Mince on toast a '˜British classic dish'? It all started in Portsmouth

IT'S the food row that's taken the internet by storm... and it all started with a Portsmouth chef.

American blog Eater posted a picture of mince on toast, calling it a ‘quintessential British’ meal.

But that post was replied to by thousands of Brits who had never even heard of the dish, never mind eaten it.

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Now it has come to light the the man behind the post Nick Solaris has tasted the food at the Quality Chop House in London where Portsmouth’s Shaun Searly is the chef.

He told online news site HuffPo: ‘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.’

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