Bad Food Britain: How A Nation Ruined Its Appetite. Joanna Blythman

of us will continue to put up uncomplainingly, perhaps even with a sort of masochistic pleasure, with bad food.’ Four decades on, his remarks still seem extraordinarily apt.

       5 NO TIME TO COOK

      Britain has become a nation that steadfastly believes it no longer has the time to cook, except for Christmas Day and the odd weekend when we dabble in the ancient art of cooking and try to work up some enthusiasm for the pleasures of the table. As little as 20 years ago, we used to look on cooking as part and parcel of daily life, then reports came from the United States of the emerging trend towards ‘no-cook’ eating. It was said to have started in Manhattan, where apartment kitchens were tiny and the possibilities for eating out were rich and varied. ‘Grazing’ became a new buzz word as consumers took to roaming fertile foodie pastures, eating what they felt like, when they felt like it. So the modern myth was born that it is possible to abandon cooking entirely but still continue to eat great food every day of the week.

      The British had their doubts about no-cook eating. To start with, few neighbourhoods in the UK have a dazzling food emporium such as Zabar’s or Dean & DeLuca on the street corner. Then there were those tales – possibly apocryphal – of Americans who stood over their toasters in the morning shouting ‘Faster, faster!’ at a slice of bread, just so they could jog off to work at six in the morning to work a ten-hour day. It all sounded a bit manic.

      But at the beginning of the 21st century, Britain seems determined to follow in the footsteps of the US when it comes to eating habits. While it would be an exaggeration to say that home cooking in Britain is dead, it is most certainly in a chronic state. In 2001, the average British household cooked from scratch – that is, prepared a meal from mainly raw ingredients – just 3.36 times a week. By 2002, 45 per cent of Britons agreed with the statement ‘I am so tired in the evening, I don’t have the energy to do anything’. Many British people are now convinced that they don’t have the time or energy to cook and they are acting upon that conviction. While in 1980, the average meal took one hour to prepare, now on average it takes 13 minutes. On current trends, it is predicted that by 2010, this will shrink to 8 minutes. Cooking is now widely seen in Britain as an optional activity, a reflection of how little importance the country gives to food. Why would one want to cook, so the thinking goes, when nearly everything else in life is potentially more interesting and rewarding? As the convenience food manufacturer