These past couple of weeks have seen me doing a lot of celebrating, the summer is always good cause to celebrate here in England! After many months of inclement weather we come out of the woodwork to sit in pub gardens with friends and family, hopefully to enjoy good company, a few drinks and a nice pub meal.
Unfortunately pub grub aint what it used to be! Many pubs across England are now owned by big breweries and have lost their individuality and traditional values ie serving a decent meal.
The tell tale sign of a pub serving bad food is an over abundance of dishes on the menu. These dishes will range from lasagnes and cottage pies to 'authentic' curries and they are all only a microwave ping away. The microwave has become an economical tool for chain pubs and restaurants, used to cut costs by dispensing with the skills of a trained chef and fresh ingredients the standards of cooking are collapsing and we are accepting industrially produced ready meals.
Alas we only have ourselves to blame, we are swept along by the obesigenic flow, we want quantity over quality, we want more food for less money, an opportunity to over indulge and get fat (only to then spend a fortune on weight loss products) and the big chains are cashing in on our greed.
Take Whitbread the UK's largest 'hospitality' company, they own the Beefeater pubs and restaurants, Costa Coffee (otherwise known as costa lotta) 'Premier' Inn and so on and so on. It all sounds so grand and indeed the chief executives who dine in Michelin star restaurants are raking it in!
The latest gimmick in Beefeater pubs and restaurants is bottomless chips, order your meal and you will receive a few chips in a bowl, however, don't despair because you can order more chips.......for free! Unfortunately due to lack of staff, interest or care, it is unlikely you will see your waiter again until you have finished your meal by which time you won't want anymore chips.
Here in Hampshire we are lucky to have some quaint little country pubs, I took my family who were visiting from London to a pub in the heart of a village near my home. All was well until we received our menus, lo and behold an absolute abundance of dishes, when I asked the waitress (who didn't look a day over sixteen) if we could have a traditional ploughman's lunch she looked at me as if I'd asked for a roasted rhinoceros. I ended up ordering plaice, an innocuous enough dish you might think, but try eating plaice that has been microwaved from frozen, don't get me wrong I've never eaten a damp flannel but this came pretty close.
To my dismay when I looked through many reviews of the pubs I have visited recently there seems to be a general complacency. The main criteria seems to be (surprise surprise) cheapness and promptness. 'Not the best I've ever tasted but good for the money' reads one, 'Plenty of choice and very fast service' quotes another, HELLO what is wrong with these people! The very opposite is true in Spain, slow service but without the attendant disregard for quality, pride in the home cooked, simplistic food made with fresh ingredients, and always service with a smile.
When a large group of us went to our local Beefeater last week (see top photo) our celebrations went from bad to worse. We were drinking prosecco but there weren't enough ice buckets (even though we had booked in advance and asked for prosecco on ice) then the prosecco ran out after we'd only had four bottles. Pimms was off the menu because there were no pitchers! Those ordering food were told to wait as the restaurant was busy (we were sitting outside) and the bottomless chip debacle was beyond words, needless to say the chips were handed over very begrudgingly and on the strict condition only two extra portions were allowed per person, rather confusingly the 'bottomless' chips were conditional chips.
But that's us British, we settle for bad service and substandard food as long as we think we're getting something for nothing or it's cheap, cheap, cheap! We will pay over two pounds for a Costa coffee but begrudge buying free range eggs. Meanwhile the executives of Whitbread and the likes, who wouldn't be seen dead eating in one of their own establishments, are laughing all the way to the bank!
Lastly, we visited a quintessential little country pub beside a stream for Sunday lunch. We ordered the traditional Sunday roast which when it arrived was typical big brewery fayre, sliced meat in gravy that had come straight out of a vacuum pack, tasteless frozen potatoes and frozen peas, all microwaved by the plate, yet the pub was full to brimming with customers who were eating these tasteless, industrially produced dinners.
I don't know if or when we in this country will ever restore any value in what we are prepared to accept regarding the food we are eating, be it at home or in pubs and restaurants. All the while we consider the notion that more food on our plates for less money is the principle of standard by which we judge. I urge you to think about this next time you eat in a pub and I'll leave you with a last Beefeater pub review: 'The garlic breaded mushrooms were a bit greasy and soggy, I think they'd been microwaved, but it was a very generous portion.'
'You cannot trust people who have such bad cuisine. It (Great Britain) is the country with the worst food after Finland.'
- Jacques Chirac.
Love Donna xxxxxxxx
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