The Food Foundation Podcast Bang in Some Beans: The Great British Breakfast Myth
Mar 10, 2026
Dan Bradley, Team Bean member and recipe tester with coeliac experience. Emma Bardwell, nutritionist and author of The Fibre Effect. Felicity Cloake, food writer tracing British breakfast history. They debate baked beans’ place in morning meals, share a quick miso beans on pesto toast recipe, explore marketing's role in making beans a fry-up staple, and test celiac-friendly adaptations.
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How Marketing Created The Beans On Breakfast
- Baked beans only became a British breakfast staple in the post-war 1960s due to Heinz marketing campaigns pairing beans with bacon.
- Felicity Cloake explains a newspaper competition repositioned beans from children's food to adult fry-up accompaniment, creating the classic pairing.
Beans Can Dominate The Fry Up
- Baked beans can overpower other breakfast items because they're liquid and saucy, spreading flavour across the plate.
- Felicity Cloake likens them to an "agent of chaos" that makes eggs and other items taste of beans if not placed carefully.
Felicity's Ultimate Beans On Toast
- Felicity Cloake's favourite bean breakfast is beans on toast with butter, Marmite, melted cheese and a knob of butter on top.
- She emphasizes hot beans, melting cheese and optional Worcestershire but calls the combination "perfection."
