The Restaurant: A History of Eating Out

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The Restaurant: A History of Eating Out by William Sitwell: 2. Coffee

2. Coffee

The Restaurant: A History of Eating Out by William Sitwell

BBC Radio 4 - The Restaurant: A History of Eating Out by William Sitwell, 2. Coffee

The history of eating out arrives in London and the birth of the coffee house. Read by Lesley Sharp.

The history of eating out is a story of life - of politics, courage, skill, art, innovation and of luck.    

We start in Pompeii, where  many restaurants doubled up as brothels.     

In the Ottoman Empire, we discover that doner kebabs were cooked in the open air at dainty picnics.

After Henry VIII’s  break from Rome and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, travellers were left with nowhere to get a meal and a bed for the night and so the monastic staff who survived the purges needed places to work and very enterprisingly opened taverns which were soon packed with locals and visitors.  

By the 1820s, Paris was freed from the restraints of the revolution and became fashionable again with luxurious shops and restaurants and chefs - notably Marie-Antoine Careme who turned French cuisine into Gastronomy and remains an influence on chefs even to this day

The 20th Century saw the birth and domination of fast food. 

In 1948, McDonalds became successful and in 1951 a man called Glen Bell found a way to mass produce Tacos. Sushi became a world favourite after a Japanese entrepreneur visited a brewery and was inspired by the conveyer belt system of carrying bottles, which he adapted for his restaurants.  

The Indian restaurant started life in the 1940s when a number of cafes sprang up in London’s Brick Lane and Commercial Road to support a community of seamen from Bangladesh.  

Albert and the late Michel Roux set the standard of English restaurant food in 1960s London whether it was liked it or not.  Customers complained that the portions were too small. "This is French gastronomy".  But there were enough Londoners to keep the restaurant busy and full from day one. By March 1968, Le Gavroche was famous.   

Written by William Sitwell. 

Read by Lesley Sharp.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in April 2020.

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