Pie Fidelity: In Defence of British Food

'Yes, it's good. It's great. But we're British, and we don't have to bang on about it all the time.' In Britain, we have always had an awkward relationship with food. We've been told for so long that we are terrible cooks and yet according to a 2012 YouGov survey, our traditional food and drink are more important than the monarchy and at least as significant as our landscape and national monuments in defining a collective notion of who we are. Taking nine archetypically British dishes - Pie and Peas, A Cheese Sandwich, Fish and Chips, Spag Bol, Devonshire Cream Tea, Curry, The Full English, The Sunday Roast and a Crumble with Custard - and examining them in their perfect context, Pete Brown reveals just how fundamental food is to our sense of identity, perhaps even our sense of pride, and the ways in which we understand our place in the world.

About the Author :
Pete Brown is a middle-class north London foodie, who grew up working-class in Barnsley. He may well now speak fluent ramen and conversational kimchi, but he does so with a thick fish-and-chips accent. He has written several books on food and drink, including Man Walks into a Pub, Three Sheets to the Wind, and The Apple Orchard. His discriminating palate has led him to be a judge in the Great Taste Awards and the Radio 4 Food and Farming Awards, and a frequent contributor to Radio 4's Food Programme.

Review :
The book examines a series of traditional British meals with Hornby's geeky obsessiveness and Orwell's incisive class observation ... His prose is engaging, his storytelling effortless ... Brown writes beautifully and fondly of every dish in a way that will have you desperate to taste it again at the end of each chapter. This historical information he weaves around the food is plentiful, accurate and worn lightly, and his observations are fresh and provocative. Part Nigel Slater, part Bill Bryson, and wholly delicious...Funny, informative and written with passion, Pie Fidelity is a love poem to all that's great in British cooking. A heart-felt book that makes an important point without false pride or sentimentality. When it comes to food, we're better than we think. Genuinely revealing...Brown evokes the emotionalism of eating As much as his book is a reflection of his experiences, reading it inevitably leads the reader to examine their own past, and how food defines who we are, or used to be Brown is a natural raconteur... this memoir mixed with a "defence of British food" sees him at his funniest and most insightful. Highly recommended Brilliant, funny... loving every page [Praise for The Apple Orchard] An absorbing love letter to the English apple tree...lyrical and joyful [Praise for The Apple Orchard] Wonderful, revelatory ... very moving [Praise for The Apple Orchard] Delightful... impassioned, patriotic, richly informed A warm, humanistic book that will sustain me as I wait for when I can go once again to the sea front at Exmouth and eat fish and chips