the wine thing is due to the norman conquest with the french nobility drinking wine and the germanic peasantry drinking beer and cider. In many ways the true insufferableness of wine snobs wouldn't be possible had this not resulted in the association between wine and aristocracy.
English food being poor was a consequence of enclosure and the industrial revolution with their sudden mass exodus from the countryside and new status as destitute refugees in the cities the former peasantry weren't able to pass on their traditional cooking, the new middle class hired servants from this generation disconnected from their traditional cooking knowledge as a status symbol and so also lost a lot of their recognition of what good food should taste like. Generations of gruel being the only to eat during the terrible poverty in industrial imperial Britain ruined British food essentially.
both of those things have origins deeply tied to the class history of the UK. Although the food thing was more true 50 years ago than it is now
Thanks for earnestly debunking my flippant comment on British stereotypes!
I was trying to make it so that if the British had had the historical, social and ecological means to produce quality food as they once did before partitioning the land, using it as pasture and food for cattle, and displacing the peasantry to cities to become industrial wage laborers, they would be indistinguishable from the French in their food snobbery.
The wine bit is pretty interesting, and makes sense when you think about it from a historical perspective. In my experience, the countries with the stronger opinions and sometimes asshole behavior wrt to wine are the ones who have it pretty easy to grow (except for Georgia, they're the real non-snob wine homies). AFAIK there are no regions in great Britain where the weather/soil/topography allow decent viticulture, so that may also be a reason why the British can't say "traditional British wine" (at least for now, I believe because of climate change I will taste a decent Pinot Noir from Wales in my lifetime, if the water wars or depression don't kill me first)
no both of those reasons are wrong
the wine thing is due to the norman conquest with the french nobility drinking wine and the germanic peasantry drinking beer and cider. In many ways the true insufferableness of wine snobs wouldn't be possible had this not resulted in the association between wine and aristocracy.
English food being poor was a consequence of enclosure and the industrial revolution with their sudden mass exodus from the countryside and new status as destitute refugees in the cities the former peasantry weren't able to pass on their traditional cooking, the new middle class hired servants from this generation disconnected from their traditional cooking knowledge as a status symbol and so also lost a lot of their recognition of what good food should taste like. Generations of gruel being the only to eat during the terrible poverty in industrial imperial Britain ruined British food essentially.
both of those things have origins deeply tied to the class history of the UK. Although the food thing was more true 50 years ago than it is now
Thanks for earnestly debunking my flippant comment on British stereotypes!
I was trying to make it so that if the British had had the historical, social and ecological means to produce quality food as they once did before partitioning the land, using it as pasture and food for cattle, and displacing the peasantry to cities to become industrial wage laborers, they would be indistinguishable from the French in their food snobbery.
The wine bit is pretty interesting, and makes sense when you think about it from a historical perspective. In my experience, the countries with the stronger opinions and sometimes asshole behavior wrt to wine are the ones who have it pretty easy to grow (except for Georgia, they're the real non-snob wine homies). AFAIK there are no regions in great Britain where the weather/soil/topography allow decent viticulture, so that may also be a reason why the British can't say "traditional British wine" (at least for now, I believe because of climate change I will taste a decent Pinot Noir from Wales in my lifetime, if the water wars or depression don't kill me first)