Member Article

North East would ditch Connery for family

North Easterners would stand up Kylie Minogue and Sean Connery on a dinner date to eat with their mum and dad instead, new research revealed this week. The research also finds that pizzas and curries simply don’t cut the mustard over a traditional English meal and nowhere in Britain likes a gossip over food more than the North East of England. These are the regional findings of national research commissioned by NewcastleGateshead Initiative to mark EAT!, the city’s festival of food and drink.

An ideal dinner date here in the region would be a traditional English meal cooked by Gordon Ramsey with the company of a witty member of the family, who likes a good gossip. The North East’s ideal dinner date, like every other part of Britain, is their family (North East 27%, nationally 29%). Sean Connery (21%), Richard Branson (17%), Kylie Minogue (12%) and Helen Mirren (12%) were all runners-up.

The region’s worst dinner date would be someone who is annoyingly loud (34%), and most regional respondents named Jade Goody and her family as the worst to dine with (41%). While a comedian was the profession chosen to dine with by 22% of the nation as a whole, people living in the North East would choose an author (23%) over a comedian (20%).

Stella Hall, Creative Director NewcastleGateshead Initiative, said: “This might be lighthearted research, but it actually highlights how important meal times are as social events. We’re particularly delighted that so many people have said that their ideal dinner date is their family, turning down hot celebrities from the world of TV, film and music to dine with loved ones instead. This festival week we’re really encouraging people to spend time sitting down to eat together, whether that’s at one of our festival events, a favourite place to eat or around the dining table at home.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .