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THE
HISTORY (Continued) Each major city has its Chinatown, particularly London, Glasgow and Manchester, where people flock to enjoy Peking, Cantonese, Szechuan, Hunan and even Fukien food in quite often huge establishments with massive menus. In the restaurant sector growth is somewhat static as we move into the third millennium, after poor publicity over MSG and lack of innovation within the industry due to its tie in with fish and chips and cheap takeaway but in the retail sector demand continues to grow apace and there are signs of a new 'all you can eat' Chinese buffet sector becoming very popular. Thai There were only some 5,000 Thai people in Britain in 1996 so it is not surprising that the cuisine has not swamped the market despite is rapid growth in popularity. One of the main reasons for growth in interest in Thai cuisine has been the growing numbers of British tourists going to Thailand which grew to 102,209 in 1986 and further to 300,000 by 1996. The first Thai restaurant in London was The Bangkok in Bute Street SW7 which opened in 1967 followed by The Siam in St Albans Grove off Kensington High Street in 1970 and the owner Mudita Karnasuta, then opened Busabong in Fulham Road and Loy Krathong in Newcastle plus Thai Orchid in Northumberland, all since sold. Her daughter and main figure in the Thai Restaurateurs Association, Mini Chutrakul-Gosling then opened Busabong Too and Busabong Tree alongside the River Thames and sold the former to her mother who opened The Hamilton Arms in 1991. S&P Thai followed in Fulham Road in 1973 but the real boom came in the eighties. Saigon in Frith Street W1 opened in 1984 and the benchmark for quality and success came with the opening of The Blue Elephant in Fulham Broadway SW5 in 1986. Mantanah Thai opened in SE25 in 1988 as did Tamnag Thai on West Hill SE19 followed by Sang Thai in Glentworth Street NW1 in 1989. Today there are over 600 Thai restaurants throughout Britain and numbers are growing healthily, especially in public houses, who have been quick to recognise the attractions of the simple, healthy cuisine. Thai restaurants such as Blue Elephant and Yum Yum Thai in Stoke Newington are now considered amongst the top restaurants in London showing how far the cuisine has come in just over thirty years. Other Oriental Japanese presence in Britain dates from after the Second World War and there has been very little demand for Japanese cuisine by other than the Japanese community and tourists until the last decade of the twentieth century. The first Japanese restaurant to open was The Ajimura in Shelton Street WC2 in 1972 and even thirty years later there are still only 150 or so. The 1991 Census showed there to be just 25,000 Japanese in Britain and most of these live around London giving rise to a figure of 83% of Japanese restaurants being located in London and the South East. Interest in Japanese food has grown considerably in the last decade bringing the appearance of new restaurants in other cities but the numbers are likely to remain small. Sushi and Ramen (noodle) Bars are the latest trend to appear. Malaysian/Indonesian cuisine has been available in London for over thirty years but, once again the numbers are very small - some 100 outlets, 71% of which are in London - based on a population of just 10,000. Vietnamese cuisine is a relative newcomer to Britain and was boosted by the 20,000 refugees from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and the US troop withdrawal. The population has settled down to around 14,000 now, 54% of whom live in London and 77% of the 30 restaurants are in London and the South East. Korean restaurants have blossomed in the past ten years or so due to the presence of a considerable Korean community working in Britain, mainly in the electronics and computer-allied industries. There are presently 40 Korean restaurants in Britain but almost all of these (91%) are in London and the South East. Italian The Italian community in London dates back to the eighteenth century. These were mainly educated political refugees and settled around Clerkenwell and Holborn in London. The first restaurant we know of was run by Joseph Moretti who was born in Venice in 1773. He ran an 'Italian Eating House, just off Leicester Square from 1803-1805 according to his great grandson Colin. Moretti married Jane Bargmann in 1799 and John Baptiste Pagliano mariied Sarah Bargmann in 1798. Pagliano, born in Piedmont in 1764, established an hotel in St Martins Street called Newton's(1799) and later owned The Sabloniere in Leicester Suare which was renowned for its catering. The family continued to run it until 1845. Pagliano originally came to England in 1774 where he was employed as a cook to the Venetian Ambassador. By 1881 there were 3500 Italians in London and by 1901 the number had risen dramatically to 11,000. One of the early Italian connections with catering came when Swiss Italian Carlo Gatti started selling ice cream in London in 1850. His product rapidly became famous and he died a millionaire in 1870. Over one hundred years later the frozen ice cream industry is worth over £2.6 billion a year. Pursuing the catering connection Terroni & Son opened in Clerkenwell Road in 1890 and G. Gazzano & Son in Farringdon Road in 1901. An early cafe restaurant, which doubled as a delicatessen, was Salvo Jure which opened in Brushfield Street E1 in 1859 near the Spitalfield Market. From the 1890’s onwards a new grouping of Italian immigrants began to settle around Soho in London following the hotel and restaurant trades. The Italian Society of Mutual Aid for Hotel and Restaurant Employees was actually set up in 1886 in Gerrard Street, now centre of London’s Chinatown. Many of these new immigrants worked in London’s restaurants and then started their own restaurant as did the four Bertorelli brothers who created Bertorelli’s in Charlotte Street in 1912. The Contis, Rossis, Sidolis, Basinis, Gazzis, Servinis and so on come from the plains of northern Emilia-Romagna. Much of the Italian population of south Wales and elsewhere in UK hales from Bardi in Emilia-Romagna over a century ago, having forsaken their poverty-stricken homeland for Britain's 'gold-lined' streets The Bernis (later famous for Berni Inns), the Rabaiottis, the Sidolis and the Bracchis as well. Indeed, 'bracchi' is still a generic name in Wales for a café. By 1911 there were 12,000 Italians in London which had fallen to 11,000 by 1921 after the First World War. Gradually Italian restaurants became fashionable such as Leoni’s Quo Vadis in Dean Street - recently sold to Marco Pierre White and converted - Bertorelli’s and Quaglino’s. In 1934 Pizza Paradiso opened in Store Street WC1 followed by Ristorante Italiano in Curzon Street W1 in 1936. The Second World War was a major setback for the industry as Britain went to war with Germany and Italy The Second World War proved a tricky time for the UK's Italian community. Churchill's instruction to imprison every Italian male between the ages of 16 and 70 as an enemy alien ("Collar the lot!" he famously said, after Mussolini joined forces with Hitler in June 1940) created general panic and considerable antipathy. By 1951 there were still only 10,000 Italians in London. Gradually they became accepted as part of London’s cosmopolitan life again and Italian restaurants boomed, pushing out of London all over Britain.
Charlotte Street W1 is the site of the original
Bertorelli's founded over 90 years ago (1912) by the Bertorelli family By 1971 there were 30,000 Italians in London and many more thousands all over the country, most of whom were still involved in the catering industry. By 1998 there were some 5000 Italian restaurants in Britain, 2900 of which were pasta or pizza establishments and the balance full service restaurants with an annual turnover approaching £1 billion. The pasta market alone in 1997 was worth £571 million and major chains have grown up such as Pizza Hut, Bella Pasta and, more recently, ASK, Its and Est Est Est and there is every sign that growth will continue fuelled by Spanish and Portuguese moving into what they see as a profitable sector. Greek & Turkish There was a Greek community in Greek Street, London as long ago as 1677 so Greek cuisine is not exactly new to Britain. The influx of Cypriots started in the 1920s and 1930s and they began opening restaurants after the Second World War. Greek Cypriots tended to settle in Hackney, Palmers Green, Islington and Haringey and Turkish Cypriots in Stoke Newington. Greek Cypriots appeared in Soho in 1930’s then Camden Town after the war and then Fulham by the mid 1960s. The main influx of Turkish Cypriots was in the 1960s and by 1971 the Greek Cypriot community had turned its attention to Wood Green, Palmers Green and Turnpike Lane. Only around one third of the 550 or so Greek restaurants in Britain are in London, most of these being in North and West London. Some 40% of the 150 or so Turkish restaurants are in the capital with a heavy concentration in North London. Turkish cuisine is also well represented in Scotland. One of the earliest Greek restaurants was not in London at all but Georges in St Michael Street, Southampton in 1940, slightly pre-dated by The White Tower in London’s West End in 1939. Kalamaras in London W2 opened in 1966 and remains popular today. The most successful of the Turkish restaurants at present is the Efes Group which started in London but is now in several locations throughout the country. Tex Mex/Afro-Caribbean Tex Mex is a modern, Texas influenced version of traditional Mexican cuisine based around staples such as the tortilla, enchiladas, tacos and tostados but introducing chilli con carne, burritos, fajitas and chimichangas. Creole and Cajun cuisines, which also derive from the Southern States of America, particularly the Mississippi Delta around Louisiana, are very much centred around fresh, local produce and have never developed to any great extent overseas. Creoles are the descendents of seventeenth century European settlers whilst Cajuns were French-Canadians who dashed southwards when the British became dominant in Canada. Creole food has French flair plus the Spanish love of strong seasonings and both Cajun and Creole have absorbed the influence of the African slaves bringing okra, black-eyed peas and beans. Afro-Caribbean cuisine started with the peaceful Arawaks who first settled the area then the war-like Caribs from South America, who brought allspice, cassava and chillies. The African slaves provided the next influence plus an input from the colonial powers - Captain Bligh introduced the West African tree that ackees come from - and finally the Hindus from India in the nineteenth century bringing their own curry. In the 1951 Census there were only 27,218 people of Caribbean birth or born of West Indian parents but this figure had boomed to 548,070 by 1971. Since that time numbers have remained reasonably static although numbers actually born in the Caribbean have actually fallen 40,000. Biggest country of origin was Jamaica who tended to settle in Clapham and Brixton. The Barbadian community went for Notting Hill and Guyanese, Tottenham and Wood Green. The introduction of Tex Mex and Mexican cuisine came from the American servicemen and the tourists since the Second World War and the present popularity of all this group of cuisines has been very much influenced by travel. There are some 380 Tex Mex/Caribbean restaurants in Britain turning over some £300 million a year. Whilst public demand for Tex Mex, Mexican and Caribbean food grew in the last decade of the last millennium, the growth of good class restaurants was slow to respond. The retail sector was the first to respond to the demand but the quality of the restaurants in the sector is now improving rapidly. Other Ethnic Styles Britain in general and London in particular are a melting pot for cuisines from all over the world such that London can presently lay claim to being the restaurant capital of the world. Spanish cuisine is particularly well represented by over 200 restaurants, 50% of which are in London. The lavish Spanish Club opened in Cavendish Square W1 as long ago as 1920 and Don Pepe in Frampton Street NW8 claims to have led the ‘tapas’ craze when they opened in 1974. There is a very good selection of top class Lebanese restaurants in London, as well as Portuguese, Russian, Brazilian, Moroccan, Egyptian and even Etheopian and most of the ethnic cuisines of the world are represented to differing degrees in Britain’s capital.
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