A recent poll conducted by French magazine Madame Le Figaro and the BBC’s food magazine Olive, has indicated that the average Britain cooks more frequently, for a longer period and creates a wider variety of cuisine than our neighbours in France.

This is something of a blow to the French culinary reputation. The French have always felt their cooking to be far superior to the rest of European gastronomy, so much so, in fact, that it wasn’t long ago that French President Nicolas Sarkozy, asked for the United Nations to list it as a ‘world treasure’.

Over 2,000 French people and just short of 1,350 Britons were quizzed in the poll. Answers showed that 72% of the Britons questioned said that they cook at home on a daily basis, some 13% more than their French counterparts.

It was also shown that whilst around half of the British respondents spend in excess of 30 minutes preparing and cooking for themselves, this figure that is double that of their French opposite numbers. Perhaps most significantly, 4% of the French said that they never cooked at home, compared with only 1% of Britons.

The findings are considered to reflect the move in Britain away from frozen food that has taken place since the 1990s. This has seen a drastic rise in the number of farmers markets and traditional fresh-food outlets across the country and has seen British food lovers experimenting and taking far more pleasure in their time spent in the kitchen.

Of course at CS Catering, as we supply Great British brands like Lincat Catering Equipment, we always knew it to be true!

Posted by Matt on the 25th March 2010