Ah, yes, awards season in Hollywood. The sunshine. The waifish starlets. The revealing frocks. The . . . er, traditional British fry-ups of black pudding, mushrooms, bangers, grilled tomatoes and bacon. Not to mention the bread - fried, of course.

As difficult as it might be to comprehend, the no-holds-barred breakfast à la Little Chef is fast becoming this year’s most fashionable culinary trend in Los Angeles, in defiance of American food safety regulations that render perhaps the most crucial ingredient - the British pork sausage - illegal.

But no matter, over recent months, two of LA’s fanciest hotels have started to offer painstakingly authentic British fry-ups to their celebrity patrons, complete with recession-busting price tags of up to £27, including service - in the hope that they will give up their egg-white omelettes and protein shakes to take part in the Tinseltown’s current love affair with all things Blighty.

The latest such offering made its debut this week, just in time for Sunday’s Golden Globes ceremony, at the restaurant of the Four Seasons hotel in Beverly Hills, where Ashley James, a 40-year-old Briton from Wolverhampton, is executive chef.

Its conception was fraught with problems, and exposed some fundamental differences between the way Britons and Americans eat. “It’s very difficult to import meat products from the UK because of the history with foot-and-mouth disease,” said Mr James, while proudly contemplating his heart-stopping creation at a table that overlooks the Four Seasons’ entrance, where uniformed valets escort lean and beautiful guests to and from their half-a-million dollar sports cars.

In fact, the sausage almost became a deal-breaker. “British sausages have a lot more meal - bread, basically - to make them lighter and spongier,” says James, “whereas American sausages are harder, meatier, and not meatier in a nice way. They’re highly processed and artificially flavoured.”

Meanwhile, a few blocks away in West Hollywood, deep within the kitchen of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant at The London hotel, similar hurdles were encountered when it created its own British fry-up, with surprisingly successful results.

“I can’t get sausages from Britain out here, they’re f***ing illegal,” the irascible British chef told The Times. “They don’t travel well, either, and I’m not going to do frozen. So I had my butcher in London - Randalls in Wandsworth, who makes the most amazing sausages - send over the recipe.”

Arguably it was Ramsay who began the trend for British breakfasts in LA. Still, Ramsay’s breakfast is a rather toned affair, with its “organic eggs”, “vine tomatoes” and “hash potatoes”.

So far, notoriously picky Americans diners appear to agree with John Kenneth Galbraith, who once declared that “it takes some skill to spoil a breakfast - even the English can’t do it”.

Nevertheless, a Los Angeles Times critic described Ramsay’s sausage as “quite ordinary” and his mushrooms as “grotty-looking”. The verdict on James’s breakfast has yet to be delivered. Nevertheless, he’s already working on a follow-up. “I was in the shower this morning and I had an idea,” says James. Then he lowers his voice and leans in close over his fried eggs. “Kippers,” he says.

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