The spaghetti tree

Before the Trattoria Revolution, we knew so little about foreign cooking that most of us believed the BBC's "1957 Panorama April Fool" story that spaghetti grew on trees. "The Spaghetti Tree" is the colourful and untold story of Britain's growing love affair with Italian food, originally sparked in 1959 by Mario and Franco at La Trattoria Terrazza in Soho. With its authentic dishes, informal style, and its cool, modern interior, La Terrazza became the most famous and influential restaurant in London, launching a revolution in our social culture. Just as Britain's post-war generation found their own new freedoms - in fashion, in music and the arts - Mario and Franco and their successors gave us something else our parents had never enjoyed - our own new food and restaurants.The 'Trat Scene' became a part of sixties folklore, and through the 1960s many of Mario and Franco former employees left to open their own places - taking Mario and Franco's menu, their recipes, their style, their staff, their designer - and even their customers. Fifty years later, in homes and restaurants across the country, Mario and Franco's legacy lives on. Author Alasdair Scott Sutherland was there at the time, experienced it all, and knew the characters personally. "The Spaghetti Tree" offers a fascinating and important new contribution to the social history of the 1960s.

Table of Contents:
IntroductionLa Trattoria Terrazza, Romilly Street, September 1964Piccadilly, 1953Naples, 1946Curzon Street, Mayfair, 1958British Restaurant Food in the 1950sPremises; Soho, Spring 1959There at the Beginning'Dans la salle les Italiens, dans la cuisine les Francais'Enter AlvaroJoni, Gregory, Perry and Jerry, Burt, Elizabeth, Sammy and FrankChallenge to The Mirabelle: Queen Street, Mayfair, 1962Expansion Left and RightJumping on the Mario and Franco bandwagonThe Trattoria Revolution boomsMichael Caine's table, Positano Room, 1965124, King's Road, 1966A New Manager at The TratThe Fulham Road, Spring 196760, High Street, Cowes, Isle of Wight, 19671967: Empire-building1967: Can You Get In to the Aretusa?Trat- Est Feeds Fleet Street HungerStock Market FlotationDon Luigi and Les Trois AmisApicella: Customer, Designer; Now a Restaurateur too.The Spread of The Spaghetti Tree1970: The Revolution Slows DownMario and Franco - businessmenOld Compton Street, Soho, and then BelgraviaTerrazza Manchester and LeedsPizza in, Alvaro sells outMayhem at MeridianaThe end for Mario and FrancoPost ScriptDigestivo: The King's Road, Chelsea, April 2006Appendix I: Where are they now?Appendix II: Who sat at the Trat?- Table by Table

About the Author :
Born in Ceylon, (Sri Lanka) Alasdair Sutherland was educated at Tonbridge and in Italy and Ireland. He was a London restaurateur in the 1970s and his later career was in international public relations agencies. The Spaghetti Tree is his first book. Alasdair trained at The Hotel Portmeirion and then worked in public relations in 1960s London, while moonlighting as a waiter in several Chelsea bistros. In 1971 he and his brother Robin opened Small's Cafe on the Fulham Road, the first Rock'n'Roll revival restaurant, and then Small's Restaurant on Knightsbridge Green two years later. Their partnership expanded with the Old Compton Wine Bar and Maunkberry's night club. Alasdair then returned to the PR agency business, and for the next thirty years worked for three of the world's largest PR firms, first in the Far East and then across Europe. In 2001 he was President of the International Public Relations Association. Alasdair wrote on life inside the restaurant business for London Life in the 1970s and was the restaurant critic and a regular columnist of the Hong Kong Tatler in the 1980s. He and his wife Felicity live in West London.

Review :
The trattoria revolution was the biggest leap forward in Britain's culinary development since Escoffier. This important chronicle of our social history is long overdue - Alastair Little. A deeply enjoyable social history to salivate over - Mary Killen