by Sandra Piddock

Created on: June 15, 2010

These days, everything must have a label, and that's the trouble with English food - it's so diverse, it's impossible to label it in a way that will have people from other countries salivating at the very thought of it. There's the great English breakfast - which is wonderful, as we know. When the Channel Tunnel opened, and English breakfast was being served, our cousins from across the water went wild for it. Hardly surprising, when all they usually get for breakfast is a croissant or a chunk of crusty bread.

However, the great English breakfast is now viewed as a heart attack on a plate, so it gets a bad press. Then there's the pub food, which everyone assumes is something with chips, even though some pub meals these days would put many restaurants to shame. And what about the pies? Our Melton Mowbray Pork Pies are the best you'll find in a long day's march, but again, they're perceived as unhealthy.

The great British Sunday Roast is an institution, but again, it's viewed with suspicion, even derision. We cook our meat and vegetables too much, and we serve up too many potatoes. Well, our mothers may have boiled the vegetables to a pulp, but these days, we know better. And I'd rather have my meat slightly overcooked than lying in a pool of blood on the plate like road kill. Have you ever ordered a steak in France? They don't cook it - they just walk past the griddle with it, and swear it's cooked exactly as you asked for it.

Then there's that great British dish - no, not Chicken Tikka Massala - I'm talking about fish and chips. Good fish and chips is nectar from the gods, but the health police have thrown up their hands in horror, so, as a country, we've earned a reputation for serving unhealthy, uninteresting food.

Contrast this with the Mediterranean diet - good food, simply cooked with great ingredients, and healthy, because it's based on olive oil rather than saturated fats. They serve fish too, but because they don't cover it with batter and serve it with a mound of mushy peas, it's considered healthy - even though the Mediterranean people eat as many chips as we do in England. From what I've seen of life in Spain, I'd say they eat more, and on top of that, everything that's served up is drenched in olive oil at the table. You can have too much of a good thing, you know.

Jamie Oliver has done a good job on school dinners - perhaps he should turn his hand to getting English cuisine its proper recognition. Look at the good things we have to offer. Cottage pie is on a par with spaghetti bolognese as a cheap but nourishing and delicious meal, but because it's potatoes rather than pasta, it's described as bland. I don't know about you, but I've never had a bland cottage pie in my life. So come on Jamie - England expects you to do your duty and put us on the culinary map of the world!

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