Elegant & Oh So British Eats

Elegant & Oh So British Eats:

Exploring the Pinnacle of the UK's Culinary Legacies

By JOSEPH V. KUCA

Along with the Land Rover, over the years the UK has produced some other rather excellent and, dare we say, unique products for export, not the least of which are some of its gastronomic and culinary patrimony made known throughout the world by some of its justly famed and understandably celebrated grocers and food purveyors.

Anglophiles worth their salt will certainly be familiar with the three premier specialty British foodsellers: Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Fortnum & Mason.  But, among this London 'foodie trinty' one purveyor stands head and shoulders above the rest as something of a first among equals, that is the venerable Piccadilly-based London food emporium of Fortnum & Mason.

Since its doors opened in 1707, Fortnum's has been at the top of the worldwide gourmet and luxury food products scene.  It has been and is the quintessential English store, situated in the heart of London's Piccadilly. Fortnum's is unique, inside and out.

Fortnum & Mason, often shortened to just "Fortnum's" is a Royal Warrant holder, situated in central London.  Its headquarters are located at 181 Piccadilly where it was established in 1707 by William Fortnum and Hugh Mason.  Fortnum and Mason is recognized internationally for its high quality goods and as an iconic British symbol. It has held many Royal Warrants over the past 150 years.

Founded as a grocery store, Fortnum's reputation was built on supplying quality food, and saw rapid growth throughout the Victorian era. An ill-fated venture into the US in the 1930's ended in failure, with the company's newly launched flagship store on New York's Madison Avenue closing almost as soon as it opened. Though Fortnum's today has developed into a department store, it continues to focus on stocking a variety of exotic, specialty and also 'basic' provisions.  It is also the location of a celebrated tea shop.

In 1761, William Fortnum's grandson Charles went into the service of Queen Charlotte and the Royal Court affiliation led to an increase in business. The store began to stock speciality items, namely ready-to-eat luxury meals such as fresh poultry or game served in aspic jelly.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the emporium supplied dried fruit, spices and other preserves to the British officers and during the Victorian era it was frequently called upon to provide food for prestigious Court functions. Queen Victoria even sent shipments of Fortnum & Mason's concentrated beef tea to Florence Nightingale's hospitals during the Crimean War.

In 1851 Fortnum & Mason first created the Scotch egg and in 1886, after having bought the entire stock of five cases of a new product made by a Mr H.J. Heinz, became the first store in Britain to stock tins of baked beans.

Fortnum & Mason is famed for its loose-leaf tea and its world-renowned luxury picnic hampers, which the store first distributed to Victorian high society for events such as the Henley Regatta and Ascot Races. These hampers — which contain luxury items such as Stilton cheese, champagne, Quails eggs and smoked salmon — remain popular today, especially at Christmas time and can cost from about $75 to $50,000.

To visitors with either underdeveloped, or untrained, appetites exotic delicacies as East Indian poppadums, cheeses, marmalades, honeys from around the globe, Bombay duck, cox-combs in jelly, grouse pie, vintage marmalades, sole farcie en champagne and rare soups, including those made from shark fins and kangaroo tails, will seem alien, but for Fortnum's it's merely the standard daily bill of fare!

Such adventurous souls as the nineteenth-century African missionary explorer, Dr. David Livingstone and the celebrated twentieth-century Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, along with many more such kindred spirits have sought out and stockedpiled provisions for their expeditions through Fortnum & Mason.  So, Fortnum's seems like just the place for provisioning any of your future Land Rover expeditions.

Our personal favorite, the Fortnum & Mason Royal Blend Tea. Makes a good cuppa, not to be missed!