This French invasion of London did immense harm to our
national cooking. Tomato soup started calling itself " Pompadour " or " Portugaise " and pea soup " Demidoff." In place of the fish pies and oyster patties of coaching days we entered upon our dining-car period. Even the wet but harmless brill was covered with a pink sauce tinted with cochineal, which in itself is the product of dried beetles from Mexico. We gave up cooking and started to cover up what we had cooked. All flavour having been boiled and roasted out of our foodstuffs, we began replacing it by pungent artificial sauces. Thereafter came the tin-age. Indo- lence allied itself with hearty appetite in order to consum- mate the defeat of whatever tradition of good cooking may have existed in these islands. It was then that Sir John Orr launched the nutrition movement. I should like to feel that Sir John will one day oust the tin-opener. I am not optimistic. The hand that wields the tin-opener also votes.,
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