Albion: NEIL BUTTERY
In this episode of OffScript, Dash Arts' Artistic Director Josephine Burton is joined by Dr. Neil Buttery—food historian, cook, and the voice behind The British Food History Podcast—for a delicious and wide-ranging conversation about the edible stories that define us.
Josephine and Neil trace the history of English food from the kitchen outwards, exploring how our national palate has been shaped by invasion, trade, and social change. They discuss how the ingredients on our plates reflect the class fault lines of history, the evolution of the "traditional" English diet, and why food is perhaps the most intimate way to understand the changing identity of a nation.
They talk about the culinary "soft power" of the dinner table and who gets to define what constitutes "proper" English food. From the voracious appetite of early global trade to the regional dishes that have stood the test of time, they unpick why our hunger for new flavours, far from diluting our traditions, is precisely what keeps our food culture vital and alive. Plus Neil designs a small plates menu which tells a story of English food today
And because the conversation sits alongside Our Public House, Dash Arts' new touring theatre production, a state-of-the-nation play set in a pub, Josephine and Neil discuss the role of the pub as part of our culinary history!
The British Food History Podcast can be found here: britishfoodhistory.com
Our Public House is currently touring England. Find out more at https://www.dasharts.org.uk/our-public-house
This episode is part of Dash Arts' Albion series — an ongoing exploration of what it means to be English today.
Our intro music is Fakiiritanssi by Marouf Majidi
