Pie Fidelity is a study of the nation’s favourite meals

Pie Fidelity

Pete Brown

Particular Books, £16.99

Rating:

‘The British Empire was created as a by-product of generations of desperate Englishmen roaming the world in search of a decent meal.’ The American food writer Bill Marsano’s pithy summation of our culinary heritage is the mainspring for Pete Brown’s quest to discover and codify the nation’s nine most popular meals, from the humble cheese sandwich, through fish and chips and curry, to the ubiquitous Sunday roast.

This mouthwatering menu is rendered even more piquant by his decision to sample an archetypal example of each dish, rather than necessarily the best. Thus he enjoys a sandwich in Sandwich, fish and chips in Blackpool, and searches (largely in vain) for a traditional Soho greasy spoon at which to enjoy a fry-up. The result is part Nigel Slater, part Bill Bryson, and wholly delicious.

Pete Brown enjoys a sandwich in Sandwich, fish and chips in Blackpool, and searches (largely in vain) for a traditional Soho greasy spoon at which to enjoy a fry-up

Pete Brown enjoys a sandwich in Sandwich, fish and chips in Blackpool, and searches (largely in vain) for a traditional Soho greasy spoon at which to enjoy a fry-up

'The British Empire was created as a by-product of generations of desperate Englishmen roaming the world in search of a decent meal.’ The American food writer Bill Marsano’s pithy summation of our culinary heritage is the mainspring for Pete Brown’s quest

‘The British Empire was created as a by-product of generations of desperate Englishmen roaming the world in search of a decent meal.’ The American food writer Bill Marsano’s pithy summation of our culinary heritage is the mainspring for Pete Brown’s quest

The book ends, as it should, with a traditional Sunday roast – in this case at The Crown in Woolhope, Herefordshire

The book ends, as it should, with a traditional Sunday roast – in this case at The Crown in Woolhope, Herefordshire

Spag bol

Curry

It’s a sign of how readily Britain has appropriated and customised other nations’ food that so many foreign dishes now make it on to the list, including spag bol (‘best eaten on a rainy night in November’) and, of course, curry, which Brown asserts is not truly an Indian dish

Brown hails from Barnsley, where the constituent aroma of the marketplace was that of ‘new wool, fresh meat and hot pastry’, and where his dad rented out a chippy to a bloke named Greasy Graham who worshipped the motorcyclist Barry Sheene and adorned the walls of his premises with photos of him. Back then, anything foreign was viewed with suspicion, and a cheese sandwich was two slices of Mother’s Pride smeared with Blue Riband marge and covered in Primula (the first time the author cut his sarnies diagonally rather than lengthways his younger brother sneered: ‘Look at you, you’ve gone all posh’).

IT’S A FACT

Indian-born novelist William Thackeray inflicted a blisteringly hot curry on his anti-heroine Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair.

But it’s a sign of how readily Britain has appropriated and customised other nations’ food that so many foreign dishes now make it on to the list, including spag bol (‘best eaten on a rainy night in November’) and, of course, curry, which Brown asserts is not truly an Indian dish but more an Anglo-Indian creation. The restaurant Al Frash in Birmingham’s Balti triangle is his destination for a spectacular and scale-buckling vindaloo, and his description of his meal had me reaching for my local takeaway menu before I’d finished the chapter.

But as Brown notes, the best thing about an Indian meal is its sense of occasion, with its starched white tablecloths, heavy cutlery, and everyone digging in. ‘The style of eating evokes a banquet,’ he writes, ‘the fizz of the lager, the warm reassurance of the curry… means we are all princes and princesses, even if just for an evening.’

Apple crisp dessert

Scones with cream

Brown tries everything from the humble cheese sandwich, through fish and chips and curry, to the ubiquitous Sunday roast

Funny, informative and written with passion, Pie Fidelity is a love poem to all that’s great in British cooking

Funny, informative and written with passion, Pie Fidelity is a love poem to all that’s great in British cooking

What’s more, eating well and eating British doesn’t require you to splash out, if only you know where to look. His trip to Nelly’s cafe in Ilfracombe for a Devonshire cream tea at only £4.50 (‘Jam first? Cream first? Who cares?’) is contrasted with the farrago of the same dish at the Ritz in London, where gullible tourists are offered a disappointing facsimile for £58.

The book ends, as it should, with a traditional Sunday roast – in this case at The Crown in Woolhope, Herefordshire, where the beef has hints of butter, iron and caramel, and where the rich Rioja gravy is a meal in itself.

Funny, informative and written with passion, Pie Fidelity is a love poem to all that’s great in British cooking.

 

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