Robin Cook, the foreign secretary, characterised this view in a speech in May celebrating chicken tikkamassala (a harmonious marriage of subcontinental spices with very British gravy) as the national dish.
Actually, the chicken tikkamassala, which was for a time the restaurant dish that sold more than any other in the country, was invented purely a a way to give the English some gravy to go with this odd new curry dish that people were cooking.