When it comes to comfort food, us Brits get pretty attached to our dishes. After all, it’s often pretty miserable and grey here, so we need all the culinary TLC we can get.
So when an American publication described mince on toast as a “quintessential British comfort classic” it all kicked off on Twitter.
Nick Solares, restaurant editor and host of the publication’s ‘The Meat Show’, experienced the dish at The Quality Chop House, a modern British restaurant, butcher’s and shop located in Farringdon, London.
Solares, who is based in New York, is a Brit himself, but it didn’t stop people from up and down the country jumping in to have their say on the matter and let’s just say it got a little heated.
Some denied the dish was British at all...
While others claimed they ate the dish decades ago as children.
There were those who it sounds more like something to be eaten after a night out...
While others tried to issue a helpful correction...
A few people believed that it was all one big wind up.
“Forgive us,” the publication later tweeted. “It’s more accurate to say it’s a quintessentially British dish, rather than a British *classic*.”
Head chef of The Quality Chop House Shaun Searley, who created the restaurant’s dish, told HuffPost UK that for him mince on toast is a classic British meal.
“I’ve always lent on family heritage when it comes to food,” said Searley who grew up in Portsmouth.“My grandparents and great-grandparents grew up eating ground beef and dripping on toast.
“They didn’t fry the bread in dripping like we do at the restaurant but spread it on bread,” he said admitting that he has adapted the meal: “But the essence of the dish is within what I remember growing up.”
“It’s the job of the restaurant to make primitive recipes more refined,” he added. That means taking great British heritage components - dripping, bread and ground beef - and putting it together. For me, that is a classic British dish.”
The one thing Searley disputed was the publications use of the word “quintessential”, explaining: “It isn’t now but it soon might be, especially after this has all taken off.”
One thing’s for sure, it looks delicious.
HuffPost UK reached out to Nick Solares who declined to comment.