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Food as an Expression of British Class Warfare

Posted by Tam Ngo, January 14, 2009 at 4:15 PM

Over at the Guardian's Word of Mouth blog, Matthew Fort rallies the proletariat with an ode to Jamie Oliver.

"In most other civilised counties, everyone feels as if they own their food culture. Only in Britain has it been a weapon in class warfare.”

Of the alleged schism created when the well-heeled write about food, Fort states, "Ever since the sainted Elizabeth David put pen to paper, and even before, food was used as a form of social exclusion rather than something that should be accessible to everybody."

But Oliver is an agent of change. Fort champions Oliver as a hero of the masses, saying, "He didn’t go to university and he doesn’t treat food as the exclusive province of the well-educated and well heeled.... He doesn’t speak in the clipped tones of the middle classes. His vocabulary is distinctly limited. Much of his cooking is, frankly, slapdash. But he addresses directly a mass of Britons who formerly had been completely ignored by the clever clogs who clutter up the columns of print media and the ever-multiplying sequence of food shows on television. He makes extra-virgin olive oil and rocket seem as homely as dripping and cabbage. He makes passion about food and cooking seem normal."

Is food as social exclusion a problem unique to Brits or are we in the U.S. similarly plagued? Who are our food champions?

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Tags: Jamie Oliver, UK, Word of Mouth