Guild of Food Writers — their members' real opinions

For twenty years, most recipes published in the UK have included metric units beside the Imperial ones, and for twenty years, most people have chosen to ignore them.

Then, at their 1995 AGM, the Guild of Food Writers voted to do away with Imperial measures altogether, and to publish only in metric from that day forward. It is not known how many (or how few) writers were present at the AGM, but the vote, according to the Guild, was unanimous.

After the vote there were a handful of high-profile conversions to the metric-only cause (The Sunday Times, The Evening Standard, The Observer); but despite these, and despite the apparently 'unanimous' support for metrication, most newspapers and books, and many broadcasters, continue to use Imperial. Why should this be?

Partly this can be put down to market forces: the public remain as hostile to having metric-only recipes forced on them as they always have been; and publishers are unwilling to sacrifice profit for political correctness.

But there is a second explanation: could it be that food writers themselves are not as unanimously pro-metric as the Guild claims them to be? Could it be that the metric-only policy (and the attendance at the 1995 AGM) was primarily the work of a small group of active busybodies?

After officials of the Guild refused to meet us to discuss the issues, we published our own policy on food writing — New Guidelines for Food Writers — in which we set out the case for retaining Imperial measures in recipes. We sent copies to all of the three-hundred-odd members of the Guild of Food Writers, as well as to key publishers and editors. We then followed it up with a questionnaire.

Here's what we found:

(1) Most of Britain's food writers don't prefer to work in metric.

"I find it easiest to work in Imperial"
Anthony Worrall Thompson.

Only a minority — around a third — find it easiest to work in metric. The rest either use both sets of measures (21%) or prefer Imperial (just under half of all replies). The 'pro-Imperial' writers include Anthony Worrall Thompson; the Mail on Sunday's Annie Bell (and you may have noticed that the Mail on Sunday's You magazine now officially follows the BWMA guidelines); Sara Jayne-Stanes, director of the Académie Culinaire; Rose Eliot; the Chinese food expert Yan-Kit So; the broadcaster and restaurateur Jackie Gear, and the food historian Gillian Riley.

(2) 63% of Britain's food writers think that the best way to publish recipes today is to use "dual measures"

Two quotes say it all:

"People shouldn't be bullied into giving up Imperial if they don't want to." Annie Bell

"We still need to cater for readers who continue to 'think Imperial'." J. Audrey Ellison

(3) The New Guidelines for Food Writers recommends the continued use of dual measures for the foreseeable future. Most food writers agree.

"I feel that for the foreseeable future it would be better for most people — readers that is — if both metric and Imperial units are used." Gina Steer

"I agree (the facts support it) that people are happier with Imperial" Cheyenne Bitware

59% of Britain's food writers agree that the use of dual measures should continue for as long as their readers want them. 21% agree strongly. Even many of the food writers who say they would prefer to work in metric only acknowledge that people want dual measures. This compares with only 34% who think, in line with official Guild policy, that metric-only is the way forward.

(4) Most food writers find the New Guidelines for Food Writers conversion tables "helpful" or "very helpful" compared with the Guild of Food Writers' pro-metric version.

"Having used the Guild's conversion table for some time I did find it unnecessarily biased towards metric, and in practice unworkable. But that was the whole idea when they introduced it!" Annie Bell

The Guild of Food Writers' official conversion tables were designed to discourage the use of Imperial measures by making converted values look "ragged". The ultimate aim, according to Roz Denny, who was involved in drawing up the GFW's version, was to create conversion tables that put people off of the whole idea of converting. She describes the tables as "... the first genuine attempt to help British cooks understand metric, and not keep referring back to Imperial and 'converting'."

And, although the conversion values in the tables were drawn up "over a period of several months' hard work and consultation", the point, apparently, is not actually to use them, because "converting recipes means turning the clock back."

The New Guidelines for Food Writers tables, by contrast, were designed to make both metric and imperial measures equally easy to use. The vast majority of food writers — 67% — find these tables helpful compared with the GFW's version. Only a minority — 26% — prefer the GFW's version.

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