ENGLISH • COOKING Sin,—Mr. John Fuller is, I think, somewhat'
too optimistic. English cooking is, and I am afraid will remain, renowned for many years as the worst in the whble of Europe. What is wrong with our professionals and, above all, with our housewives, is no more nor less than a complete lack of imagination. Plum Duff, says the recipe (God forbid that I should ever eat it) and Plum Duff it is, reproduced in all its frightful detail. The British have some good plates. They have steak and kidney pudding, for example. They have instituted and perfected an unique meal in " lc breakfast "; but ask them to produce a succulent meal from a dish of mixed vegetables, and they will sigh with horror—for Mrs. Becton says nothing about that.
Please let us not flatter ourselves, as Mr. Fuller flatters us, in his article. We know a little about meat, but we know nothing about cooking it:— carving, significantly enough, is our Sunday sport. Garlic we find inex- pressibly vulgar: truffles can only be tolerated if they come from Fort- num's. If hope there is, it lies with the Forces. Not long ago my sergeant, whose previous preference was treacle pudding, ate gnocchi in Trieste, and liked it. He has gone back to Birmingham now, on python, and is teach- ing his grandmother how to aiblli her eggs.—I remain, Sir, Yours faith-
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