No longer will British food be pie or fish and chips – not if Waitrose Kitchen’s William Sitwell has anything to do with it. He tells Ella Walker about rounding up the brightest British foodies

WILLIAM Sitwell is adamant: "British food culture is the greatest food culture in the world." The writer, TV presenter and food critic puts it down to the fact even the most provincial UK high street still overflows with eating options, from Chinese and Thai, to French, Italian and Indian. "We welcome food culture with open arms, we absorb it into our daily lives. What we do - which probably annoys people from overseas - is that we actually end up doing their food better than they do."

As a MasterChef judge and editor of Waitrose Kitchen magazine, he's well placed to adjudicate. And who better to pull together The Really Quite Good British Cookbook, a new collection of recipes from "about 100 of our finest chefs, cooks, bakers and food heroes". It features established talents (Nigella, Ottolenghi, Stein) and rising stars (Gill Meller, Rosie Birkett), as well as home cooks, restaurateurs, celebrities and innovative producers.

Sitwell's job was to "corral" the lot of them - via phone, email, Twitter and accosting them at parties - and get them to hand over recipes for dishes they make their loved ones. He even got former Waitrose Kitchen columnist, Pippa Middleton, to contribute. "I hired her originally because she represents a particular style of eating and of entertaining," says Sitwell, 47. "She's a great cook."

You won't find a recipe from Sitwell himself in it, however - he thought the idea "a bit self-regarding" - though he is a keen cook. "On a Friday night, the default thing I do for the people I love is roast chicken, dauphinoise potatoes and a crunchy green salad with French dressing, and a nice bottle of Chardonnay," he muses. "I like doing braised belly pork in cider, preferably 3Cs cider - which is the cider I make."

He's no food snob ("I used to love Kentucky Fried Chicken - with a glass of milk") and proclaims a love for Iceland's frozen fish soup. But after 17 years in food journalism, Sitwell has developed a few dietary guidelines, including eating less as the day goes on, cycling everywhere and avoiding food trends. "I eat when I'm hungry and what looks good, and I try and eat widely - and I certainly eat very greedily," he says.

Inspired to reacquaint yourself with proper British cooking? Try one of these three recipes...

OVERNIGHT ROAST PORK BELLY WITH PEARS AND THYME by Hardeep Singh Kohli

(Serves 6-8)

1 pork belly (2½-3kg), bone and skin removed

3tbsp rapeseed oil

2tbsp sea salt

2 leeks, halved lengthways

2 carrots, halved lengthways

4 sticks celery, halved lengthways

8 peppercorns

12 bunches of thyme, of which 4 should be stripped of leaves

1 pint perry (or pear cider)

5 firm pears (4 halved and cored, 1 finely diced)

Set the oven to the highest setting. Pop the kettle on. On buying your belly, have your butcher remove it from the bone. Keep the bone and bring it home. Also, have them remove the skin, having first scored it in a criss-cross fashion.

Place the skin in the sink and pour boiling water over it. Carefully dry the skin, thoroughly. Rub a tablespoon of oil and then the sea salt into the scored flesh. Place the skin in an oiled roasting tin and put in the oven. It should take only 30 minutes for the skin to become crackling. Remove the crackling and allow to cool. Turn the oven down to 120C.

Lay the leeks, carrots and celery in the bottom of a roasting tin with the peppercorns. On top, lay the rib bones, eight sprigs of thyme and then drizzle a tablespoon of oil over. Tuck the veg in under the ribs. Lay the pork belly on top, oil and drizzle the rest of the oil, and scatter the remaining salt over.

Pour 350ml of the perry into the roasting tin. Cover in tinfoil and pop into the oven for anything between nine and 11 hours. 90 minutes before the end of cooking, add the halved pears. Roast uncovered for the final hour and a half.

Remove the pork from the oven. Carefully lift the pork and the pears out and keep warm. Discard the cooked veg. Add the remaining perry, deglaze the tin and reduce the liquor by half. Immediately before serving, add the remaining thyme leaves and finely diced pear.

BLACKCURRANT AND CHOCOLATE LAYER by Nikki Duffy

(Serves 4)

For the blackcurrant layer:

250g blackcurrants

A squeeze of lemon juice

Up to 100g caster sugar

50ml water

For the chocolate layer:

25g cocoa powder

50g caster sugar

100ml water

For the cream/yoghurt layer:

200ml double cream

200ml plain full-fat yoghurt

2tbsp caster sugar

To finish:

50g skinned hazelnuts

1 tbsp Demerara sugar

Put the blackcurrants in a saucepan with 50ml water. Bring to a simmer and cook for a few minutes, stirring once or twice, until the fruit has broken down and you have a chunky, juicy mix. Push this through a sieve to remove the currant skins and seeds. Add the lemon juice to the warm puree, then sweeten it by stirring in caster sugar. Start by adding 50g, then stir in more until the puree is sweet but still tastes fruity and fresh. Leave to cool and then chill.

To make the chocolate layer, put the cocoa and sugar in a small pan with the water. Bring to the boil, whisking constantly, then let the mixture simmer for about one minute - again, stirring often - so it thickens. Leave to cool and then chill.

When you're ready to assemble the puds, put the cream, yoghurt and caster sugar in a mixing bowl and use a hand-held electric whisk to beat the mixture until it holds soft peaks.

Choose four wine glasses or tumblers. Divide half the blackcurrant puree between the four glasses. Add a couple of spoonfuls of the creamy mixture to each glass. Trickle on a layer of chocolate sauce. Add a second layer of the creamy mixture, using it all up this time, then finish the dishes with the rest of the blackcurrant puree. Chill for at least a few hours - up to 24.

Shortly before serving, toast the hazelnuts in an oven pre-heated to 180C/Gas mark 4 for five to six minutes, until golden and fragrant. Put the nuts in a pestle and mortar with the Demerara sugar and bash together roughly so the nuts are broken up but not pulverized (alternatively, do this in a food processor). Leave to cool, then sprinkle over the puddings and serve.

  • The Really Quite Good British Cookbook, edited by William Sitwell, photography by Lizzie Mayson (Nourish, £25)