Britain now a nation of chefs who cook more than the French

BRITONS now spend longer in the kitchen than the French and cook a wider range of cuisine, a new survey reveals.

But the French prefer dining out and sticking to home-grown family recipes, according to an international study.

The BBC Olive magazine collaboration with French title Madame Figaro suggests Britons have a more worldly approach to eating, with 72 per cent regularly cooking Italian food, 45 per cent making Indian meals, and with Chinese (31 per cent) and French (26 per cent) also favourites.

The only food the French will cook with any regularity other than their own is Italian (41 per cent), with the next being Moroccan and Spanish (11 per cent), according to the survey.

Britons spend longer in the kitchen, with 50 per cent spending more than 30 minutes cooking each night compared with 27 per cent of the French.

French readers named the classic British dish as Christmas pudding – rather than le rosbif.