| |
Sandra Lawrence
You can now buy her
much applauded work
here
|
The Spaghetti Tree
Article Posted: Monday June 8th
Article last updated on: Monday June 8th
The Spaghetti Tree
by Alasdair Scott Sutherland Published by Primavera Books @£14.99
ISBN 978-0-9557892-0-5 When I picked up this charming book it shouted at me "This Is Your Life", by Eamon Andrews was not holding iit an dpassin me the book. Nevertheless it is history of my life and the life of many of my contempararies. The Spaghetti Tree tells the story of the spread of Italian restaurants throughout London from the early sixties. They changed our way of dining out, formality went, we no longer needed to 'dress for dinner'. Ladies no longer needed gloves, ties could be disgarded, we could all relax and enjoy this, what was new cuisine to Britain after the war. I could fill pages and pages of my own stories about the people Scott Sutherland mentions in his super book.
Len Deighton has written the foreword and he knows, you know- about food. Remember his cookbook of English dishes.
If you lived in London through the sixties, seventies and eighties you would have know all or nearly all of these restaurants. The passion they invoked both on the plate and afterwards!
The prices, which today seem impossible, soups from 2/6 to 3/- in real money. That is one eighth of a pound and upwards, 3/- is 15p. Ah! Those were the days, the Mario and Franco revolution from Soho to Kensington and on and on.
I was lucky to have lived through it and survived. If I mention one name I would need to mention all the Italian heros of the kitchens, so please forgive me Alvaro, Apicell, Angelo, Mario, Franco, Carluccio, Boizot, et al. The list is not endless but how many would I leave out accidently. A thought to leave you with' Alvaro's telephone number was ex-directory, yet his restaurant was always full.
|
