For most of the last century, Britain held one of the worst culinary reputations in the developed world. Continental influences brought by the increase in leisure travel since the 1960s and by the evangelism of design and food gurus Terence Conran and Elizabeth David have radically changed the nation's table.

What are the signifiers of this revolution? A proliferation of excellent restaurants all over Britain, award-winning star chefs with high media profiles, almost an embarrassment of food coverage on television, in magazines and on the internet, hundreds of new cookbooks and cooking magazines and a highly competitive supermarket sector.

Design has been crucial to this revolution. From own-brand sardine packaging to fancy matchbooks, from restaurant interiors to shopping websites, from gourmet magazines to delivery trucks, Britain's designers have transformed Britain from a nation that ate to live into one that lives to eat.

This graphics exhibition was displayed in the windows of our British Council office in Berlin in September and October 2000.

Graphic design by Unit Design Consultancy

Project Manager: Lucy Swift