoury course toward the conclusion of a meal. This now though may be eaten as a snack or a light lunch or supper. Some meals today end with a sweet dessert, although cheese and biscuits may be consumed as an alternative or as an addition. In Yorkshire, fruit cake is often served with Wensleydale cheese. Coffee can sometimes be a culminatory drink.

B) Irish Cuisine - Irish cuisine is a style of cooking originating from Ireland or developed by Irish people. It evolved from centuries of social and political change. The cuisine takes its influence from the crops grown and animals farmed in its temperate climate. The introduction of the potato in the second half of the 16th century heavily influenced Ireland's cuisine thereafter. Representative Irish dishes are Irish stew, bacon and cabbage, boxty, coddle, colcannon and (mainly in Ulster) fadge.

Traditional Food of Irish Cuisines

Examples of Irish cuisine are Irish stew, and bacon and cabbage (boiled together in water). Boxty, a type of potato pancake, is another traditional dish. A dish mostly particular to Dublin is coddle, which involves boiled pork sausages. Ireland is famous for the Irish breakfast, a fried (or grilled) meal generally comprising bacon, egg, sausage, black and white pudding, fried tomato and which may also include fried potato farls or fried potato slices.

Colcannon is a good dish made traditionally of potato and curly kale, or sometimes cabbage. Champ consists of mashed potato into which chopped scallions (spring onions) are mixed.

While seafood has always been consumed by Irish people, shellfish dishes have increased in popularity in recent times, especially due to the high quality of shellfish available from Ireland's coastline, e.g. Dublin Bay Prawns, Oysters (many oyster festivals are held annually around the coast where oysters are often served with Guinness, the most notable being held in Galway every September ) as well as other crustaceans. A good example of an Irish dish for shellfish is Dublin Lawyer - Lobster cooked in whiskey and cream. Salmon and cod are perhaps the two most common types of fish used.

Traditional Irish breads include soda bread, wheaten bread, soda farls, and blaa, a doughy white bread roll particular to Waterford.

C) Scottish Cuisine - Different dishes and ingredients such as Aberdeen Angus beef, Highland venison, Loch Fyne seafood, Ayrshire cheeses or Clyde valley soft fruits are often present in the Scotish cuisine. Influenced by the Britannic cuisine, the Scottish cuisine also borrowed different culinary habits from the inhabitants of the Scandinavian Peninsula. Regions such as The Western Isles, Orkney or Shetland tend to present more dishes that use fish meat as the main ingredient. The lower agricultural development of these islands recommends fishing as one of the main sources of food for the area. Regions such as the Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley area or the Perthshir region also use plenty of fish meat in their dishes, but it can be said that more variety in meat choices is presented here, with a larger consumption of beef and pork meat. When it comes to Scottish restaurants, the diversity of food is far greater than the traditional dishes. You won’t be surprised to find excellent French, Italian, Mediterranean, Greek, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Far-eastern, Mexican or Central American specific restaurants in the larger Scottish cities.

Some of the famous Scottish recipe are:

 Haggis -Haggis is considered to be most popular dish all around the Scotland. It is believed that Haggis was very popular in English cookery until the 18th century. Haggis is prepared from the heart, lungs, and liver of a sheep, calf, etc., minced with suet and oatmeal, seasoned with salt, pepper, onions, etc., and boiled like a large Sausage.  Arbroath Smokie - A wood-smoked Haddock from Arbroath popular in the East coast.  Oatcakes - Oatcakes are made up of Barley and oat-flour biscuit baked on a gridle, often eaten with cheese.  Bannock Bannocks are a kind of round bread with dried fruit through it.  Scottish Beef - Beef are generally prepared form The Aberdeen-Angus breed of Beef cattle. The Beef is reknowned world over as rich and tasty meat.  Black bun - Made with raisins, currants, finely-chopped peel, chopped almonds and brown sugar Black bun is a very rich fruit cake. cinnamon and ginger are added to make it more tastier.

D) Welsh Cuisine : The Welsh cuisine is based on the local ingredients – lamb meat is very popular and that’s why most of the dishes contain lamb but also beef and dairy cattle. The beef and cattle can be found in abundance in Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire regions. These ingredients can be found fresh, ready to be cooked or already cooked. The Welsh traditional cheeses are being used in salads, in preparing snacks, pies and even cakes. There are over 20 vineyards in Wales; in many traditional Welsh dishes vine is being used to give a unique flavor to the food and can be served during the meals because it’s healthy in small amounts, helping the digestion. There are several food festivals in Wales, where all the framers are presenting the organic products cultivated by them in the old traditional way. The Welsh food includes a unique element, the sweet bread. The stew and leeks, pork meatball, or the Welsh rarebit (a toast with cheese and butter) are just a few other traditional dishes. The traditional Welsh recipes are mixing carefully the ingredients. Most of the Welsh dishes are made of natural ingredients without chemicals, that’s why they are so fresh, tasty and healthy. Most of the land in Wales is not arable, that is why every peace of arable land is appreciated and well taken care of. The Wales cuisine is a healthy one because it is based on natural products.

Equipment for British Cooking

Most British dishes don’t require you to purchase any special tools. However, having a coffee grinder helps with roasting and grinding spices and maximizes their volatile oils, which, in turn, provides your food with more flavor. British cuisine does not use special equipment, whatsoever. It is good to know that when preparing a British dish, the utensils that are used are available in most of the kitchens around the world. egg rings, spatulas, forks, spoons, knives, containers for the ingredients, boxes with spices – these are the usual tools which are needed. Scales for weighing the ingredients and thermometers for cooking the foods at certain temperatures should be used.

France (French Cuisines)

History The French cooking style is considered to be one of the most refined, modern and elegant manners found in cuisines all over the world. Food is part of their culture, and famous French chefs make most exquisite dishes after original French recipes that have made France famous since centuries ago. However, the diversity and changes that characterize this cuisine are what makes it interesting. By the early eighteen century, bread and cereals were the basic ingredients in the daily diet. French fries have been introduced to this country in the XVIII century and gained so much popularity that they have been kept as part of the traditional French cuisine. Only with the beginning of the XIX century food has become a social etiquette and more sophisticated dishes emerged, mainly served in high societies. The improvement of transportation, especially the introduction of train, marked the culinary revolution, since every peasant had access to more elaborated meals, ingredients and condiments. Vegetables that grow on fertile French lands include potatoes, green beans, carrots, turnips, aubergines, courgettes, famous French mushrooms, like champignons, oyster mushrooms, porcinis and truffles. As a tradition kept along the course of history, wineries are spread all over the country, producing most refined French wines, served daily by locals.

Regional Cuisines of France

The typical France cuisine has techniques and methods common to all country’s regions, but differences such as the use of butter in the northern parts, duck fat in the southern ones, and olive oil in the southeast, will give different flavors to your meals. Also, the eastern parts of France are greatly influenced by the German cuisine, the lard, sausages, beer, and sauerkraut being part of the regional eating custom.

Auvergne is the place to fine sautés, shallots blue or tomme cheese. The famous Crêpes highly originate in the Brittany area, where you can also find Pork dishes and prune flans. Burgundy is well known for Beef or fish stews in red wine, Gougère, and the escargots (snails baked in shells with parsley butter). Quiche Lorraine, famous in most european restaurants, originates in the Lorraine region, together with Potée and Pâté Lorrain. Mediterranean influences in the French cuisine can best be spotted near Côte d'Azur/Provence.

In the Alsace region, sauerkraut with sausages, salt Pork and potatoes, spätzle, Baeckeoffe, Bredela and kouglof are just some of the main dishes you will find in the local cuisine. The Alp region is highly influenced by the Swiss cuisine, among the main recipes being the raclette (melted cheese served with potatoes, Ham and often dried Beef), fondue savoyarde, and Tartiflette (a Savoyard gratin with potatoes, Reblochon cheese and cream

In the Artois-Picardy region, stews are the main dish available. Fish or Beef is commonly used in the stews with vegetables, with other types of meat, and sometimes stewed in beer

Equipment for French Cooking

When you plan on cooking in a French manner, you will be in need of a lot of pots and serving spoons, spatulas, forks, turners, scrapers and tongs. Food processors, mixers, grinders and splatters are of great utility in this cuisine, especially for grating hard condiments like black pepper or cinnamon over an already prepared meal placed in a dish. The aspect of a meal is one of the most important things to consider, and you must have all the necessary equipment to arrange every single element in the ornamental dish.

Deep serving dishes are required for the traditional French Onion soups. You need to consider cover lids and insulated food carriers to keep the temperature of the food constant, if you plan on serving the dishes at their optimized temperature. Because of the fact that the stews and the soups get cold really fast, and because you have to put the meats inside the boiling pans at the right temperature, a thermometer would be a wise purchase for your French kitchen.