I am currently on a journey around the UK doing research for my book, Eating for Britain. It's a journey taking me to the farthest corners of the country in search of the greatest food we have on offer and meeting the passionate farmers, producers, brewers, chefs and hunters who are determined to make it more widely available.

While Scotland, Wales and Ireland definitely play a huge part in the story, St George’s Day on April 23 is the perfect opportunity to focus on some of the glorious food made famous by England and why we have every right to be proud of it.

England's relationship with food has always been a complicated one. Beleaguered by years of war, rationing and the gradual continental creep of new cuisines, some of the foods that made the nation quintessentially English have over the years slipped not only from view but our plates too.

What my journey has uncovered is that this is changing. The emergence of chefs such as Phil Vickery, Fergus Henderson of St John and Mark Hix, all staunch patriots for English food, along with the increasing availability of good raw produce, means England is beginning to rediscover its confidence. There's a realisation that English food comes from traditions to be valued and also offers up some of the best dishes in the world.

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Here are my choices of the best dishes England has to offer.

1) MELTON MOWBRAY PORK PIE

Made with only six ingredients (pork, salt, pepper, flour water and lard) the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie is one of the most simple of all dishes and yet, when made, along with those sold by Mrs King’s, it is the food item I crave most when I am on my travels.

2) FISH AND CHIPS

Can any dish be more English than fish and chips? Up north, it may be haddock, probably served with some bright green mushy peas. Down south, it’s usually cod, but wherever you find it, there are few things to beat the taste of fish steaming inside crunchy batter and chips doused in vinegar. The lines outside The Magpie Café are a testament to the continuing popularity of this national dish.

3) BLACK PUDDING

Like the pork pie, black pudding is a great divider with the anti camp’s regular squeals of “you know it’s made with blood don’t you?” countered by those whose breakfast fry up wouldn’t be the same without a glistening slice fried in bacon fat. The very best of course come from Bury and the very best I have tasted come from The Real Lancashire Black Pudding Company.

4) KIPPERS

The tradition of smoking fish in Britain goes back to the time of marauding Nordic invaders when the coastlines of the country used to be littered with small smokehouses preserving fish for the winter. The decline of both our fish stocks and fishing fleets may have changed the landscape forever, but the kipper, a cold-smoked herring, still remains one of the great tastes of England. Those made by L.Robson & Sons in the small Northumbrian harbour village of Craster are hard to beat.

5) PARKIN

A quintessential Yorkshire treat and, while I always associate it with Guy Fawkes Night, this rich, dark treacle and ginger cake is my chosen slice with a cup of builder’s tea. Like so many other cakes, the best come from Betty’s of Harrogate.

6) CORNISH PASTY

With so many dreadful versions on offer at railway stations up and down the country, people need to be reminded of why the real thing can be so sensational. Stuffed with beef and potato and the possible addition of swede and onions, they are perfect hot out of the oven as the steam escapes when the pastry case is broken. Those made at the Chough Bakery in Padstow are a superb example.

7) POTTED SHRIMPS

These are small, brown shrimps cooked gently in clarified butter spiked with, those most English of spices, mace and nutmeg and then allowed to set in a ramekin. It makes the perfect starter for a dinner party or even a meal in its own right with thinly sliced toast and a squeeze of lemon. It’s easy to make but I still think those served at London’s oldest restaurant, Rules are hard to top.

8) GROUSE

A short season, beginning of course on The Glorious Twelfth makes grouse one of the most eagerly-awaited treats of the year. Whether you like your game birds hung for days or not quite so high, you must have them with the traditional accompaniments of rowan jelly, fried breadcrumbs and game chips. One of my favourite places to eat it is in the traditional comfort of Wilton’s.

9) TREACLE SPONGE PUDDING

Puddings provided the backbone to the English empire, especially sweet ones like spotted dick or treacle sponge. Although they fell out of favour in recent years, mainly because people considered them unhealthy, new producers like The Proof of The Pudding are taking the old classics and giving them a lighter twist. The sight of a treacle pudding with custard being dribbled slowly over it is still enough to make my heart skip a beat.

10) CHEDDAR CHEESE

A Ploughman’s lunch, with a slab of cheddar, a spoonful of sharp piccalilli and a pint of beer is one of the most simple yet most delicious meals England has to offer. As it is a process as well as a place, you can get cheddar from all sorts of weird and wonderful places, but that made by Jamie Montgomery in Somerset is, quite simply, the benchmark for all other cheddars.

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