Columns – Speakers Corner
FLYING THE FLAG WAKE UP TO THE JOYS OF THE FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST, SAYS BILL KNOTT I ordered breakfast at a smart country house hotel recently: the traditional full English, of course. Except that, while it was undoubtedly full bacon, sausage, eggs, grilled tomato, mushrooms it was not entirely English. The chef had pepped up the mushrooms with dried porcini [...]
FLYING THE FLAG
WAKE UP TO THE JOYS OF THE FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST, SAYS BILL
KNOTT
src="/images/2007/jul/p023_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_02.jpg"
alt="BILL KNOTT">I ordered breakfast at a smart country
house hotel recently: the traditional full English, of course. Except
that, while it was undoubtedly full bacon, sausage, eggs,
grilled tomato, mushrooms it was not entirely English. The
chef had pepped up the mushrooms with dried porcini and a handful of
flat-leaf parsley. There was nothing wrong with the taste per se
on pasta, for lunch, the mushrooms would have been perfect
but for breakfast they were just plain wrong. Cheffy had, I
surmised, fallen victim to food snobbery, that pernicious ailment which
insists that any food that has not been diver caught, hand gathered or
sun dried is not fit for human consumption. All I wanted were a few
button mushrooms with a sprinkle of chopped curly parsley and a twist
of black pepper. Sadly, button mushrooms and curly parsley are so
derided in cookbooks and on television that they have almost entirely
disappeared from menus. They are not the only victims of the Food
Police. Spare a thought for the iceberg lettuce. Nothing is better with
a prawn cocktail or in a hamburger, but it has been completely usurped
by modish salads of rocket and mizuna leaves, dressed with organic hemp
seed oil and rice vinegar. The rationale seems to be that everything on
one’s plate should have maximum flavour; this is nonsense. You might as
well say that all members of a symphony orchestra should play their own
tunes as loudly as possible at the same time. Unbearable, unless you
are a fan of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Britain’s cauliflower growers,
apparently, are declining at a disastrous rate. While our European
cousins rightly celebrate their home cooking and put it on their menus,
our national inferiority complex about food means we ignore our own
great dishes in favour of the trendy and exotic. So back to my
breakfast. Dry-cured bacon: lovely, just as it used to be. As were the
sausages, and the tomato had been nicely grilled. Free range local
eggs: rich and golden yolks, wonderful. But Italian dried mushrooms, in
a creamy sauce? Oh, spare me.
CULTURE VULTURE
GRAHAM SHEFFIELD, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF THE BARBICAN CENTRE,
TALKS 25 YEARS
src="/images/2007/jul/p023_voyager_july_07.pdf_doc_images_small_up_04.jpg"
alt="Classical violinist Chloë Hanslip">As we celebrate our
25th birthday, we say at the Barbican that our great strength is that
you can experience the world’s culture from your seat: that’s in any
one of our venues under one roof within the heart of the City of
London. For example, you can hear the London Symphony playing Mahler or
a tribute to Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd, look at a design show from
Finland or watch a movie from Palestine in the Film Festival or a play
from South Africa, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, in French, directed by the
renowned Peter Brook. It’s this level of internationalism that we
champion; it’s what makes the Barbican special among arts centres
worldwide. We’ve come a long way since 1982: then the programme was
primarily a classical one (drama and music) based on the two
resident ensembles, the LSO and RSC. The LSO remains one of the world’s
top orchestras and also one of the most dynamic. The RSC left in the
1990s so we have a year-round programme, BITE, of drama, dance and
music theatre.
Being passionate about what we bring to our audiences is why we search
the world for the very best in the arts. This summer, for example, in
New Crowned Hope, internationally acclaimed director Peter Sellars
curates a festival of all the arts, plus food and discussion, inspired
by the ideals of Mozart, magic and transformation, truth and
reconciliation. New opera, dance, music from around the world, film,
video installations, a food fest and plenty of controversial debate;
what more could one want? So why not join us in July and August to
experience the essence of the Barbican at 25. The Barbican’s 25th
Anniversary Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2, +44 (0)845 120
7550; www.barbican.org.uk
