To think that Len Goodman was stating a fact about his Nan, not insulting anything or anyone?

[Notjustanymum]

Just that, really. He (at the age of 78) was saying that his Nan had a bigoted view (commonly held in the 1950’s), that any food vaguely “foreign” - including pasta, in the 1970’s, according to my own DF - was muck, which had, in truth, put him off trying it.
He also said that the Coronation Chicken his wife had made was delicious. Why would people complain about that? He was actually disproving his Nan’s statement and saying she was wrong.
I think that too many people try to cancel the views of the past, but it’s totally true that many people of that generation held views that are not acceptable today, and we shouldn’t forget that, as we learn from mistakes.
I really object to the BBC apologising for his statement, as it makes it seem as if he was in the wrong.
So - what do you think?
YABU - we shouldn’t mention past intolerances for fear of offending someone now
YANBU - we should accept that there were intolerances and be happy that people find ways of overcoming these

why Come to UK for civil liberties then complain when the indigenous population say something you consider unacceptable? Isn’t there a precedent from across the pond above this?

Because its representative of change and what is different now, its obvious isnt it.

And people all over the world see anything thats not their own cuisine as 'muck'.

I don’t think it was said with any ill intention and it’s true that people of that era would have held that view. He has said stuff like that before on another show where he tried different types of food for the first time, can’t remember now what it was called. What I don’t get is why exactly is it a big issue that they’ve said sorry if you did find it offensive? With stories like this the angry “how ridiculous/pc gone mad/bbc are woke and trying to cancel people” mob are always the most vocal and make things in to a much bigger deal than they actually are.

Ag I wondered what Clare balding was saying sorry for! This explains it!

They did - saffron, cloves, cinnamon and more were all used in the 16th century (the time I know most about!) But they were very expensive so were saved for special occasions not every day.

As it happens there are also medieval recipes for what is very like macaroni cheese and lasagne (if it was made without tomatoes!) So even pasta isn't completely new to England.

I wish I knew more food history to know where the reputation for stodge and blandness came from! I suspect it is to do with what most people could afford though ie what could be grown at home not imported.

My DH’s Nan was very like this, very much meat and 2 veg diet and none of that foreign muck. My Nan was more adventurous with her diet, but she had been abroad whereas DH’s Nan was very against foreign travel too. When my MIL went abroad for the first time in her 60s her mum got really upset with her and begged her not to go and couldn’t understand why she couldn’t carry on holidaying in the UK

I remember my Dad (who would have been 105 now) saying he wouldn’t try ‘that foreign muck’. We just used to laugh at him! You can’t tell me that the same has never been said by people from other countries/cultures about traditional British food, either!

My mum was 84 and my dad is 90. Neither would eat curry, pasta, rice or any sort of "foreign" food. Strictly fish and chips, meat and two veg, cottage pie types.

I can't understand the fuss either.

My mum is 83 .She tried hummus and halloumi cheese for the first time recently. A big thing for her. Not at all surprised at Len's comments. My grandparents would have thought of it as foreign muck.
Times change and things that were part of life are thankfully no longer acceptable. I remember my grandma talking about the sofa she had ordered and describing the shade of brown she had chosen " Its lighter brown not n*** brown". It must have been 35 years ago. I remember being surprised that she had used that word . None of her friends turned a hair at the phrase.

I'm so sick of fucking Twitter. Can't we just turn it off.

I actually have turned off myself and basically stopped watching TV and reading newspapers because of this endless bullshit. The media needs some kind of intervention. They need to just get the hell off Twitter.

How typical of today's society.
People starving all.over the world. War in Ukraine and other places, children being killed. Cost of living crisis
Yet here are the twitterati wetting themselves about someone's long dead grandma disliking certain food.
As a wise person said, being offended never killed anyone.
Suck it up and move on

I wonder where and when the phrase 'foteign muck' came from. We don't really call anything else muck!

Anything to distract attention from Johnson's vote of confidence today. Of course they're making a meal of it!

The term foreign muck is in old films, I've heard it in on the buses and a carry on film. It's definitely in Upstairs Downstairs. In Upstairs Downstairs the Spanish flu is covered and there's lots of references to dirty foreigners and their diets. I was from a mixed heritage family, born in the 60's and lived in Liverpool, were most of the men around me had been in the merchant navy, which is why I've got a diverse heritage, so people had more open minds. There were bigoted people around but we obviously didn't mix with them. Each cultures diet serves a purpose. The 'stodgy British diet' wasn't bland, it just wasn't spicy. It also was perfect for the damp, cold climate and people needing calories for manual work.

Len Goodman has EXACTLY the same attitudes as his nan.

There was a (pretty rubbish) programme on BBC a few years ago with him and Ainsley Harriot going round the UK meeting all sorts of people from all sorts of cultures, cooking and eating food in an attempt to get Len to eat more than a roast dinner or fish and chips.

Len was having none of it. Didn't like any of it. Turned his nose up at anything "foreign". He is not a nice man.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qgskq

"Strictly judge Len has never eaten spaghetti or a curry" 🙄

More to the point, the BBC needs to get a grip

This.

Also, what's wrong with not enjoying foreign dishes? It's not like it's compulsory to like them

Absolute fuss over nothing. The professionally offended don't realise that they are becoming a laughing stock. Save your offence for things that matter, not something an old man's nan said 50 years ago. Pathetic.

I alway think the same thing when I see stuff like this kick off: I wonder what is being said today and being considered a normal opinion, that future generations will be appalled at.

My own gran was born, in London, in the 1920s and always referred to foreign food as muck.

She was wrong, of couse, but how was she to know a world of delicious food was out there if she could not afford to travel, could not afford to eat out at restaurants and did not have access to information like we do today? To her, it all seemed so strange and inaccessible. Especially when she was growing up.

By the time greater variety was more available, she was raising 7 kids on little money and so was cooking a load of cheap, basic foods that she knew.

And yes: all countries have foods that people from other countries think is disgusting. e.g. black pudding here, which many a foreigh colleague has looked at with pure revulsion

So what? I doubt people in India are tucking into roast beef and liver and onions either.

I actually have turned off myself and basically stopped watching TV and reading newspapers because of this endless bullshit. The media needs some kind of intervention

TV has been unwatchable for around four or five years now. Ads are the worst.

Well beef in India would be a no-no.

But I would think the same of anyone who has such a closed mind that they turn their noses at the unfamiliar and dismiss it as "muck".

@Username91 “What I don’t get is why exactly is it a big issue that they’ve said sorry if you did find it offensive?”
I’m more sorry that it has scapegoated an elderly man for saying the truth about the past, especially when he has said it purely to disprove that attitude!
By issuing an apology, the BBC has painted LG in the wrong and IMO (which you are at liberty to disagree with) that is unwarranted, unnecessary and in fact, quite nasty…

My grandad used to say it about Italian food, "that pasta muck". He never even tried a pizza until 1988.

My recently deceased MIL considered meat bought from a supermarket as muck. Not sure what she thought of “foreign” food!