Astonishing as it seems today, pasta was once derided as the preserve of students or Italophiles. Much of this was down to its arrival in Britain in the early 1950s, when it was mostly confined to tins of spaghetti hoops. That’s simply what pasta was to most Londoners — an idea so entrenched that when Simone Lavarini and Lorenzo Fraquelli opened Spaghetti House in 1955, their slogan was simply: spaghetti, but not on toast
The chain may be looked down on now, but the success of Spaghetti House meant other places followed suit. The 1970s saw the rise of the upmarket Italian — Sale e Pepe, San Lorenzo — while “pepper mill” Italians thrived. The River Cafe in 1987 helped change things, and when in 2002, Locanda Locatelli opened, winning a Michelin star the following year, fresh pasta made daily was suddenly the hot thing.
