For James Bond, dinner at Blades in Moonraker is a moment of luxury. Smoked salmon to start, lamb cutlets with new potatoes and peas (as it’s May) to follow, asparagus with Béarnaise sauce as a savoury, and a slice of pineapple to finish, all washed down with vodka and champagne. The meal is perfect, with Bond to declaring that ‘the best English cooking is the best in the world’.

The phrase is a memorable one, not least because it goes against popular notions that English cooking is terrible, but is it original to Ian Fleming? The answer appears to be no. Ever the literary magpie (see for example the origin of the phrase, ‘I will use my time‘), it seems that Ian Fleming was inspired by the maxim of a 19th century French chef.

I was alerted to this as I was flicking through a copy of Lady Maclean’s Diplomatic Dishes, published in 1975, which includes recipes submitted by Ann Fleming. In the foreword, the author states, ‘I have also included some British classics, which, though well-known, are now often presented in debased form, and which I would like my friends abroad to taste in their original glory, for with the great Monsieur Ude: “I venture to affirm that cookery in England, when done well, is superior to that of any country in the world”.

Louis-Eustache Ude, born in France in 1867 or 1868, was for a time chef at the court of Louis XVI and came – or perhaps fled – to England after the rise of Napoleon. In 1813, he published The French Chef, which helped popularise haute cuisine in England, and, from 1828, served as chef at the gaming club Crockford’s (a club, incidentally, whose members included James Bond). He died of a fever in 1846.

The line about English cookery is just one of several quotations attributed to him, another being that ‘sauces … are the soul of cookery’. It is perhaps not surprising that Ian Fleming, who dined most often on simply prepared food, was particularly taken with Monsieur Ude’s view, and it clearly made sufficient an impression for him to borrow and adapt it while writing Moonraker.