Pie and mash, a traditional Cockney dish, might soon get protected status in the U.K. [Video]

A quick, cheap, working class dish — that’s the promise of pie and mash, a traditional Cockney meal consisting of a minced beef pie with mashed potatoes on the side and smothered in a parsley sauce. 

“It was almost like the original nutritious fast food of its day for working class Londoners,” Richard Holden, the Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

And the dish might soon gain protected status as a distinct traditional food, thanks to Holden.

Holden led a debate in parliament this week, petitioning for pie and mash (sometimes styled as pie ‘n’ mash) to be given the Traditional Speciality Guaranteed label by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The designation would mean that only meals made to such specific recipes or methods could be labelled as Cockney “pie ‘n’ mash.” Such labels are enforced with periodic checks to make sure that manufacturers are …