I vaguely remember some TIL post awhile back that essentially blamed some aristocrat with a sensitive stomach for the meme version of traditional British cuisine, under the auspices of WWII rationing. He apparently recommended cutting spice and overcooking veg both for “health” and import cost/availability reasons during wartime rationing, and this got swept up in the unified national “keep calm and carry on” wartime rhetoric as quintessentially British. Supposedly prior to the war, traditional cuisines in the isles generally were more flavorful and varied