I don’t think about beef Wellington enough to have ever made this connection, but it’s not wrong.
Is beef Wellington perceived as a genuinely posh thing? It feels more old and crusty to me, right? Like 1960s aspirational middle class, rather than genuinely rich bougie stuff. A thing for the kind of people that thinks of sushi as “exotic”.
Beef Wellington made right is delicious, but it’s just another recipe. I have to argue against the corn dog parallel, however, because Wellington is made from a whole piece of meat, not a sausage. It’s still definitely only fancy if you are the type that finds sushi exotic.
I would say that the classic version with beef fillet, prosciutto, and morels is more of an upper-class dish, as the ingredients are expensive and it is time-consuming to prepare.
See, it’s the intricacy that makes it feel outdated and aspirational to me. It carries that mid-20th century stink of aspirational shows of status based on domestic labor.
In my home country (Germany), there is a cake called Frankfurter Kranz that definitely expresses this sentiment as well: maximum butter!
This cake was especially popular right after World War II because people wanted to show that they had enough again to not only survive, but also to lavish.
I don’t think about beef Wellington enough to have ever made this connection, but it’s not wrong.
Is beef Wellington perceived as a genuinely posh thing? It feels more old and crusty to me, right? Like 1960s aspirational middle class, rather than genuinely rich bougie stuff. A thing for the kind of people that thinks of sushi as “exotic”.
Beef Wellington made right is delicious, but it’s just another recipe. I have to argue against the corn dog parallel, however, because Wellington is made from a whole piece of meat, not a sausage. It’s still definitely only fancy if you are the type that finds sushi exotic.
That’s the “socio-economic class” difference.
I would say that the classic version with beef fillet, prosciutto, and morels is more of an upper-class dish, as the ingredients are expensive and it is time-consuming to prepare.
So was my grandma’s Christmas dinner menu.
See, it’s the intricacy that makes it feel outdated and aspirational to me. It carries that mid-20th century stink of aspirational shows of status based on domestic labor.
Oh, yes, definitely.
In my home country (Germany), there is a cake called Frankfurter Kranz that definitely expresses this sentiment as well: maximum butter!
This cake was especially popular right after World War II because people wanted to show that they had enough again to not only survive, but also to lavish.