The English Breakfast

If England has some kind of representative dish that is very good, its filling and especially helpful in a morning hangover, that plate would be the English Breakfast.


An English breakfast is a cooked hot meal which, for many English speakers around the world, represents the best breakfast in the world. There are many variations on the English breakfast, most of them are named for the regions they borrow from; a Scottish Breakfast, for example, carries traditional Scottish foods besides the original components of the English breakfast.
English breakfast can also be called a fry up, because almost everything is fried: tomatoes, onions, sausages...Two classic components of the English breakfast are bacon and eggs, but the food doesn't stop there.


A fry up may also include: hash browns, toast, sausage, black pudding, beans, grilled tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, porridge, and kippers. It is also common to see an assortment of condiments, like jams and ketchup, and in some places, fresh fruit can be offered as well, for those who find the traditional components of the English breakfast too heavy.

Classically, a fry up is accompanied with many cups of strong black tea or coffee, and orange juice is also not uncommon, especially among more health-conscious consumers, who may try to temper the massive artery-clogging impact of the traditional English breakfast.


The invention of the English breakfast appears to be very recent. It seems to have emerged in the mid-1800s, and it was especially popular among the wealthy aristocracy, although farmers may have eaten similar meals before this point. In rich homes, the components of breakfast were often spread out on a buffet and people served themselves whatever they wanted, and the English breakfast was a display of wealth as much as it was an array of food, given the expense of meat.
Many English speaking nations offer some version of the English breakfast, with a focus on regional specialties. You may also hear the English breakfast called an “all day” breakfast, referring to the fact that it could fuel someone´s batteries for a day, and to the fact that many people like to eat an English breakfast over a period of several hours, rather than trying to eating it all in at once.


This plate, along with the Hot Irish, has been a good companion during my time serving at the Irish Pub I worked at, serving sometimes as energy reconstituent, sometimes as painkiller for hangovers. It was the one and only English dish I liked, besides the Chicken Curry, but I guess that is just a Hindu dish that the English have embraced as theirs to fill up the lack of variety and quality of their gastronomy. And I am not the only one who thinks this...

“To eat well in England you should have breakfast three times a day.”
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)