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

He's allowed to have conservative tastes. Not wanting to eat curry doesn't mean he's not a nice man.
(I used to live fairly near to him and anecdotally the locals seemed to think he was pretty nice).

In 1988 I was working with a man aged 28 /29. He joined the Navy at 16, spent 10 years sailing round the world and never ate anywhere other than on the vessel. From a small Northern Town, he had never touched any of that foreign muck. No rice, pasta, garlic, flatbreads, kebabs, curry, spicy stuff, chili etc you get the picture. He found himself an Iranian girlfriend who had no time for such nonsense and converted him in no time at all. He had been brought up by a grandma on good English food like chips. Lots and lots of chips. Suet puddings. Etc. Not remotely surprised or offended by Len Goodman. His gran would have been cooking rations from 1939 into the 1950s. Exotica was hard to come by.

One of DS’s school friends (would now be 19) wouldn’t eat pasta because it was foreign. His face was a picture when I offered him olives. 😂

I didn’t see it but it sounds like Len Goodman was affectionately taking the piss out of his Nan and his own tastes rather than passing judgement.

OK, beef in India not a great example, but the French and Italians openly mock British food. I'd be inclined to agree with them in some cases!

His old school and quoting something my late inlaws used to say! They didn't like spicy Indian food ( or anything that wasn't a roast ) they didn't eat Chinese food or pizza or even pasta! Didn't like takeaways.

He was actually reporting his own views and explaining how his nan had influenced him. Referring specifically to curry powder as foreign muck is quite offensive and likely to go with suspicion of "foreign" people. You'd like to think that 70 years after this country invited commonwealth citizens to come and do the jobs that no-one here wanted to do, we could show a bit of respect to some diversity in our food. He must have led a very sheltered life. I'm quite surprised by the number of people defending him.

The issue was that they invited on a guest who was not articulate/knowledgeable enough to hold an interesting conversation on a BBC live about anything other than dancing. He may have been innocently making the point (just to say anything) but as soon as he said it, the interpretation attributed to it was a foregone conclusion. As the complaints started flooding in, it prompted an unreferenced apology from the host about an hour later in the middle of an unrelated segment.

Not all nans were bigoted though and didn't travel.

My own grandad on mum's side was 'continental' and his wife - my nana, travelled a lot but loved curries and Italian food. My own mum who's 81 went to Italy for her 21st birthday in early 1960s.

Eh? Look at any old cookbook and you'll see all sorts of spices being listed in recipes.

I doubt that the trad English diet compared all that badly anyway. It's just that 'good' food was French so it suffered by comparison. Roasts, meat pies, steamed puddings, fruit cakes, etc aren't stodge: they're soul food and my children prefer them to foreign, err, food.

"my Nan used to call it all foreign muck..." then he goes on to say that he thought the coronation chicken was tasty.
He was talking about how this influenced him.
We learn from history. It's better to acknowledge the attitudes of the past, how they influenced us and why they are no longer accepted than to pretend they didn't exist by making it a crime to discuss them.

I just watched the video and he said he had his first coronation chicken as wasn’t normally into that sort of food and his nan used to call curry powder foreign muck. He did say he liked the coronation chicken.

There are still many people in this country who are still meat and 2 veg or chips with everything. Just have to see how many British bars in certain tourist areas in Spain etc. I’m sure they aren’t frequented by the Spanish locals

My gps would eat pretty much anything, except pasta. My grandad wasn't a fan at all.

Saying that I wouldn't touch liver and onions or kidney which were quite common back in the day so 🤷

It's been a very slow news weekend. Get over yourselves, this is one of the most tedious non-stories ever. Those of you with hurt feelings, get yourselves over to a Chinese wet market and sample some of that without complaint. Try Korea and sample some dog. You'd be suspicious, to say the least, of much that's on offer and few of you would be complimentary about it.

I don't think you were. Dundee has always had a diverse population with a large Italian community going back generations.

My MIL is 93, born and raised very poor in a remote part of Ireland so had a very limited choice of food whilst growing up. Even when she moved to London she stuck to what she knew and was used to and would have definitely shared Len's nans view of foreign food. To her that included exotica like cheddar cheese or cherry tomatoes! She was also scared of eating out because they might bring her something unfamiliar.
She went into a care home a couple of years ago and being a gentle and amenable soul would eat whatever the staff served her because she didn't want to offend. She has amazed us all by developing a passion for pizza and lasagne, both accompanied by a glass of red wine none of which she would have touched before.

I agree, an apology in these circumstances is whitewashing the past!

If people try and cancel the past then it washes over history and no one can get a true view. History is also about the very personal experiences of ordinary people. My Dad opened the first Chinese restaurant and take away in 1960 in a very small town in a rural area. So I’m used to a non English diet. I do however remember being given pasta at an Italian wedding when I was about 4 and crying as I was scared of it in 1970.

My grandparents frequently said this. My grandfather wouldn’t eat any form of pasta and ordered fish and chips at a Chinese restaurant, yet he was still a lovely man who was polite and accepting of everyone, whatever their background. He just didn’t want to eat the food.

People years ago had different views and different life experiences. Are we all now to be held hostage to our past and castigated when it is no longer deemed acceptable, even when decades may have gone by? Things change, and anyone with the slightest glimmer of intelligence knows this.

My gran, born in 1906, would not try pasta, hated the smell of curry or garlic and regularly used the term "foreign muck".
This is a total non story!!!

My friend lives in France. Her 78 year old neighbour won't touch any food that isn't what he considers to be French, apart from pizza. His wife is completely the opposite and often gets things under his radar by giving them French names and inventing a provenance.😂😂

A seventies childhood was very different to the last couple of decades. My mum was quite adventurous as her Mother in Law had lived in pre war Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and they had these odd Anglo Indian curries with raisins, mashed banana and desiccated coconut. There were spices in the rack by the cooker but really only ginger was used regularly for sweet dishes and nutmeg on custards and rice puds.

Food was bland but there were always loads of sauces and pickles to add flavour. Although as kids for some reason we were pretty much limited to tomato sauce and Branston. All the meats had their own accompanist like vinegary mint sauce or bright yellow mustard. No garlic though ever

We didn't have pasta until I was in my teens but we ate loads of tinned spaghetti and ravioli. Spag Hoops and everyone's favourite alpabetti Spaghetti

It is offensive and utterly unacceptable in this day and age. I hope the BBC stop using him.

What bothers me about this and similar stories - the apologies! Apologising for comments like this is leading us into a situation where people are literally afraid to say the wrong thing. Common sense seems to be failing. Historical facts are being deleted or altered. Nobody should have to apologise for factually reporting something that someone else has said. Different if they were to report an offensive comment and then make it clear that they supported and agreed with it. Can't people see the difference?

I kept this comment that was made on another thread some time ago -
"Do we want to live in a sanitised world where nobody is allowed to write a work of fiction (song or book or poem etc) that reflects a seedy, but real, aspect of life? It's wrong to murder people, but crime thriller writers aren't to be condemned as prospective murderers are they? Or their books burned because they portray situations that are illegal, cruel or otherwise unacceptable. "

I wonder if some would ban a book because a character made the "foreign muck" comment? I guess they would.

My grandma was appalled the first time she saw coleslaw at a table. She was very vocal about it. I have a friend - nearly 70 - who "once tried a yoghurt and quite liked it" won't eat anything "fancy". She's travelled abroad a fair amount, and I often wonder how she manages with them foreign dishes!

The thing is, I saw len Goodman on a programme about food a few years ago - and he said "I don't like any of that foreign muck".

Doesn't bother me in the sense that he's entitled to like what he likes, but not good on the BBC which spends a feckin' fortune on its 'diversity' unit, policing what is said and not said.