In my Bentham TL, much of the basic influences on modern cooking are still in place. Upper-Class cooking (as of 1960) is still almost entirely French or Frenchified haute cuisine, based on the legacy of Francatelli, Soyer and the very successful Toronto-based Saunier Brothers restaurant. Fast food is frowned upon by the upper classes of the Americas as a decadent British invention. Much of old-time America eats at small, family-operated inns (especially the United States, owing to the strict antitrust legislation making large-scale chains nearly impossible). Local cuisine mixes with the lower edge of French cookery in these, though the book market has spread favourite recipes (like Georgia fried chicken, Hamburg steak sandwiches, tomato katsup, New York hot dogs, Philadelphia Sandwich, and fried chipped potatos) throughout the country. The urban working classes frequent the 'chipper' or 'diner', a place where rich, hot food is prepared quickly. The British origins of this tradition are still looked at askance, though the actual cuisine varies strongly by region. British chippers serve mostly chip-fried potatoes, fried eggs, bacon, baked beans, bully beef and fish. The basic role of the potato is not contested anywhere, though in the United States and Canada, fresh beef and pork are far cheaper and more abundant. Baked beans are unpopular in this market, but maize (creamed, stewed or on-the-cob) and pease are much better sellers. Only in the Maritimes does fish play an appreciable role.
While the uncontestedly largest chipper chain is the proudly patriotic (and very wealthy) John Bull (actually spreading in cooperation of White's Newsagents by monopolising railway stations), numerous smaller chains exist. Quebecois ones have gained a foothold in Britain and even Australia by playing on the prestige associated with French cuisine. There are also some Frencxh fast-food restaurants, but these are generally not received well (people in the English-speaking world seem happier with French names than actual French cooking).
Ethnic foods that are popular abroad are German (mostly famous for its breads, sausages and cheeses, which led many German restaurants to branch into the sandwich business), Italian (strongly represented on the French and German markets, less so in the United States or Britain), and Hungarian. Britain has recently experienced a fashion for Afro-Caribbean foodways that is not yet mirrored in Canada or the United States and probably owes much to the increased social prestige today associated with being a Caribbean (rather than African, Brazilian or US) black. Some restaurants are marketing Caribbean foods to the black populations of US and Canadian cities with that in mind (much as these groups tend to avidly follow cricket, root for the Windies, wear Jamaica Shorts in summer, affect a clipped 'Kingston tone' and buy records by Sir Robert Marley).
The place of chinese cuisine as the 'exotic of choice' has been taken by Indian in this TL. Chinese cookery is hardly ever eaten outside of China and the Chinese diaspora while Indian (mostly Gujarati) restaurants and takeaways proliferate through most of the English-speaking world and by now also Continental Europe. There are no large chains as yet, with most being family operations, but increasing integration at the wholesale level has led to a degree of uniformity as spice blends, pastes, pickles and other ingredients are mostly purchased from the same sources. Junder Jeemaree plc of Colchester is behind this development, but they have no plans to franchise or buy up restaurants.
The star cooks of this world come from the Ecole Nationale Superieure Culinaire in Paris and Rouen, the private Francatelli Culinary Institute of London, the Institut Savarin of Paris (a private operation fighting off legal challenges from the Savarin estate) and the Hofkochschule in Munich (a state-run institute of higher vocational education having grown from the Wittelsbach court kitchens). Their methods and approaches are strictly tradition, but of the highest quality. The Hofkochschule has a reputation for innovation in technique and presentation and a somewhat scientific approach to matters dietary while the Institut Savarin delights in the use of exotics and has introduced such things as chocolate-coconut-torte, ostrich roti, passion fruit liqueur glaze, pineapple sauce and kiwi sorbet to the tables of the mighty.
