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The Spaghetti Tree
Before the Trattoria Revolution, we in Britain knew so little aboutforeign cooking that in 1957, most of us believed the BBC's Panorama AprilFool hoax that spaghetti grew on trees.
The Spaghetti Tree is the colourful and untold storyof Britain's growing love affair with Italian food, originally sparked in 1959by Mario Cassandro and Franco Lagattolla at La Trattoria Terrazza in Soho. Withits authentic dishes, informal style, and its cool, modern interior, LaTerrazza became the most famous and influential restaurant in London, launchinga revolution in our social culture.
Just as Britain's post-war generation found their own newfreedoms, so Mario and Franco and their successors gave us something else ourparents had never enjoyed - our own new food and restaurants. The 'Trat Scene' became a part of Sixtiesfolklore and throughout the decade, Mario and Franco's empire spread, while their formula, menu, style and even theirdesign, was endlessly copied in trattorie across the country, transforming ourrestaurant landscape.
Mario and Franco changed the way we ate out, and today, inhomes and restaurants around the country, their legacy lives on.
TheSpaghetti Tree shows for the first timethe full extent of the contribution the Italians and their food have made tothe way we live and eat in Britain, and offers a fascinating and important newcontribution to the social and food history of 1960s Britain.
The Spaghetti Tree is the colourful and untold storyof Britain's growing love affair with Italian food, originally sparked in 1959by Mario Cassandro and Franco Lagattolla at La Trattoria Terrazza in Soho. Withits authentic dishes, informal style, and its cool, modern interior, LaTerrazza became the most famous and influential restaurant in London, launchinga revolution in our social culture.
Just as Britain's post-war generation found their own newfreedoms, so Mario and Franco and their successors gave us something else ourparents had never enjoyed - our own new food and restaurants. The 'Trat Scene' became a part of Sixtiesfolklore and throughout the decade, Mario and Franco's empire spread, while their formula, menu, style and even theirdesign, was endlessly copied in trattorie across the country, transforming ourrestaurant landscape.
Mario and Franco changed the way we ate out, and today, inhomes and restaurants around the country, their legacy lives on.
TheSpaghetti Tree shows for the first timethe full extent of the contribution the Italians and their food have made tothe way we live and eat in Britain, and offers a fascinating and important newcontribution to the social and food history of 1960s Britain.
220 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2009
About the author
Len Deighton
225 books982 followersDeighton was born in Marylebone, London, in 1929. His father was a chauffeur and mechanic, and his mother was a part-time cook. After leaving school, Deighton worked as a railway clerk before performing his National Service, which he spent as a photographer for the Royal Air Force's Special Investigation Branch. After discharge from the RAF, he studied at St Martin's School of Art in London in 1949, and in 1952 won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, graduating in 1955.
Deighton worked as an airline steward with BOAC. Before he began his writing career he worked as an illustrator in New York and, in 1960, as an art director in a London advertising agency. He is credited with creating the first British cover for Jack Kerouac's On the Road. He has since used his drawing skills to illustrate a number of his own military history books.
Following the success of his first novels, Deighton became The Observer's cookery writer and produced illustrated cookbooks. In September 1967 he wrote an article in the Sunday Times Magazine about Operation Snowdrop - an SAS attack on Benghazi during World War II. The following year David Stirling would be awarded substantial damages in libel from the article.
He also wrote travel guides and became travel editor of Playboy, before becoming a film producer. After producing a film adaption of his 1968 novel Only When I Larf, Deighton and photographer Brian Duffy bought the film rights to Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop's stage musical Oh, What a Lovely War! He had his name removed from the credits of the film, however, which was a move that he later described as "stupid and infantile." That was his last involvement with the cinema.
Deighton left England in 1969. He briefly resided in Blackrock, County Louth in Ireland. He did not return to England apart from some personal visits and very few media appearances, his last one since 1985 being a 2006 interview which formed part of a "Len Deighton Night" on BBC Four. He and his wife Ysabele divided their time between homes in Portugal and Guernsey.
Deighton worked as an airline steward with BOAC. Before he began his writing career he worked as an illustrator in New York and, in 1960, as an art director in a London advertising agency. He is credited with creating the first British cover for Jack Kerouac's On the Road. He has since used his drawing skills to illustrate a number of his own military history books.
Following the success of his first novels, Deighton became The Observer's cookery writer and produced illustrated cookbooks. In September 1967 he wrote an article in the Sunday Times Magazine about Operation Snowdrop - an SAS attack on Benghazi during World War II. The following year David Stirling would be awarded substantial damages in libel from the article.
He also wrote travel guides and became travel editor of Playboy, before becoming a film producer. After producing a film adaption of his 1968 novel Only When I Larf, Deighton and photographer Brian Duffy bought the film rights to Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop's stage musical Oh, What a Lovely War! He had his name removed from the credits of the film, however, which was a move that he later described as "stupid and infantile." That was his last involvement with the cinema.
Deighton left England in 1969. He briefly resided in Blackrock, County Louth in Ireland. He did not return to England apart from some personal visits and very few media appearances, his last one since 1985 being a 2006 interview which formed part of a "Len Deighton Night" on BBC Four. He and his wife Ysabele divided their time between homes in Portugal and Guernsey.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 11, 2018
The back and forth, fortunes and restaurants of Mario Cassandro and Franco Lagattolla in the United Kingdom, or how Italian food of the day found a foothold in London.
March 30, 2013
Perfect, just perfect...After reading the fascinating history of how we Brits fell head-over-heels for the traditional Italian trattoria, you'll know exactly who to thank next time you pop to the neighbourhood pasta house. Mario Cassandro and Franco Lagattolla were the men widely credited as catalysts for the Italian restaurant revolution- opening the famed La Terrazza in Soho back in 1959. Here, Alastair Scott Sutherland documents the fascinating social history surrounding the trattoria movement. As a close acquaintance of Mario and Franco, Sutherland has produced an eminently readable paperback packed with both trivia and recipes- which should engage and surprise even the most knowledgeable Italophile.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews