N othing baffles Grace Dent more than being deliberately served “stone-cold” bread and butter pudding: “It should obviously be hot. That’s what makes it soft, delicious and yielding. I’ve had that twice.” While it’s a quick, simple way for a restaurant to conclude a meal, cold bread and butter pudding is, for the Guardian restaurant critic, symptomatic of a wider issue. “Puddings are disappearing in Britain and they have been since the end of lockdown,” says Dent. “I talk about it all the time. That gorgeous moment at the end of dinner when the long list of different puddings comes out, it’s beginning to be a thing of the past.” There are restaurants that still go big on dessert, from the Ritz where crepes suzette are flambeed at your table, to chain pubs with extensive menus of profiteroles, sundaes and sponge puddings. But in modern, independent restaurants, places serving a disproportionate number of broadsheet critics and, yes, Observer Food Monthly readers, the story is diff...
