Relief Chefs North West

The honour was bestowed upon the Sunday roast staple in the UK Diners’ club Gourmet Society poll.

[Photography: Yorkshire puddings are an essential part of the British roast dinner]

The country’s top ten regional delicacies were:

1. Yorkshire pudding
2. Cornish pasties
3. Devon cream tea
4. Bakewell tart
5. Cheddar cheese
6. Welsh cakes
7. Scouse
8. Pease pudding
9. Soda bread
10. Lancashire hotpot

Matt Turner, CEO of Gourmet Society, said: “Brits are spoilt for choice when it comes to trying regional dishes from around the UK, so it’s nice to see that plenty of regions are still sticking to their roots and backing their local dish.

[Photography: Devon cream tea was voted the UK’s third favourite local dish]

“I often eat all over the country when working, but there is certainly nothing better than coming back to Yorkshire to enjoy a proper Yorkshire pudding with a Sunday Roast.

“We can understand why it has been voted Britain’s favourite, but it is nice to see a range of dishes from every part of the UK appearing in the top five.”

Being well-known doesn’t guarantee a place in the nation’s heart; 15 per cent of the country named haggis as their least favourite dish, despite it being the one people were most likely to have heard of.

[Photography: jellied eels are the second most-hated dish]

East London’s jellied eels came a close second, with 13 per cent saying they hated it, followed by Stilton cheese and Kendal mint cakes. Controversially, pease pudding was the fifth most-hated regional delicacy, as well as being the eighth most-loved.

The survey also found that many people are loyal to their local dish, with almost half of people from Yorkshire voting their local puddings as their favourite, and over a quarter of people from Belfast voting Irish soda bread as theirs.

People from Kendal are most likely to brag about their regional dish (with 85 per cent boasting about Kendal mint cake), followed by people from Derbyshire (75 per cent, Bakewell tarts), and people from Cornwall (64 per cent, Cornish pasties).

However some people are not so vocal about their local delicacies - because they don’t even know what they are. It seems people in Southampton, Nottingham, Sussex, and London need to brush up on their local gastronomy - jellied eels, anyone?

This article was published in The Telegraph by Eleanor Muffitt, on Monday 18th April 2016, under the title “What is the nation’s favourite local dish?”

[All pictures: credit Alamy]