London wins the Bid

It's official! London has won the bid for the 2012 Olympics, and will now need to start extensive building to create a state-of-the-art stadium and Olympic village. After a four stage voting process in which Moscow, New York, and Madrid in turns got eliminated, London prevailed in the final head-to-head against the campaign favourite Paris.

The whole process of Olympic bidding is surrounded by rumours of in-fighting, corruption, bribery, and a whole host of conspiracy theories. Not least since all the separate campaigns, much like the recent UK general election, spent as much time slagging each other off as promoting their relative strengths.

This of course makes the taste of victory so much sweeter, since the French premier Jacques Chirac got particularly nasty this week. Clearly anxious about the rising prominence of the London Bid, and with it the increasing uncertainty about Paris' superiority, he decided to incite our press with his characteristic Gallic charm. Did he talk about our flaky London transport structure, the congestion charge, the fact that a third of the major event venues are not yet built (thus exposing the Olympics to the same risks that Athens bestowed upon the games), the cost to Londoners through their council tax, the fact that only 70% of the UK backed the bid, or etc etc ? No, nothing so tangible or real.

No, Jackie targeted our cuisine, saying that "One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad - after Finland, it is the country with the worst food". So, he attacked our food, and made a direct reference to the fact that we are somehow untrustworthy because of it. Well, he's got oeuf on his face now, hasn't he?

But is there truth in what he says? Despite our initial patriotic defensiveness, has the gastro-Gnome actually got it right this time? Well, yes and no. It is widely accepted that the French culinary superiority has waned in recent years, and according to this article, the French government opened a new cookery university, to redress this decline. And in this report, UK food critic Egon Ronay disagrees, accusing the French president of being "ill-informed" for his attacks on British cuisine. "A man full of bile is not fit to pronounce on food," Mr Ronay added. According to the French company Michelin, the sponsors of all the prestigious culinary accolades, four of the world's top 10 restaurants are in the UK, and only one of those 10 exists in France.

Before this looks too one-sided though, both these statistics don't really describe our relationship with food. Andy Turvil, editor of the Good Food Guide, and Peter Harden, editor of Harden's restaurant guide both agree that while Britain has made up a lot of ground, we have yet to truly conquer the French at their own game. "The British don't have the same intuitive relationship with food that the French have," says Mr Turvil. "Restaurants here are good, but they have the buying power to get the best supplies. At home we still depend too much on processed foods.” In France, even in the cities, they expect more from their food - freshness, taste - on an everyday basis."

Anyway, to end on a childish note, now we've won the bid, Chirac can only simmer in his own juices. (ha ha). Failing that, he can just go take a running jump - if he gets in training now, he can compete in the event in the 2012 Olympics .. In London!

(Thanks to the BBC web site for quotes).