A Taste of the past

HAUTE CUISINE MAY not change with such obsessive seasonal regularity as haute couture, but the gradual change in people's tastes is equally marked. Three decades ago a typical dinner at a fancy eatery started with a prawn cocktail, followed by steak Diane for main course and a dessert of crepe Suzette; a meal heavy on both sauce and tableside entertainment. Nowadays the creativity takes place in the kitchen and a chef is more likely to serve lighter luxury fare such as truffle cappuccino, lobster carpaccio or tian of crab and avocado with tomato concasse.

But what were Hong Kong's well-bred and well-fed eating in the 1950s?

It is a question that has recently vexed Philip Sedgwick and Florian Trento, head chefs in charge of Gaddi's at The Peninsula hotel. Hong Kong's longest-running premier restaurant turns 50 this year, and to celebrate Sedgwick and Trento decided to create a menu that doffs a beret to each of its eras. That meant Gaddi's chef Sedgwick and Trento, the hotel's executive chef, had to root around the hotel archives for early menus, track down retired chefs and pore over thousands of old recipes.

Named after Leo Gaddi, The Pen's then general manager, the restaurant was the realisation of a dream by the hotel group's chairman, Sir Horace Kadoorie, to open the city's first French restaurant. It became the flagship eatery of The Grand Old Dame - which also celebrates its 75th anniversary on December 11 with a lavish charity gala - and in 1954 it was awarded the Medaille D'Or (gold medal) from Switzerland.

It was soon playing host to film stars and presidents, reportedly earning a reputation as the 'finest restaurant east of Suez'. So it was no surprise to staff when the earliest menu unearthed - from the mid-50s - was covered with scribbled autographs of superstar diners such as Hollywood bigshots William Holden, Robert Wagner, Fred Astaire and Benny Goodman. Nor were the prices much of a shock, even though a three-course meal could be had for about $15-$25.

What did surprise Sedgwick and Trento was the menu. The natural presumption was that high-end French cuisine would dominate, but besides standard French fare, it was packed with Chinese, Russian and Italian dishes, revealing how the concept of posh nosh has changed dramatically during the past 50 years. Among the dozens of items were sardines on toast ($2.50), poached eggs with ham ($4), veal and chicken pie ($6) and pork chow min ($8.25). La Pizza Napolitina ($6) took 'one hour to prepare', lobster was only available in season - there was no such thing as jet-fresh in those days - and the most expensive dish was chateaubriand in bearnaise sauce at $20.