Conclusion

Views of the Britishers on the impact of foods from colonies on British modern cuisine

During our project, we have made research in relation to the question “to what extent can colonialism be recognized in modern British cuisine?”. 

Based on our research question we have read theory from the books, academic articles and various online sources. Besides, we have done interviews with 8 different native speakers. As a result of our research, we came to the conclusion that there is an enormous effect of ‘Colonization’ in modern British food culture.

The British colonies invaded a wide variety of countries like North America, Canada, Caribbean islands, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, many islands in the South Pacific, India in large-scale.
Based on the results of all interviews it is worth mentioning that most of our interviewees consume potatoes and tomatoes regularly. They consume sugar, curry and spices frequently but not as much as potatoes and tomatoes. Although most of the interviewees say that they consume tea every day, there are two participants who expressed that they do not drink tea. In addition, there is also an interviewee who does not consume masala. Moreover, most of the participants eat turkey on special occasions like Christmas dinner and Easter.

In relation to what is the most important/famous food in British culture and how often do they eat them all respondents admitted that fish and chips and Roast is the most popular. Roast dinner is mostly Sunday family meal once a week and fish and chips are not eaten as often as we thought - like 1 in 2 weeks or even less frequently. Some respondents said that it was a kind of meal of their childhood times and even considered unhealthy. It used to be Sunday treat and take away food. Potatoes play a very important role in British daily food and are eaten very frequently 3 - 4 times per week.

There is a generation gap which affects what food people consume most and how often because some admitted that more traditional food is consumed by the older generation while younger generations are exposed to big variety and choice of international foods and want to try new things. Younger people call themselves “internationally integrated” which is obviously affected in the way how often they would consume traditional British food versus non - British. According to answers, British food is consumed 1 - 2 per week while international way more often.

The present Britishers experiment with all kinds of non-British food. Their favourites and frequently consumed meals are Indian, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Chinese, Turkish, Japanese. In fact, they consume and cook more Non-British food then British one e.g. pasta, pizza, Greek wraps, samosa, pakora etc. The frequent takeaway food for Britishers is Italian food, pasta and pizza, Mexican wraps and burritos, Thai, Turkish. The reasons for this are mentioned as living abroad or a mixed household.

With respect to their knowledge concerning food history, the majority of the respondents addressed colonization and trade as influential factors in terms of food. One of the respondents described that during the period of discovery potatoes were brought from South America in the 1500s and tomatoes from Latin America. Other respondents, mostly the younger ones stated that immigration brought new food to Britain. For example, the famous British food “fish and chips” is actually Greeks. Turkish food is gaining popularity, however, its influence is nowhere to be compared with Indian or Chinese food.

The influence of colonial foods is vast in Britain, and the biggest influential foods are Indian and Chinese. Tea has ingrained in British households. Not only do Britishers order these foods from restaurants, but they actually make those dishes at home. Indian and Chinese food is also on their frequent takeaway list. Moreover, the vast majority of the Britishers can consume good spicy food. Not only colonization food items changed the food culture of Britain but the culture in general. One of the respondents actually mentioned that if all the colonial food is taken away from Britain, there will be no food left in Britain.

Most of the respondents agreed that the use of cutlery has changed in response to the type of cuisine, setting and people. Before the 1600s, most British used more eating utensils to eat almost all meals however, nowadays, intercultural awareness gave way to the adaptation of the use of cutlery to different meals from different cultural backgrounds. Thus, the kind of meal, culture and traditions of the host and guests, as well as the occasion play a major role in the use of cutlery.

In addition, most respondents acknowledged that food habits have changed between the 1600s and the 2000s due to immigration, availability of various kinds of food, openness to trying different meals from different cultures, health awareness and access to information on food recipes. The old generation held on to their usual meals due to the lack of varieties, access to the recipes and openness to new cuisines whereas the new generation experiments with different kinds of food since they have access to food recipes, and are open to trying different cuisines from different cultures.

After having done the theoretical and practical part of the research (interviews with native speakers), who shared real experiences about their food habits and choices and having combined and processed everything together we have had a unique and insightful experience of knowing British culture and history more deeply and would be very excited to do further research on the topic such as:
How does the United Kingdom benefit from multiculturalism?

Future Research Possibilities

This research has explored how Britain's present food has been influenced by colonization. However, the present food culture has a whole lot that is yet to be explored. There are further possibilities on researching what else has impacted the present food culture besides colonization. Some points mentioned by the respondents are Immigration, international marriages, health consciousness, travel which can be used as a base for future research.
As one of interviewee said: “If we remove all colonial foods from British cuisine, there would be nothing left in Britain to eat” - as a further research idea we could investigate whether this statement would be true or not and in connection to that, to think is international food pushing traditional British food aside or not?