No, You Can't Share Brits' Food

You’re out for a meal with friends, having spent the day reading up on the restaurant’s menu online, and you’ve successfully narrowed your starter choice down to four. You’re even weighing up how it’ll look if you order two to yourself, when someone suggests you all get a sharing platter. Your heart sinks. Everyone else seems happy with just a few onion rings, one chicken wing and one dunk in the dip each, which will soon be full of everyone else’s crumbs.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone, as less than one in ten Brits say they are willing to share the food that’s on their plate, getting annoyed with people who assume it’s OK to pinch a chip or ask to taste a bit of their sauce – why didn’t they order it for themselves if they wanted it?!

A new poll from BBC Good Food found that more than one-third (39.4 per cent) of UK diners want to keep their food entirely to themselves when they’re eating out.

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Some 24.9 per cent of those questioned said they didn’t mind sharing grub with their partner as much, and 15.4 per cent were OK with sharing food if they were with a large group, but that might just be because it’s too awkward for them to get out of it if someone suggests ordering tapas or small plates.

Christine Hayes, editor-in-chief of BBC Good Food, suggested: “Perhaps we’re too polite to take the last taco or don’t like the thought of double-dipping.

“Even though we’re keen on sharing photos of what we’re eating (20 per cent have posted a picture of food on social media), we’re committed to keeping what’s on our plate to ourselves.”

Even millennials, who are thought to be so into small plates, are shunning sharing, with just 12 per cent saying they’d actively order food that’s designed to be shared.

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But they’re not just being possessive over their avocado on sourdough, as some might think. The survey results showed that 41.9 per cent of millennials haven’t even tried any of the items billed as the hottest food trends of the year.

Instead, retro favourites are making a comeback, with 43 per cent of respondents saying they’ve recently had a chicken kiev for the first time in a long time and 42 per cent welcoming trifle back into their lives.

What’s more, 40 per cent are tucking into scotch eggs again – why did they stop eating them in the first place, we wonder? – and 39 per cent have recently enjoyed a bowl of warming rice pudding.

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This all suggests that the restaurant industry might have got it a little bit wrong recently. People don’t want ‘trendy’ food, they don’t want small plates and they certainly don’t want to share; they want proper-sized plates and classic meals that you can’t go wrong with – and no, you can’t have a taste.