Pie Fidelity

 

Pie Fidelity by Pete Brown (2019 Particular Books hardcover 342pp)

 

Pete Brown is a writer and foodie who has hauled himself up from humble beginnings to become a go-to figure for food-related TV and radio shows. After an expedition back to his home village to eat one of its legendary Pork Pies he launches into his main theory for this book. Basically, he thinks the British have self-inflicted inferiority complex when it comes to their traditional foods. Combined with an out-dated cliche that UK food is bad and general snobbery from the upper classes, British food is not celebrated like the cuisine of its European neighbours. To help right this wrong he comes up with a list of 8 top British foods/meals which suspiciously aligns with his own likes and sets out to explore the history, context and current state of each one.

Travelling to where each food was ‘invented’ he tries both elaborate versions and the platonic ideal of each dish, reveling in the glory of down to earth honest working-class food. From the humble cheese sandwich, we move on to the history and current state of Fish & Chips, Spaghetti Bolognaise – not actually a real Italian dish. Cream Teas turn out to be a relatively recent invention whilst the UK version of Indian food has diverged greatly from the food actually eaten on the subcontinent. The final two sections deal with the horror and pleasure of the full English breakfast and the monumental Sunday roast – seemingly best experienced in a country pub these days. At each point he also discusses the way each of these meals are made at home and his own history cooking and eating meals as he grew up.

It’s a quick read, moves along at a rapid pace and its full of humour and quirky facts. He does however get on his soapbox a little too often when triggered by something he feels is unfair to or just wrong about the treatment of a food or food-maker. We get the idea Pete!