The BMW 1 Series Good Food Ride is a food guide like no other. It is designed to take the reader on a gastronomic journey around the British Isles, stopping off here and there and sampling the best grub the country has to offer.

INTRODUCTION
IT’S NOT WHAT YOU EAT, IT’S THE WAY THAT YOU EAT IT, SAYS RICHARD BENSON

In the early years of this decade, I began to write a book about farming and food production in the United Kingdom. The book was a personal account of a small family farm going out of business, and I started out feeling pessimistic. At that time the future of food in Britain looked very bleak: traditional producers and retailers were struggling; fast and convenience food sales were rocketing; and it was generally assumed that most people took little serious interest in what they put in their mouth. I wrote and researched to try to make sense of all this, but I must confess that I did not expect the book to sell particularly well.

By the time I was finishing three years later, however, there had been some major changes. There was a new and rapidly growing interest in where and how food was produced. Jamie Oliver and Rick Stein were making people aware of food in new ways. There were stories in the newspapers about the British becoming some of the most frequent diners-out in Europe. People were becoming more inventive and adventurous with their cooking. Farmers’ markets were thriving and traditional food producers were launching all sorts of new initiatives across the country. Thanks to heroic hard work put in years earlier by crusaders such as Henrietta Green, who appears on p.63 of this guide, there was a gastronomic revolution underway, and we were discovering new kinds of enjoyment and adventure in what we bought and ate. I ended the book on an optimistic note, and to me and my family’s surprise it became a best-seller.

So when the people from BMW asked me if I would like to edit a guide to British food experiences, I leapt at the chance like a starving man pouncing on his dinner. The company explained that it wanted to create a guide for people who were passionate about food – specifically a guide that would help them explore this interest with their cars. We talked about how it should work for quite a while, but then came up with a thought one day almost by accident when we were chatting about the sort of food we enjoyed. Wasn’t it striking, we said, that the food we had most enjoyed and remembered was not necessarily part of the meals we had paid the most for and eaten in sophisticated restaurants.

Heston Blumenthal, the great chef, BMW aficionado and contributor to this guide, told me one day that he had vivid memories of such food adventures on family holidays to Cornwall in his childhood. In the resort where the Blumenthals stayed, there was a seafood warehouse, and Mr Blumenthal had found that if you were in luck, you could sometimes buy – unofficially – fresh lobsters and crawfish there. (...)

These seem to me entirely common and reasonable needs for a modern diner, but then it became clear as we were going along that modern dining is undergoing significant changes. Some of these seemed very interesting, and so I asked a number of writers to share a few thoughts on the subject, and their pieces are interspersed between the details of the food venues we eventually selected.

Inevitably there were many, many places that I wished we could include but couldn’t fit in. These can be found, however, on the website www.1seriesgfr.co.uk, where you can also download the guide in PDF form and share your own findings. Finally, with the help of locals, we have put together gastronomic tours of 11 regions of the UK. These drives are designed to take you through great scenery – often in lesser-travelled areas of the country – with excellent food stops along the way. The food revolution, and particularly the new interest in local produce, means that for many people eating and buying food now adds an extra dimension to a visit to an area, and these routes might allow you to add wonderful taste dimensions to your experience. I hope that you enjoy them, and the rest of this guide. Maybe even in a 1 Series.

Richard Benson
Editor

Download The BMW 1 Series Good Food Ride

PDF version, 5MB, 128Pages.

Contents:

BMW Introduction 3
Introduction 4
It’s not what you eat, it’s the way that you eat it, says Richard Benson
The Destinations 7-72
101 of Britain’s finest and most distinctive food destinations
Different for Girls 14
Dining may have changed in the 21st-century, says Miranda Sawyer, but the gender divide is alive and kicking
Tough Customers 22
British diners are getting stroppier, finds Chloe Diski. Now it’s the chefs and waiters who suffer in silence
Go West 32
Is Wales’ success part of a growing east-west divide when it comes to food? asks Laura St Quinton
Any Time, Any Place, Anywhere 40
Can Sunday lunch survive in the grazing age? asks Chloe Diski
History in the Baking 48
Modern chefs are finding inspiration in the UK’s lost culinary past, says Richard Benson
Rogue Traders 56
Farmers’ markets are a great success but some, finds Richard Benson, are not what they seem
Knife and Fork with That, Sir? 64
Informal dining has become a complex affair, says Kevin Braddock. It’s time we learned some manners
Regional Maps 75
The BMW 1 Series Good Food Ride entries mapped by region
Regional Tours 89
BMW’s guided drives around of the country’s weird and wonderful gastronomic treats
Index 112
Notes 116

Download The BMW 1 Series Good Food Ride FREE Podcasts

So you fancy a closer look and perhaps a culinary adventure? See below to download The BMW 1 Series Good Food Ride in its entirety or just regional chunks of it.

Click on Podcasts for the Taste Drives which are regional audio tours, with a choice of knowledgeable hosts, including Miranda Sawyer, Heston Blumenthal and Richard Corrigan.

Visit The BMW 1 Series Good Food Ride's Web Site

BMW INTRODUCTION.

There can surely be no doubt that the United Kingdom is currently in the grip of a fully-blown food revolution. Not one of those exclusive revolutions that involve half a dozen posh restaurants in large cities, nor one of those associated with junk and nasty additives. No, the gastronomic overhaul currently underway here extends to the most far-flung corners of the land, and is about simple things like the basic quality of food, the story behind its production – and, of course, the eating experience itself.

You can find evidence of this revolution in all sorts of places; from football pie stands to roadside cafés, and from local bakeries to posh restaurants in large cities. The BMW 1 Series Good Food Ride is an introduction to some of the best; 101 places that offer little culinary adventures and, in many cases, require a fascinating journey through wonderful scenery to get there.

There is a delicious pleasure to be had in plotting a journey that takes in two or three great food stop offs, especially if some of them offer the opportunity to load up the boot with choice items to take home. With this guide, you can choose your own itinerary from the 101 listed venues, or opt to follow one of the regional tours at the end. You can also find a few extra selections, or offer up some of your own experiences at www.1seriesgfr.co.uk

I very much hope that the following pages will inspire you to explore some or all of the venues. This could be the beginning of a beautiful adventure – or several, in fact…

Richard Hudson
General Manager
Marketing Communications
BMW (UK) Ltd

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