DINING THROUGH THE DECADES SUPPER CLUB 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’ supper club 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 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, a shared experience of 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.

DISH OF THE DECADE: WOOLTON PIE

If there’s one thing British cuisine does well, it’s pie.

The series opens in post-war Britain, a decade defined by resilience and resourcefulness. To honour the 50s, Nessa will spotlight Woolton Pie, a dish that captures the ingenuity of wartime and post-war Britain. Named after Frederick Marquis, the Minister of Food during the Second World War, the pie was first devised at London’s Savoy using root vegetables encased in pastry or mashed potato to conserve flour. With a coating of vegetable gravy, Woolton Pie is a hearty and healthy dish that commemorates the best of British history.

Woolton pie official recipe used for the Nessa Soho supper club

GIN IN ITS GOLDEN AGE

For our 50s Supper Club, we are pouring two serves. The Pink Lady, reportedly favoured in the 1950s Hollywood circles, is a blush-pink charm with Ramsbury gin, Bellamie cherry aperitif, grenadine, citrus, finished with a soft silky froth. The Gloom Chaser, a Martini-leaning mix of Ramsbury gin, Cocchi Americano, Bellamie Cherry Aperitif, a measured touch of grenadine and absinthe – A classic with pre-war roots is a cheerful aperitif meant to brighten spirits and shake off melancholy.

Both are made in collaboration with Ramsbury Gin, distilled in their Wiltshire Estate and is unmistakably British in character.

SHARE YOUR STORY

Some dishes never really leave us. The ones from childhood that still get talked about years later. Sunday roasts, school puddings, family favourites that everyone remembers slightly differently. For our Dining Through the Decades Supper Club series, we’d love to hear yours.

Share your favourite childhood food memories with us on Instagram. A story, a photo, even an old recipe card if you have one or just comment on our giveaway post. Tag @nessasoho and use #britishfoodmemories

Who knows, your story could inspire a dish for one of our Supper Clubs. We will also invite the winner to join us at the supper clubs. We’re all ears.

Trifle at Nessa Soho, a rhubarb trifle served for the supper club in London

THE 1950s

‘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.

Food rationing after the Second World War

Women cooking in 1950s

Jam Roly Poly

Women cooking in 1950s

UPCOMING SUPPER CLUBS - 60s, 70s...and more

Our Supper Club series moves through the decades – each one a nod to the flavours, sounds and spirit of its time. If you can’t join us for the 50s, we continue with the 60s in May, followed by the 70s in June and 80s in July.