Great British Food Revival

I have been watching a great series on the BBC 2 that I just have to tell you about: The Great British Food Revival.

It embodies a lot of the food philosophies I believe in, and the fact that its on prime time tv on the BBC is incredible to me. And its on it's second series. Which means it was popular enough the first time around to do another series.

The basic premise of the show is that a British chef chooses a traditional/heritage British food product to highlight, explains why its important to choose that local product over others, and then demonstrates a few ways to cook the product. Its half local food program, half cooking show, and I love it!

The BBC describes it as:

"The UK has a fantastically diverse range of produce, yet it seems to be widely ignored in favour of cheaper or more exotic foreign imports. Some of our heritage varieties are genuinely in danger of being lost forever unless they are used once more for cooking and eating. Each episode of the Great British Food Revival sees chefs and foodies champion a different piece of British produce and demonstrate how it can be used in the kitchen."

The episode last week highlighted British shellfish and duck eggs. The week before I saw an episode on where Michel Roux showed delicious British pears and a beautiful poached pear recipe.

Photo: http://www.lovefood.com/journal/opinions/13169/tv-the-great-british-food-revival

I would love to see a show like this done in the US. Promoting local delicious foods and showing people how to cook with them? It goes right along with my philosophy about teaching healthy eating. Its not enough to tell people what to eat if they don't know how to cook it.We have so many local and regional foods in the US that a show like this could be fascinating -- well to me at least -- and would hopefully help the farmers and producers of our heritage products.

(Apologies to those in the US...the show is not on BBC America, and you can't watch it online outside of the UK :(