When The British Cookbook, a tome containing 550 of the UK’s most quintessential recipes, was published in France this month, its author Ben Mervis was sceptical.
Mindful that British gastronomy has a poor reputation on the other side of the Channel, he wondered whether the French really wanted to know how to make purée de pois (mushy peas), oeufs à l’écossaise (Scotch eggs) or anguilles en gelée (jellied eels).
“I wasn’t 100 per cent sure how it would be received,” said the American food writer, who has become an ambassador for British cooking.
He need not have worried. His work — Le Livre de la Cuisine British, as it is in French — has gone down remarkably well among Parisian critics who seem