U.S. Envoy Roasted for British Food Jibe

The American ambassador to the Court of St. James has learned that the British are still sensitive after decades (centuries, even) of jokes about U.K. cuisine. Matthew Barzun is generally regarded as a cool guy by his hosts, but he got in the soup by telling a magazine what he would not serve at his ideal dinner party: lamb and potatoes, which he said he must have had “180 times” since arriving in London. Leading U.K. chefs are now counseling him to broaden his mind, with several rushing to extol the virtues of lamb. “Amercans don’t really get lamb. They’d rather have beef or beef or possibly beef,” sniffed Rowley Leigh, owner-chef at Le Cafe Anglais in West London.