Yes, yes Food Science Day – a rip-roaring success last year and to be repeated this summer. But whilst the science helps us understand how food works, sometimes one needs an understanding of the cultural history of food to understand some of its effects. And so I propose May to be Food History Month.
What kind of questions? Well take this conundrum which came up the other day in the pub. The Great British Breakfast. We tried to narrow down the key ingredients (and yes, fried slice AND toast on the side made the cut). And it was pretty unanimously agreed that baked beans are definitely in the standard GBB. But we were a bit more torn on the ur-GBB, probably a Victorian invention. We did not believe that the British love affair with beans goes back that far. And hence for Food History Month we will try and conjure up a definitive history of the GBB, in particular identify the point when beans became a part of it.
Feel free to suggest other food history for us to investigate too.