Modern British cusine has arisen from British food undergoing something of a renaissance due to the multitude of foreign influences it has absorbed.
Origins of Modern British Cuisine
After the two world wars, Britain's reputation for bad cooking was at its peak. However, changes came, with people like Elizabeth David touring the continent and discovering fresh flavours, ingredients and techniques and publishing her findings.
Top Class Modern British Food
One top class chef and food writer is Anthony Bourdain who runs St John's British food restaurant and proves that when British cooking is done well it can be very good.
Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding for example requires a lot of skill to cook properly because the timing of the dishes must be very precise.
And who could forget Jamie Oliver, housewife's favourite and saviour of British school dinners.
Fresh Ingredients
Britain offers a wonderful selection of fresh ingredients - fruit and vegetables, meat and fish.
Fish is particularly important to cooking in the UK. Being an island surrounded by some of the best fishing coasts in the world, many species such as haddock, plaice, cod, turbot, lobsters and oysters form the core of British cooking.
Modern British Food
It is in utilising the many diverse and fresh national ingredients that chefs such as Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson and most recently Oliver Rowe have invented what is now known as Modern British food.
Best of British
Traditional dishes such as roast beef and Yorkshire pudding together with Cornish pasties, steak and kidney pie, and fish and chips remain popular, as do comforting desserts such as bread and butter pudding, treacle tart, and fruit crumble.
However, Modern British cuisine draws from a great multicultural mix of influences.
Modern British food can be sampled at stylish Modern British restaurants across the capital. London restaurants are the ideal place to sample this innovative cuisine as they are home to most of the pioneering chefs who implemented such welcome changes.
Carlina Macdonald