Revellers in the streets at London's Notting Hill Carnival, the largest carnival in Europe.
Eels, Pie, and Mash
For a taste of real East End Cockney food, you can still savor pie and mash
by Charlotte Hunt
Pie, mash, and liquor, together with jellied or stewed eels, are often perceived as Cockney food—a speciality of London's East End. It's true that today the majority of the distinctive eel, pie and mash houses are situated in this part of the capital, and many of the original establishments, from the 1840s onwards, sprung up here. However, just after World War II, you could eat this traditional dish in at least 130 shops all over the city from Soho to Bermondsey.
Sadly only a fraction remain, as the arrival of fast food and worldwide gastronomic influences have brought about the partial demise of this traditional fare. However, the trade is still dominated by three families—the Cookes, Manzes, and Kellys, whose history is an important part of the pie and mash story.
No one knows who invented the dish or opened the first shop. We do know that in Victorian London, street vendors sold eel pies, providing cheap yet nutritious food for the poor. These were eaten with parsley sauce, spiced with chilies and vinegar, which survives today as the famous green liquor.
Ealing eel and pie shop that serves traditional pie, mash, and eels to Londoners.
The eels originally came from Holland and legend suggests that John Antink, a Dutch trader, sold the fish from a makeshift shop, although Kelly's Trades Directory doesn't mention this business until 1880. However, we can verify the existence of an eel and pie shop in 1844 at 101 Union Street, London SE1. Here a man called Henry Blanchard sold meat, eel, and fruit pies for a penny as well as live eels and mashed potato. By 1874, Kelly's listed 33 eel and pie shops, and their success no doubt encouraged Robert Cooke to open his own establishment in Clerkenwell in 1889, officially launching the Cooke eel and pie empire. Staff wore white aprons, and a typical shop had white-tiled walls, marble tables, wooden benches, and huge mirrors. There were two large windows on either side of the front door, which opened up to provide a takeout service. The customers spat eel bones onto the sawdust-covered floor, although everything was scrupulously clean and the interiors had a simple elegance and charm. Inspired by his success, Cooke swiftly opened up a second shop in Watney Street El while his wife opened a third shop in Hoxton Street Nl. Another pie and mash pioneer, Michaele Manze, arrived from Ravello, Italy, in 1878. He soon became friends with Robert Cooke, married his daughter Ada and opened up the first Manze shop in Bermondsey.
Finally, Samuel Kelly, an Irish immigrant, opened his Bethnal Green Road shop in 1915 and by the 1940s the business had expanded to include four other shops, all within a mile and a half radius.
Pie and mash survived the World Wars despite conscription of the white working class males who made up the majority of regular customers. The shops upheld their reputation for supplying good reasonably priced food although eels were scarce and eel pies largely disappeared from the menu.
Rewards were justly reaped when the wars were over and boys in their demob suits flooded the shops desperate for a taste of their favorite cuisine.
Pie and mash enjoyed huge popularity and for the next few years London's thriving docks, factories and markets guaranteed an enormous demand.
In the 1950s, rising rents forced many factories to move out to newly built towns in Essex. The pie and mash clientele moved with them and the number of London shops decreased to the present-day figure of around thirty.
Shrewd local businessmen opened up similar eating houses in the new towns as well as nearby seaside resorts, ensuring that pie and mash was no longer exclusive to London. However, the original proprietors still claim that customers travel for miles to enjoy the dish in its "proper" form.
The Cookes still have four shops, and the Manzes, who proved themselves the true entrepreneurs of the business with 14 shops, still have five branches. Five Kelly's shops also continue to thrive, serving East End regulars and visitors as they have done for 86 years.
Many London families remain loyal pie and mash enthusiasts and the meal has recently been discovered by the middle classes intrigued by this slice of culinary history. Hopefully, the appeal of cheap, tasty sustaining food eaten in historic surroundings will survive.
A live eel prior to preparation in the kitchens of F. Cookes pie and mash shop in Broadway Market.
Dining Out in London
In Londons ethnically diverse eateries, you can eat truly cosmopolitan food
by Guy Dimond
London just isn't like the rest of Britain. It's still true that finding a good meal in rural Britain—or even some of the larger cities takes sleuth-like skills and a well-thumbed copy of The Good Food Guide, but London has become a center of excellence which is now on a par with the best food cities in the world, such as New York, San Francisco, and Sydney. And this has happened within the last 15 years or so. If you haven't visited London for a few years, then you're in for a big shock.
London always had the makings of a great restaurant city, but for some reason it just didn't take off until the 1980s. London's a wealthy city; it has a huge population (over seven million people, depending on where you consider the boundaries of "London" to lie); and it's a multicultural city, so there's a score of diverse communities who have brought their food cultures to the city. Londoners are less conservative in their dining habits than other British people or, indeed, other Europeans. And, of course, London doesn't just comprise British-born people. Britain has long been a member of the European Union; as more European countries join, chefs from Stockholm to Lisbon are able to work legally in London. Equally, young chefs from Commonwealth countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, find it easy to get work
(for a couple of years at least). And when Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, many of the best Cantonese chefs decided it was time to move to London, making London's dim sum some of the best you'll find anywhere. Chefs apart, London itself is an ethnically diverse city: by the year 2050, more than half of London's population will have one or both parents of Asian or African heritage.
London's multiculturalism is only a precondition of it being a great city for eating out—what has really driven the restaurant boom is the growth in disposable income. Between 1986 and 2001, there was an increase in the average household income of around 40 percent. This occurred at the same time as a drop in the cost of living (in real terms). This might be hard to believe as London is still the most expensive city in Europe, but Londoners simply have more money than they've ever had. And think back to the 1980s; for a short while, Greed Was Good, and the previous British reserve about throwing money around in bars and restaurants evaporated.
The colorful dining room at The Square Restaurant in the heart of Mayfair.
The glitzy Criterion brasserie, located on Piccadilly Circus, London's only neo-Byzantine restaurant.
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