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Seventies food is back in fashion

If this series of The
Great British Bake Off is anything to go by, the Seventies are
back. Not with flares and big prints, but vol-au-vents, black forest
gateau, and arctic roll, fixtures of the Seventies dinner party. Could
their Bake Off appearance transform them from the kitsch and slightly
embarrassing foods of our past into well-loved classics? Is it time to
reassess that decade’s culinary legacy?

Anna and Duncan Watts, owners of the Jones Family Project, in East
London, certainly think so. They’ve created a full-blown Seventies
pop-up within their restaurant. “Our chef was a little uncertain,
because the food of that time has a reputation for being
terrible,” says Duncan. “But the dishes are really good,
they’d just been terribly executed, because you couldn’t get the
ingredients. People used to make ‘pink sauce’ for prawn cocktail by
mixing tomato ketchup and mayonnaise. We use gazpacho and
langoustines.”

“We’re trying to get rid of the
stigma that it’s rubbish food to eat,” says Prudence Randall,
who’s behind the opening of Seventies-inspired restaurant Coin Laundry
next month. “It’s unapologetically rich, it’s naughty, it’s the
kind of stuff you’d make at home and eat and not tell anyone about
because you’d be embarrassed. And it’s really, really good.”

It’s not just themed pop-ups and hipster eateries that are digging
out the recipe books of the 1970s. Familiarity may have formerly bred
contempt in restaurant kitchens, but a quiet renaissance of familiar
dishes is occurring, as chefs slip redux-ed Seventies staples onto
their menus.

Some have considered puddings like baked
Alaska as definitive desserts which transcended their decade a long
time ago. Hawksmoor has it on the menu, as does chef Tom Aikens, who’s
had it on the menu of Tom’s Kitchen since 2006.

“Baked Alaska’s always been a firm favourite,” he says.
“It’s a comforting dish with a bit of theatre. One of those that
everyone likes because it’s sticky and gooey and you get squidgy ice
cream at the end.”

Ice cream maker Julie Fisher of Ruby
Violet in north London agrees.”I’ve always been quite
fascinated by them. They look so beautiful and they taste amazing.
It’s really really difficult by hand, but there’s so much more you can
do now because you can get silicon moulds. People are always very impressed.”

The drama and technical skill behind a good Seventies pudding is one
thing, but can some of the savoury dishes also take their place with
pride on a restaurant menu?

“Did chicken kyiv ever go out of fashion at home? I don’t think
it did. But it never stayed on the menu,” says Jesse Dunford
Wood, chef at Parlour in Kensal Green, north London. “Everyone
knows what it is, everyone secretly eats it at home, it sells really
well in supermarkets, but you can’t buy it in a restaurant. And that’s
weird. Why not?”

So, among more contemporary dishes
like seasonal grouse, sea bream, and raw vegetable ravioli with goats
cheese, Dunford Wood has spattered his menu with Seventies delights
like cow pie, macaroni cheese, and chicken kyiv. “Everyone likes
it, and lots of people eat it. You have to be able to cook relevant,
approachable food for people.”

As far as Richard Turner, co-founder of Hawksmoor is concerned, the
revival has already happened. “We’ve been reminded of how good
these dishes can be, and now they’re here to stay. If food is good,
it’s good, regardless of era. Our taste buds haven’t changed that much
in forty years.”

And when you think that the Seventies also gave us steak in
peppercorn sauce and lemon meringue pie, suddenly it doesn’t seem
quite as awful as we’d been led to believe. Maybe a revival of the
rest of the decade’s repertoire is actually long overdue. Glass of
Blue Nun anyone? Perhaps that’s a step too far.