I. JUST A FAD?
National cuisines have always been an important part of a people’s identity and gastronomic diversities were, and still are, one of the factors that create cultural boundaries between nations. The food history of any nation is the history of the nation itself with its gastronomic trends, habits and whims.
In this chapter, I am going to explain how the Italian cuisine craze took off in England and how Italian cuisine has been influenced by foreign culinary traditions.
In the XVII century, when the star of Italian cuisine was eclipsed by French cuisine, the U.K. discovered and adopted culinary traditions based on the French model. At least from 1880 to the 1930s, Britain’s gastronomy saw a period of decline as the appreciation of the middle class for the culinary refinement of French cuisine grew.
After the Second World War, the situation radically changed thanks to the writer, Elizabeth David, whose books took Italian specialties into the kitchens of the English bourgeoisie, renewing their attention for other cuisines. In “Italian Food”, illustrated by Renato Guttuso and published in 1954, the writer described the regional diversity of Italian gastronomy. At that time, many of the ingredients for the recipes in her book were almost unknown in the U.K. and in 1963, David wrote: “In Soho but almost nowhere else, such things as Italian pasta, and Parmesan cheese, olive oil, salamis, and occasionally Parma ham were to be had. With southern vegetables such as aubergines, red and green peppers, fennel, the tiny marrow called by the French courgettes and in Italy zucchini, much the same situation prevailed”.
The success of the book was mainly due to the fact that cooking was no longer a question of survival but had become a middle-class hobby during the Fifties and Sixties.
II. COFFEE AND ITALIAN TRATTORIE IN ENGLAND
The period of publication was fundamental too because at that time ethnic cuisines were being introduced into important metropolitan areas like London by immigrants. On one hand there were Chinese and Indian restaurants, on the other the first Italian coffee bars that were spreading like wildfire. The Italians, aware that success required cooperation, exploited their organizational skills by involving all the family members in their activity. It was only in the Fifties that Italian cuisine became trendy; it gave a crucial impulse to the coffee bar culture, thanks to cappuccino that become the fashionable drink of those years and to the espresso coffee machine, patented in 1884 by Angelo Moriondo, refined by the Milanese technician Luigi Bezzera and later, in 1905, mass-produced by Desiderio Pavoni.
Why cappuccino instead of espresso? The answer to this question is to be found in the fact that every national cuisine is formed not only of a staple food system but also of habits and consumption patterns, and consequently, every time a typical foreign dish is introduced into another culture it will be slightly altered and adapted to fit the habits and tastes of the culture in question. One only has to think of the gastronomic habits of the British. They drink a lot of tea, in fact, so much that they are famous worldwide because of their love for these leaves cultivated in their former colonies. So, one should not be surprised that the British prefer sipping a delicate frothy cappuccino, so similar to their tea-drinking habit, to drinking an espresso, full of caffeine. As the Italian coffee bar mania characterized the Fifties, the Sixties were marked by the trattoria phenomenon. Within a decade, two thirds of the coffee bars in England had been transformed into real restaurants where they offered coffee or cappuccino accompanied by snacks that soon would turn into full menus. Pasta and other basic Italian dishes gradually found their way into the consumption habits of Londoners and the residents of large urban centers.
The period of publication was fundamental too because at that time ethnic cuisines were being introduced into important metropolitan areas like London by immigrants. On one hand there were Chinese and Indian restaurants, on the other the first Italian coffee bars that were spreading like wildfire. The Italians, aware that success required cooperation, exploited their organizational skills by involving all the family members in their activity. It was only in the Fifties that Italian cuisine became trendy; it gave a crucial impulse to the coffee bar culture, thanks to cappuccino that become the fashionable drink of those years and to the espresso coffee machine, patented in 1884 by Angelo Moriondo, refined by the Milanese technician Luigi Bezzera and later, in 1905, mass-produced by Desiderio Pavoni.
Why cappuccino instead of espresso? The answer to this question is to be found in the fact that every national cuisine is formed not only of a staple food system but also of habits and consumption patterns, and consequently, every time a typical foreign dish is introduced into another culture it will be slightly altered and adapted to fit the habits and tastes of the culture in question. One only has to think of the gastronomic habits of the British. They drink a lot of tea, in fact, so much that they are famous worldwide because of their love for these leaves cultivated in their former colonies. So, one should not be surprised that the British prefer sipping a delicate frothy cappuccino, so similar to their tea-drinking habit, to drinking an espresso, full of caffeine. As the Italian coffee bar mania characterized the Fifties, the Sixties were marked by the trattoria phenomenon. Within a decade, two thirds of the coffee bars in England had been transformed into real restaurants where they offered coffee or cappuccino accompanied by snacks that soon would turn into full menus. Pasta and other basic Italian dishes gradually found their way into the consumption habits of Londoners and the residents of large urban centers.
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