There has been a dedicated Carribean food series. That was with Levi Roots.
Ainsley Harriot has also covered Carribean recipies in his shows.
I can't think of a plethora of Italian, Chinese and Indian shows or chefs on the main channels.
There's Ken Hom and the lovely Ching-He Huang.
Rachel Khoo does more classic French recipies.
There are the usual Italian and Indian chefs who popup on Saturday Kitchen but only two or three of each cuisine.
Good Food or Food Network may put out a series but how many would see it? and would they be presented by someone well known.
There's a few series on South East Asia on those channels but i've never heard of the chef/presenters before and sometimes it's the name that gets you to start watching.
Programmes like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show quite a few Carribean restaurants and recipies. The food always looks good. I was surprised by the amount of Chinese and Indian influence that some recipies use.
I went on Caribbean Cookery Course with my daughter in London a couple of years back, was great fun. We just learnt some of the basics and how to make up the spices, which I now make up in jars as paste and keep in the fridge.
There are lots of videos on youtube available and if I want to make something a bit different for a change, I can normally find something interesting there.
There has been a dedicated Carribean food series. That was with Levi Roots.
Ainsley Harriot has also covered Carribean recipies in his shows.
I can't think of a plethora of Italian, Chinese and Indian shows or chefs on the main channels.
There's Ken Hom and the lovely Ching-He Huang.
Rachel Khoo does more classic French recipies.
There are the usual Italian and Indian chefs who popup on Saturday Kitchen but only two or three of each cuisine.
Good Food or Food Network may put out a series but how many would see it? and would they be presented by someone well known.
There's a few series on South East Asia on those channels but i've never heard of the chef/presenters before and sometimes it's the name that gets you to start watching.
Programmes like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show quite a few Carribean restaurants and recipies. The food always looks good. I was surprised by the amount of Chinese and Indian influence that some recipies use.
Off the top of my head
Italian - genaro contaldo, antonio carluccio, the young italian bloke that was on IACGMOOH, angela hartnett, jamie oliver does nothing but italian dishes (sort of), theres another italian who i absolutey fancy but cant think of his name, did a series with the art historian, quite childlike
indian - madhur jaffrey, those 2 scottish blokes, rick stein usually does tons of series let alone programmes about food on the indian continent,
A quick glance at the best selling cookbooks in Amazon' international cookery section highlights the influence of the TV celebrity chefs in getting the general public to sample foreign cuisine:
Rick Stein's India
Gino D'Acampo' Italian Escape
The Hairy Bikers Asian Adventure
Ken Hom: 100 Quick Stir-fry Recipes
Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible
Two Greedy Italians by Antonio Carluccio & Gennaro Contaldo
Rachel Koo: My Little French Kitchen
Nigellissima: Instant Italian Inspiration
Chinese Food Made Easy by Ching-He Huang
Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape: 100 Classic Indian Recipes
Kitchen Secrets by Raymond Blanc
The only Caribbean cookbook in the top 100 is by Levi Roots (who is a musician by trade not a chef) and whilst Ainsley Harriot is of West Indian heritage none of his cookbooks are actually dedicated to the islands' recipes.
Been to a few Caribbean restaurants in this country and they've all been poor, bit of a mystery why you can't get good Caribbean food here when there's been people from that area living here since the 1940s.
I tend to find the takeaways and food vans to be much better than 'restaurants' when it comes to Caribbean. Quite lucky to have a few decent ones round here.
Chicken lunch, pork lunch, fish lunch. Breadfruit, plantain, spicy sauce, some macaroni....all for EC$15 (about 3 quid). Beef roti with or w/o bone.......
Not very good really......if it was, it would be as popular as Chinese, Indian or Italian
A quick glance at the best selling cookbooks in Amazon' international cookery section highlights the influence of the TV celebrity chefs in getting the general public to sample foreign cuisine:
Rick Stein's India
Gino D'Acampo' Italian Escape
The Hairy Bikers Asian Adventure
Ken Hom: 100 Quick Stir-fry Recipes
Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible
Two Greedy Italians by Antonio Carluccio & Gennaro Contaldo
Rachel Koo: My Little French Kitchen
Nigellissima: Instant Italian Inspiration
Chinese Food Made Easy by Ching-He Huang
Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape: 100 Classic Indian Recipes
Kitchen Secrets by Raymond Blanc
The only Caribbean cookbook in the top 100 is by Levi Roots (who is a musician by trade not a chef) and whilst Ainsley Harriot is of West Indian heritage none of his cookbooks are actually dedicated to the islands' recipes.
No, the best-sellers simply reflect the existing dominant influences in foreign cuisine in the UK. Those have been around since before the celebrity chef phenomenon.
Years ago, French cuisine was the pinnacle of sophistication and just about the only acceptable foreign cuisine in Britain, certainly in terms of posh restaurants.
Then came Italian cooking. Family-run Italian restaurants largely invented restaurant dining for the middle classes.
Indian and Chinese came with immigrants from those countries and, for some reason, owning and running restaurants seems to have been relatively common in those immigrant groups.
Of course, there were plenty of West Indian immigrants in post-war Britain and it is interesting that there was not a consequent West Indian restaurant and food culture. I don't think you can put it down to 'racism' because that did not prevent Indian and Chinese cuisine becoming popular. I suspect it was driven by the lack of restaurants; once you get restaurants springing up, everybody seems to notice a particular cuisine and it becomes popular. Thai food is mainstream, despite the small number of Thai immigrants and I suspect that is due to the relatively large number of restaurants. Maybe running restaurants is not seen as culturally acceptable for West Indian immigrants?
Don't forget that celebrity chefs mostly just follow existing fashions. Italian, French, Chinese and Indian cooking were all well established in the UK by the time of the arrival of the celebrity chef. Levi Roots is only famous because of TV exposure and, as you say, that was for inventing a (non-authentic) sauce, not for popularising the food culture.
A quick glance at the best selling cookbooks in Amazon' international cookery section highlights the influence of the TV celebrity chefs in getting the general public to sample foreign cuisine:
Rick Stein's India
Gino D'Acampo' Italian Escape
The Hairy Bikers Asian Adventure
Ken Hom: 100 Quick Stir-fry Recipes
Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible
Two Greedy Italians by Antonio Carluccio & Gennaro Contaldo
Rachel Koo: My Little French Kitchen
Nigellissima: Instant Italian Inspiration
Chinese Food Made Easy by Ching-He Huang
Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape: 100 Classic Indian Recipes
Kitchen Secrets by Raymond Blanc
The only Caribbean cookbook in the top 100 is by Levi Roots (who is a musician by trade not a chef) and whilst Ainsley Harriot is of West Indian heritage none of his cookbooks are actually dedicated to the islands' recipes.
Exactly my point
And the chef that I couldnt remember the name of that I quite fancy is Georgio Locotelli. I almost fancy him as much as I do, Jean Christophe Novelli. (he tends to do French food)
I do like a nice golden rum, Angostura 1919 is my tipple of choice but I shall keep an eye out for that Captain Bligh XO.
I usually drink Angostura on the rocks or dark rum with cola if I'm in the pub but was introduced to Jerry and Ginger https://sailorjerry.com/the-rum/drink-recipes/perfect-storm/ a couple of summers ago and it does make for a refreshing blend in this heat :cool:
...Of course, there were plenty of West Indian immigrants in post-war Britain and it is interesting that there was not a consequent West Indian restaurant and food culture. I don't think you can put it down to 'racism' because that did not prevent Indian and Chinese cuisine becoming popular. I suspect it was driven by the lack of restaurants; once you get restaurants springing up, everybody seems to notice a particular cuisine and it becomes popular. Thai food is mainstream, despite the small number of Thai immigrants and I suspect that is due to the relatively large number of restaurants. Maybe running restaurants is not seen as culturally acceptable for West Indian immigrants?
Don't forget that celebrity chefs mostly just follow existing fashions. Italian, French, Chinese and Indian cooking were all well established in the UK by the time of the arrival of the celebrity chef. Levi Roots is only famous because of TV exposure and, as you say, that was for inventing a (non-authentic) sauce, not for popularising the food culture.
I suppose you have a point about the TV execs merely following popular trends, as all that most Brits seem to know of Caribbean cuisine is rice & peas, jerk chicken and Encona pepper sauce.
Considering how successful the West Indian community has been in other fields, such as music and sport, it is odd how little culinary influence it has had in Britain over the past half century.
Whilst almost every town has a selection of Indian and Chinese restaurants, on the rare occasions I have stumbled across somewhere serving Caribbean food it has invariably been a run down looking cafe which looked about as appealing as the nearby kebab shops!
jamie oliver does nothing but italian dishes (sort of)
When was the last time you watched a Jamie Oliver show?
He hasn't done an Italian series for years and his shows in the past few years have been varied. Most probably classed as world cuisine. Sure he still does Italian, but also Asian, Mexican, tex-mex, British and actually a lot of Carribean/West Indian food.
Comments
Ainsley Harriot has also covered Carribean recipies in his shows.
I can't think of a plethora of Italian, Chinese and Indian shows or chefs on the main channels.
There's Ken Hom and the lovely Ching-He Huang.
Rachel Khoo does more classic French recipies.
There are the usual Italian and Indian chefs who popup on Saturday Kitchen but only two or three of each cuisine.
Good Food or Food Network may put out a series but how many would see it? and would they be presented by someone well known.
There's a few series on South East Asia on those channels but i've never heard of the chef/presenters before and sometimes it's the name that gets you to start watching.
Programmes like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives show quite a few Carribean restaurants and recipies. The food always looks good. I was surprised by the amount of Chinese and Indian influence that some recipies use.
There are lots of videos on youtube available and if I want to make something a bit different for a change, I can normally find something interesting there.
Off the top of my head
Italian - genaro contaldo, antonio carluccio, the young italian bloke that was on IACGMOOH, angela hartnett, jamie oliver does nothing but italian dishes (sort of), theres another italian who i absolutey fancy but cant think of his name, did a series with the art historian, quite childlike
indian - madhur jaffrey, those 2 scottish blokes, rick stein usually does tons of series let alone programmes about food on the indian continent,
Rick Stein's India
Gino D'Acampo' Italian Escape
The Hairy Bikers Asian Adventure
Ken Hom: 100 Quick Stir-fry Recipes
Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible
Two Greedy Italians by Antonio Carluccio & Gennaro Contaldo
Rachel Koo: My Little French Kitchen
Nigellissima: Instant Italian Inspiration
Chinese Food Made Easy by Ching-He Huang
Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape: 100 Classic Indian Recipes
Kitchen Secrets by Raymond Blanc
The only Caribbean cookbook in the top 100 is by Levi Roots (who is a musician by trade not a chef) and whilst Ainsley Harriot is of West Indian heritage none of his cookbooks are actually dedicated to the islands' recipes.
I tend to find the takeaways and food vans to be much better than 'restaurants' when it comes to Caribbean. Quite lucky to have a few decent ones round here.
Not very good really......if it was, it would be as popular as Chinese, Indian or Italian
Came across this cocktail recipe yesterday:
Dark & Stormy
2oz dark rum
1/2oz fresh lime juice
3oz chilled ginger beer
lime wedge
Build in a highball glass; first rum and lime juice, then ice, then ginger beer. Stir gently and garnish with lime wedge.
Probably best to use a good ginger beer like Fentiman's or Fever Tree.
Especially if it's this rum:
http://discoversvg.com/index.php/en/home/latest-news/836-svgs-captain-bligh-xo-adjudged-worlds-best-rum-at-world-drinks-awards
With Waitrose Fiery ginger ale
No, the best-sellers simply reflect the existing dominant influences in foreign cuisine in the UK. Those have been around since before the celebrity chef phenomenon.
Years ago, French cuisine was the pinnacle of sophistication and just about the only acceptable foreign cuisine in Britain, certainly in terms of posh restaurants.
Then came Italian cooking. Family-run Italian restaurants largely invented restaurant dining for the middle classes.
Indian and Chinese came with immigrants from those countries and, for some reason, owning and running restaurants seems to have been relatively common in those immigrant groups.
Of course, there were plenty of West Indian immigrants in post-war Britain and it is interesting that there was not a consequent West Indian restaurant and food culture. I don't think you can put it down to 'racism' because that did not prevent Indian and Chinese cuisine becoming popular. I suspect it was driven by the lack of restaurants; once you get restaurants springing up, everybody seems to notice a particular cuisine and it becomes popular. Thai food is mainstream, despite the small number of Thai immigrants and I suspect that is due to the relatively large number of restaurants. Maybe running restaurants is not seen as culturally acceptable for West Indian immigrants?
Don't forget that celebrity chefs mostly just follow existing fashions. Italian, French, Chinese and Indian cooking were all well established in the UK by the time of the arrival of the celebrity chef. Levi Roots is only famous because of TV exposure and, as you say, that was for inventing a (non-authentic) sauce, not for popularising the food culture.
Exactly my point
And the chef that I couldnt remember the name of that I quite fancy is Georgio Locotelli. I almost fancy him as much as I do, Jean Christophe Novelli. (he tends to do French food)
I do like a nice golden rum, Angostura 1919 is my tipple of choice but I shall keep an eye out for that Captain Bligh XO.
I usually drink Angostura on the rocks or dark rum with cola if I'm in the pub but was introduced to Jerry and Ginger https://sailorjerry.com/the-rum/drink-recipes/perfect-storm/ a couple of summers ago and it does make for a refreshing blend in this heat :cool:
I suppose you have a point about the TV execs merely following popular trends, as all that most Brits seem to know of Caribbean cuisine is rice & peas, jerk chicken and Encona pepper sauce.
Considering how successful the West Indian community has been in other fields, such as music and sport, it is odd how little culinary influence it has had in Britain over the past half century.
Whilst almost every town has a selection of Indian and Chinese restaurants, on the rare occasions I have stumbled across somewhere serving Caribbean food it has invariably been a run down looking cafe which looked about as appealing as the nearby kebab shops!
He hasn't done an Italian series for years and his shows in the past few years have been varied. Most probably classed as world cuisine. Sure he still does Italian, but also Asian, Mexican, tex-mex, British and actually a lot of Carribean/West Indian food.