I was 45 years old (mind you, I just had a birthday) when I made the mind blowing discovery that the English do not eat waffles. To be fair, I had never put much thought into who may or may not eat waffles though if I had been asked I would just have assumed that most everyone from the European continent ate them. So, when we were on a food tour in Bruges and our guide made the comment that waffles are consumed mostly in certain western countries of Europe such as Belgium and The Netherlands but aren’t really popular in the United Kingdom I was shocked.

The tour guide was backed-up by the few Brits that were on the tour, some of whom had never had a waffle once in their life, and before I knew it, I was inviting those poor, deprived Brits to our house for waffles. Honestly, we don’t eat waffles that frequently because it requires breaking out the waffle iron which is infinity times harder than breaking out any other pan.

You may be wondering why it is that the Americans love their waffles and, if I understood correctly, it all has to do with Thomas Jefferson. Naturally, the Dutch were the ones who brought waffles to the colonies but it was Jefferson who made them popular. During his time in France he became so enamored with them that he brought recipes and a waffle iron home to the US. That’s the short version. I found this website, Waffle Maker Center, that has a lot more information and dates.

In the end, I don’t think our British friends on the food tour were as enamored with waffles as our friend Jefferson was.