Why are the best architects British? Why do the French excel at maths? And what makes the Norwegians such good cooks? A guide to the planet's specialist subjects:
Cookery: Norway
Over the past 10 years, Norway has dominated the world's two most highly regarded cookery competitions: the Olympiade der Koche and the Bocuse d'Or. Awarding three points for gold, two for silver, one for bronze, Norway tops this century's medal table with 14 points, followed by Sweden on 13, with the French lagging in third place on 11 points. So how to explain Norway's dominance over a country that invented haute cuisine? Michel Roux Jr, chef patron of Le Gavroche and a MasterChef: The Professionals judge, dismisses the Norwegians as mere "competition chefs".
While his compatriots toil in their wonderful restaurants, Norwegian chefs are sponsored to take time off: "They can practise for 12 months, cooking the competition recipe again and again." Magnanimously, Odd Ivar Solvold, 42, coach to two Norwegian Bocuse d'Or winners, admits Norway's chefs probably get double the time to prepare and more sponsorship. "The French don't need the Bocuse d'Or so much," he tells me. "They get more into the Michelin guide."
Yet the country with the most three-starred Michelin restaurants is Japan — 32 to France's 26. (Roux Jr admits Japan's food culture is "marvellous".) Norwegian chefs dreaming of Michelin-starred riches face the reality that their country's population is a thinly-spread five million. There isn't the client base to support many Michelin-starred establishments. Those championship-winning chefs aren't exactly flooding the kitchens of Europe either. With limited opportunities, admits Geir Skeie, 31, Bocuse d'Or champion 2009, "Many good young chefs go to work on the oil platforms. The pay is great; you work four months a year. There's really good food on the platforms."
Hairdressing, beauty therapy: France and Britain
Cherie Blair and President Clinton shared the same French-born stylist, Andre Suard; Barbra Streisand and Cher have their hair trimmed by the world-famous Jose Eber. France, unsurprisingly, boasts the world's best hairdressers and Britain, perhaps more surprisingly, the world's best beauty therapists.
Practitioners in both fields take part in the biennial WorldSkills International competition. Judged on its results over the past century, France wins the hairdressing category easily, ahead of South Korea and Finland. "French training is excellent," says Alain Zinzius, 63, president of Intercoiffure France. "You learn the history, the theory, to make the hair correspond to the shape of the face, to sketch the cut beforehand to check it's wearable.
Zinzius was a "bit surprised" by the UK's victorious beauty therapists, defined as "specialists in skin and body care, massage and make-up". But Mark Phillips, of Habia, the UK's Hairdressing and Beauty Industry Authority, says the British creative dominance began in the Swinging Sixties. "The world looked to London for fashion and music; beauty therapy and hairdressing came with that."
For actual beauty, the combined medal table of all Miss World contests since 1951 revealed Venezuelans were prettiest, followed by Indians and the UK.
Literacy and numeracy: Shanghai
China Shanghai's mathematical achievements are "stunning", was the verdict on the results of a recent survey of 15-year-olds by the Programme for International Student Assessment of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The survey took in 65 countries or regions across the world. More than 25 per cent of Shanghai-China's 15-year-olds performed at the top level, mastering complex mathematical problems. The OECD average was three per cent. In reading, the OECD average was eight per cent of teenagers reaching the two highest levels, requiring comprehension of unfamiliar texts. In Shanghai, 19 per cent of 15-year-olds reached the top two levels.
Why?
Chinese schools are of course famed for their impeccable discipline and their use of rote learning. One headmaster teaching to Chinese methods admits: "Children in Chinese schools are like stuffed Peking ducks. We're just stuffing brains with knowledge, with no space for imagination or creativity."
How then to explain this survey's revealing of an ability to think creatively under pressure? In the West, if you lag behind in maths, you get a low mark and accept you can't do sums. In China, however, the class will stop and help you, thinking you must have mathematical potential somewhere. But sceptics say the "stunning" OECD success was in the booming, educated showpiece of Shanghai.
What about rural China? The all-China adult literacy rate is 94 per cent, way behind Latvia and Estonia on 99.8 per cent.
Architecture: UK
This century, the UK has won more Pritzker Prizes and Royal Gold Medals for architecture than any other country, ahead of Switzerland and the Netherlands. British winners included Richard Rogers, designer of Paris' Pompidou Centre and the Lloyd's building in London. Harry Rich, chief executive of the Royal Institute of British Architects, puts Britain's success down to our "very liberal architectural education": "They [British schools] tend to be more mind expanding than others, particularly in the Far East, which historically have been more about learning ‘stuff' than understanding things."
High-quality training also means more foreign students, fuelling British creativity. "About 28 per cent of people coming into the architectural schools are non-UK. It creates a virtuous circle. The UK students gain a whole new set of influences."
British ingenuity also owes something to those British imperialists who returned from the colonies with an appreciation of foreign architecture, argues Rich. "You leave influences, but you pick them up too."
Mathematics and quantitative finance: France
Since 1990, there have been 22 winners of the Fields Medal, widely regarded as the Nobel Prize of mathematics. Thirteen came from just two countries, Russia and France. Russia has more winners (seven), but more than twice the population, so the honours go to France, with six winners.
Cedric Villani, the 2010 Fields Medallist, cited national character. "Maths is an abstract way of looking at the world, which fits well with the French mentality. We apply algebra to everything."
Elite institutions help too. France's brightest school leavers progress to the grandes ecoles, which traditionally educate top scientists, administrators and presidents.
For maths, you want Monsieur Villani's alma mater, the Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS). All 10 French Fields Medallists learnt there. At ENS, no teacher can stay longer than 10 years. Instead of ancient dons, students get tutors at the forefront of mathematics. Many try, but only 40 mathematicians a year enter the ENS.
The French have applied their maths genius to the money markets too. The Financial Times business schools rankings suggest France leads the world in producing "financial engineering" experts, with six institutions in the top 10 masters courses in finance.
France can thus claim to dominate quantitative finance, the highly mathematical specialism involved in about half of all financial trades. They should thank Michel Crouhy.
In 1986, at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (EHESS) in Paris, he devised the world's first masters course in financial engineering. "The business school students didn't have good enough maths, so I said ‘Let's take only maths graduates, engineers. I won't have to spend forever explaining the equations.' It worked; the EHESS still offers the world's best finance masters course, according to the Financial Times.
"Americans told me they wanted to start a course like ours but they weren't allowed," says Crouhy. "Because US MBA programmes were so strong, the universities worried a finance masters would compete with their MBA and destroy the MBA's franchise."
America's hesitation seems to have cost them.
Building: South Korea, Switzerland, Germany, Austria
The best builders come from South Korea. Combining all building crafts at WorldSkills International — including plumbers, electricians, decorators and bricklayers — South Korea tops this century's medal table, followed by Switzerland, Germany and Austria.
The UK is seventh, behind France and Italy, but just ahead of Ireland. Simon Bartley, the president of WorldSkills International, says a shift in society lies behind Korea's success.
"Korean government, industry, and union movement has bought into the concept of a skilled labour force."
This concentration on skills development has helped the country's rise from post-war poverty to "tiger economy".
Computer science: California, US
To no one's amazement, California dominates all three respected university rankings for computer science, accounting for a third of the top 10 universities in each assessment. Universities like Stanford — where Google creators Larry Page and Sergey Brin were PhD students — enjoy mutually productive relationships with Silicon Valley. But in California itself, they doubt the dominance will last.
Inside a large Californian technology company, Dr Eben Upton, a British computer science expert, reveals what they say about silicon chips. "In California, IC no longer stands for ‘integrated circuit'. It means Indian and Chinese," he tells me.
"The US is currently top. But the trend, with the US having to import talent, is towards India and China."
Dr Upton, 33, says his generation is the last of the golden age of hobbyists. Some went from programming at school or in their bedrooms to creating technology multinationals. The US produced Bill Gates; the UK got Cambridge's Silicon Fen and Clive Sinclair's computers.
To help recreate that pioneering spirit among the young, Dr Upton and others have started the Cambridge-based Raspberry Pi Foundation. But he says: "India and China are force-growing their sector, selecting the brightest one per cent, putting them through intensive training. There's not a great deal you can do about that."
