The nation’s favourite dishes

What we looked at, and how

On 31 October 2026 we drew up a top ten for each of the 17 categories in our Recipe Menu, separately for the UK, the US and the rest of the world: 510 places in all, covering 408 different dishes. Each list combines published figures from these sources:

• UK: recipe ratings, collections and 2025 “top riser” lists on BBC Good Food, YouGov polls of how many Britons like a dish, and published UK search-volume figures (AEG, Capital One).
• US: monthly search volumes from Semrush and Ahrefs (via the Escoffier culinary school), Allrecipes ratings, YouGov US polls, Google’s Year in Search 2025, and NYT Cooking and Martha Stewart round-ups.
• Rest of the world: Semrush’s worldwide “most popular foods” search data, TasteAtlas rankings, Google’s Year in Search 2025 and a global study of Italian-recipe searches; where no ranking exists, dishes that are staples in their home country and on menus worldwide.

The small print under each dish is the evidence for its place. Figures are as each source published them when we checked; the lists are a guide to what people cook, not a scientific survey. We then checked every dish against our own recipes.