Home Cooked Classics Are Back On The Menu As Brits Toast The Roast

Trevor and Sally Oliver, parents of Jamie, reveal the home truths about Brits cooking

The UK’s appetite for molecular gastronomy, foodie fads and cooking trends has been revealed as merely voyeuristic, with the ‘Heston effect’ failing to translate in the nation’s kitchens. According to research published today, the UK is still very much a nation of Rosbifs, with traditional British dishes dominating family meal times.

The classic roast dinner is the most popular home cooked dish, with 58% of Brits regularly serving up meat, veg and gravy.

Cottage pie is the second most frequently cooked meal – 45% of us prepare it on a regular basis – and casserole is the third most popular (43%).

Hearty British staples appeal to home cooks over and above the cuisines of Italy, Asia and India; by contrast only one in five (19%) cooks regularly serve risotto, whereas 40% make a curry and 41% prepare a stir fry.

According to the ‘Kallo Stock Cubes Home Cooking Report,’ almost a third (31%) of Brits serve a home cooked meal every day, with 78% of families eating home cooked food at least three times a week. The trend is strongest in the South West, where 37% of adults prepare a meal for their family every day. It is weakest among families in the West Midlands, where just one in four (25%) eat home cooked food daily.

In our podcast Trevor and Sally Oliver share their memories of a young Jamie in the kitchen and tell us how easy it really is to encourage youngsters to recognise good food and how to cook it.