The Spaghetti Tree: Mario and Franco and the Trattoria Revolution

Before the Trattoria Revolution, we in Britain knew so little about foreign cooking that in 1957, most of us believed the BBC s Panorama April Fool hoax 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 Cassandro and Franco Lagattolla 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, so 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 throughout the decade, Mario and Franco s empire spread, while their formula, menu, style and even their design, was endlessly copied in trattorie across the country, transforming our restaurant landscape.

Mario and Franco changed the way we ate out, and today, in homes and restaurants around the country, their legacy lives on. ''The Spaghetti Tree'' shows for the first time the full extent of the contribution the Italians and their food have made to the way we live and eat in Britain, and offers a fascinating and important new contribution to the social and food history of 1960s Britain.