Americans are wrong, London is the world’s greatest food city
When it comes to stereotypes around travel, there aren’t many as boring as the spurious claims about the quality of British food and how difficult it is to find a good meal in the UK.
This was compounded by Taste Atlas ranking the capital as the 89th best city for food on the planet, a staggeringly low number that sees London ranked below 17 Italian cities, ten in America and European cities like Moscow, Amsterdam, Brussels and Berlin. At this point in time, most clichés and outdated opinions on cities have been debunked, but for some reason, this myth that the UK and London have bad food continues to live on, and frankly, it’s embarrassing, because food in London is not only not bad; it’s so good that it deserves to be recognised as the greatest food city on Earth.
One of the reasons that the United Kingdom is said to have bad food comes from the proliferation of American culture globally, where it’s said that US soldiers stationed in Great Britain during the war, in which the country was under strict food rationing, returned home and spoke of the terrible cuisine they had. This spread and spread, and with rationing only fully ended in July 1954, it meant that even some visitors post-war endured food heavily influenced by that difficult period. Then, through TV and media, this notion of bad cuisine was lapped up by people across the planet who’d not even set foot in the country.
British food may be heavy, but if you don’t think a full English, Sunday roast, shepherd’s pie or beef wellington aren’t good, then I’m sorry, you’re wrong, and then there’s Britain’s favourite dish, which, surprisingly, is not fish and chips, but chicken tikka masala. The humble curry may have roots further afield, but it was invented on British shores by South Asian chefs and designed to suit the nation’s palate.
London’s food, and by extension, British food, is heavily impacted by immigration, with colonial influences and more modern global imports making a huge dent on the city’s food scene. A recent study revealed that the city has 123 different national cuisines available, making it officially the most diverse food city on the planet, and yes, that’s more than Paris, Tokyo and New York. When you visit London, you don’t have to just eat bangers and mash, but you have the world on your plate, with authentic food from over half of the world’s countries.
There are entire areas within the capital that specialise in foods from a particular region, whether that’s Indian in Brick Lane, Turkish in Green Lanes, West Africa in Peckham or Korean in New Malden, and this isn’t just cosplay either, with foods generally cooked by the diaspora themselves. With over 38.5% of London’s population born abroad, there’s incredible depth to the cuisines available, which is why it’s overtaken every other city on the planet to become the single best place to eat.
Paris and Tokyo are often cited as being the two great food cities in Europe and Asia, respectively, but, for the large part, their menus are one-dimensional, with a heavy influence from their own cuisines. While French and Japanese dishes can be mind-blowing, there isn’t the diversity of taste which you can find in London, and certainly not on such a widespread scale. That diversity shows at the Michelin level, with London, the second-most Michelin-decorated city in Europe, having a wider range of cuisines with stars than either Paris or Tokyo, which has the highest number of stars of any global city.
While the UK certainly isn’t cheap for either tourists or locals, there’s a wider variety of food available at different price points, too, where you can have truly unique tasting menus that will set you back hundreds of pounds, but also pick up morish, cheap street eats too, and still have your mind blown and appetite more than satiated.
The fact is, the London food scene doesn’t stand still but is constantly evolving, where over the past few years, we’ve seen the rise of West African cuisine, and with the sheer diversity on display, and it’s ever changing trends, it’s not only at the forefront of world food, it’s extending its lead by the year. New York might have scale, Tokyo might have precision, and Paris might have tradition, but London has colour. Constant innovation, mixed with unmatched diversity and true world-class quality, as evidenced by the 90 Michelin-starred restaurants, has created a situation in which the once-derided city has become the planet’s global kitchen, and the first port of call for any food-oriented traveller.
