The spaghetti tree

Before the Trattoria Revolution, we knew so little about foreign cooking that most of us believed the BBC's "1957 Panorama April Fool" story 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 and Franco 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 - in fashion, in music and the arts - 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 through the 1960s many of Mario and Franco former employees left to open their own places - taking Mario and Franco's menu, their recipes, their style, their staff, their designer - and even their customers.

Fifty years later, in homes and restaurants across the country, Mario and Franco's legacy lives on. Author Alasdair Scott Sutherland was there at the time, experienced it all, and knew the characters personally. "The Spaghetti Tree" offers a fascinating and important new contribution to the social history of the 1960s.