DINING THROUGH THE DECADES AT NESSA SOHO

Do you remember kippers for breakfast, bubble-and-squeak on a Monday, fish and chips on a Friday, or the warming mess of a school-dinner sponge pudding coated in thick custard?

Since these childhood memories, British food has undergone nothing short of a revolution. Starting in the 1950s, a new era of British cuisine was born, with both the first British supermarket and the first American-style fast food restaurant opening their doors.

Nessa’s ‘Dining Through the Decades’ series will explore the most delicious and nostalgic dishes in each decade of British food history since. Each month, we revisit a decade through a signature Dish of the Decade on the menu, alongside a supper club in our restaurant – where we uncover more food history fun, hosted by some of the most knowledgeable and engaging people in the food industry.

On Monday 23rd March, we step into the spirit of the 1950s for a one-night-only supper club in the restaurant hosted by food historian Dr Eleanor Barnett . Together, we’ll share the Nessa Feasting Menu. At the heart of the evening is our take on the 1950s Dish of the Decade: Woolton Pie taking centre stage.

Expect stories, good company, and a dining room that hums with Soho spirit. Seats are limited, so book early.

‘Meat and two veg’ was the staple meal for most in 1950s Britain. Food was simple, hardy and nourishing in a decade still defined by the shortages of the Second World War. Rationing continued right up until 1954, so that home cooks were used to being thrifty in the kitchen. Fruit and vegetables were largely seasonal, there were no supermarkets, and fridges and freezers were still a couple of decades away for most Brits.

So what was on the menu? Breakfast was far more than a rushed slice of toast as it is for many of us today. Instead, you’d commonly find bacon, scrambled eggs, kippers, and porridge on the 1950’s breakfast table. Lunch was the biggest meal of the day, to be followed by one of many school-dinner classics, from jam-roly-poly to rice pudding. Like much fruit, salmon for making popular supper-time salmon sandwiches was served from a tin. Meanwhile, cans of spam, sent en-masse from America during the war, were deep-fried to make spam fritters. While eating out was rare, for many Friday meant fish and chips, delightfully greasy and wrapped up in yesterday’s newspaper.

As the nation recovered from war, British cuisine took on new innovations. A novel mix of cold chicken, curry sauce, and dried fruit, coronation chicken was invented for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. British chefs increasingly turned to France and Italy for inspiration. A uniquely English take on the spaghetti al ragù found in Bologna, Spaghetti Bolognese emerged in 1950s’ recipe books. What’s more, a sign of things to come, Wimpy Bars, selling American-style burgers and milkshakes, opened for the first time in Britain in 1954.