Drool Britannia

PATRIOTISM can leave a nasty taste in the mouth, particularly when it is the cloak worn by football fans proudly displaying their Three Lions on a shirt as they go on the rampage abroad. But it does come in more palatable forms.

Just think of the warm glow you feel when you tuck into a plate of tender slices of roast beef and perfectly-risen Yorkshire puddings. It's a pure Hovis moment - listen, you can almost hear the refrain starting...

Of course, reality is humming a different tune - and it's anything but music to the ear. Great British Grub is taking a good old bashing on all fronts.

First up, the rolling food scares of BSE, salmonella and now foot and mouth have hit consumer confidence in British food.

And secondly, despite our instinctive desire to buy British, more often than not we're tempted by fancy foreign fare. Not only is it often cheaper, it seems a lot more interesting: who wants fish fingers and beans for tea when they can have Thai fishcakes and beancurd?

Statistics show we've gone off our British food. Surveys point out we would shun roast beef or fish 'n' chips for Chicken Tikka Massalla any day - hey, it's now officially Britain's favourite dish.

Tomorrow, the fifth annual York Festival of Food and Drink begins with a day sponsored by the Evening Press aimed at promoting British food.

There will be demonstrations on how to make tasty dishes from British lamb and pork as well as on how to use beer to cook up a treat or two.

TV chef Lesley Waters has been recruited to showcase a range of mouth-watering British recipes, including starters, main courses and puddings.

And the Drool Britannia theme runs throughout the festival with local producers selling their wares at the various markets throughout the ten-day event, giving punters many chances to buy British.

Equally, however, there will be ample chance to pick up interesting produce from overseas as the festival is an international affair - indeed next Thursday is designated World Food Day and boasts exotic cookery displays and market stalls.

The global flavour of the festival undoubtedly reflects our increasingly sophisticated taste buds.

Leading York restaurateur Michael Hjort, owner of Melton's on Scarcroft Road, believes this culinary shift has had an impact on what we think of as traditional British food.

"If you look at the menus in upmarket restaurants, you get a measure of what modern British food is," he says.

That amounts to a mix of influences from all corners of the globe often served alongside traditional English recipes.

"You don't find that mix in other countries and that makes it British food at the end of the day," says Michael.

Nevertheless, Michael believes it's vitally important to champion local produce and specialities - something the French are better at.

"As you drive through an area in France you see big brown signs saying 'Burgundy - land of wine'. We don't do that over here, but perhaps we should."

Cookery expert Beryl Tate, who is a regular on Radio 2's Jimmy Young show and makes her debut at the York Festival of Food and Drink tomorrow, also believes we should be doing a lot more flag waving.

She thinks high-profile chefs such as Brian Turner and Gary Rhodes should be hired to push British food - much in the way Jamie Oliver has been paid to plug Sainsbury's.

"These celebrity chefs are the stars of today. People look towards them. If they champion British food then people take note and follow their example."

Beryl would also like to see supermarkets stocking more locally-produced goods. "If there's a local pig farmer or trout farmer, they should promote their food in the local supermarket. People don't want it dragged all across the country. Keep it local and people will want to buy it, and it will help preserve it and be a real boost for the industry. I think supermarkets let us down on that front."

But there are signs that the supermarkets are waking up to the growing demand for local fare, as displayed by the increasing popularity of farmers' markets - a sector now worth £65 million a year.

Sainsbury's says it is a true champion of British food - 90 per cent of its meat is from Britain, and that figure rises to 100 per cent for fresh beef, pork and lamb. And all such products are marked with a Red Tractor logo to help shoppers spot British goods easily.

Spokeswoman Camille Bentley says Sainsbury's does source regional goods to stock locally. "We go out to local villages to see local goods and producers. We know people love to see local products, and in Bristol we sell faggots and in Lancashire we sell local cheese."

But the longer-term aim is for people across the country to also be able to buy these regional goods, she adds.

So Sainsbury's is developing a 'supplier development programme', offering local producers 12 weeks' training in how to supply to a supermarket.

"In some cases, these producers are making lovely produce, but don't know what a bar code is," explains Camille.

Local pig farmer and new Evening Press columnist Grant Burton is just the sort of small, local producer Sainsbury's could well be looking for.

Grant, who farms at Wilberfoss, is now running a small sausage-making outlet, selling direct to farmers' markets across the region - including one next Monday and Tuesday in York.

For him, turning his pigs into sausages is more profitable than selling them on to a middle man for him to turn into sausages.

And he suspects selling his sausages to Sainsbury's would prove less profitable than flogging them to punters at market.

"I think you'd find Sainsbury's would want to buy them for less money. My objective is to make money from selling pigs, not to supply vast numbers of sausages to Sainsbury's for marginal profit."

Grant believes shoppers are still wary of British food, despite all the reassurances, and says a major part of the appeal of farmers' markets is that customers know - or can find out by asking the seller - where the food has come from.

But even a traditional sausage producer like Grant knows that in the modern market place, where there's foreign muck, there's brass.

To this end he also makes sausages flavoured with fancy herbs and seasonings. "We even do sun-dried tomato and basil," he says.

"They are really popular."

Updated: 10:06 Thursday, September 13, 2001