It is one of the pillars of the French “exception culturelle”: haute cuisine so lofty that the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, wanted the United Nations to declare it a “world treasure”. Those perfidious Rosbifs could attack their language and buy up half the Dordogne but they could never compete in the kitchen, declared the Gallic gods of gastronomy.

But a poll has undermined France’s reputation as the home of unrivalled culinary excellence with results that suggest the British cook more often, for longer, and produce greater variety than their French counterparts.