Fillet of Beef Parisian with Maître d’Hôtel Butter

A classic example of a very English dish given an air of sophistication with a French name and some snazzy garnishing. Beef was regarded as very English indeed, to the extent that roast beef and Englishness were seen as synonymous by the 18th century. Indeed, roast beef and plum pudding were used as symbols of Englishness by satirists such as Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray in drawing a contrast between the doughty, rather solid English farmers and the