Translations:English cuisine/80/en

Italian cuisine is the most popular Mediterranean cuisine in England. In its current form, inspired by Elizabeth David, its rise began after 1945. There were some Italian restaurants before World War II, but they mostly served a generalised haute cuisine. Soon after the war, Italian coffee bars appeared, the first places to trade on their Italian identity; they soon started to sell simple and cheap Italian food such as minestrone soup, spaghetti and pizza. From the early 1960s, the slightly more elegant trattoria restaurants offered "Italian specialities" such as lasagne verdi al forno (baked lasagne, coloured with spinach). Other Mediterranean influences include Greek moussaka, feta and taramasalata, Turkish doner and shish kebabs, and Middle Eastern hummus.