An old-school or vintage recipe is tried and true, handed down from one generation to another – they are the dishes we love to eat at dinner time and again.
Some of the best and most popular recipes are old school, well loved and often used, they provide comfort, a sense of familiarity and most of all, homeliness.
Here are five old-school dishes to serve at your next retro dinner party…or just because!
It’s the starter that conquered the 20th Century and the easiest way to import some Las Vegas glitz into your dining room. The prawn cocktail owes its origins to a 19th-Century miner in California – legend has it that after a successful day of prospecting, a miner took his gold nuggets to a bar in San Francisco.
He ordered a whisky and a plate of oysters which after knocking back the booze, he tipped into the empty glass, doused them with vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, tabasco, ketchup and horseradish, then sucked them down.
Within weeks, every café and bar on the West Coast of the US was serving glasses of seafood cocktails!
This dish of pan-fried steak with a rich sauce is believed to have originated in London in the 1930s when Chef, Tony Clerici claimed to have invented it at his restaurant, Tony’s Grill. The ‘Diane part of the name is thought to be linked to Diana, the Roman Goddess of the Hunt.
Azzalin Orlando Romano, a former head waiter at The Ritz in London, brought Tony to Sydney to work at The Ambassador restaurant, where the pair later popularised steak Diane Down Under.
From Russia with love…beef stroganoff originated in Russia in the early 1900s, where as you would imagine it was called ‘stroganov’. Believed to be named after Count Pavel Stroganov, a wealthy Russian nobleman and diplomat, the dish has gone on to become one of the first gourmet dishes our mothers learnt to make.
Beef stroganoff has gone on to make the menu of the famous Russian Tea Room in New York City in the 1930s and hundreds of other famous restaurants over the years.
Originating in France, the cheesy potato bake was called ‘gratin Dauphinoise’ – referring to the process of browning the dish, typically with cheese or breadcrumbs.
The dish was hearty peasant food, utilising readily available ingredients like potatoes, cream and cheese. It is now a firm family favourite whenever the weather turns cooler and is the perfect accompaniment to meaty casseroles or stews.
The unique nickname ‘baked Alaska’ was given to a dessert at a Creole restaurant in New Orleans called ‘Antoine’s’ in 1867. The restaurant’s Chef, Antoine, named the dish in honour of the United States acquisition of Alaska from the Russian Empire earlier that year.
The dessert of ice cream encased in meringue and cake has roots tied to earlier variations like the ‘omelette Norwegge’ (Norwegian omelette) and a prototype called ‘Alaska, Florida’ created at Delmonico’s in New York.
