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A brief history of the 'ethnic' restaurant in Britain

posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 10:56 PM

Although the term ‘restaurant’ was originally used by Clermont Marot in the sixteenth century to describe a broth, it was not until the time of Boulanger in 1765 that it actually began to be used in its present context.

Food catering establishments which may be described as restaurants were known since the 12th century in Hangzhou, a cultural, political and economic center during China's Song Dynasty. With a population of over 1 million people, a culture of hospitality and a paper currency, Hangzhou was ripe for the development of restaurants. Probably growing out of the tea houses and taverns that catered to travellers, Hangzhou's restaurants blossomed into an industry catering to locals as well. Restaurants catered to different styles of cuisine, price brackets, and religious requirements.

The earliest recorded commercial eating house is Ma Yung's Bucket Chicken House Chuin in Kaifung, China where dim sum were supposedly invented in 1153 AD.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Sobrino de Botin in Madrid, Spain is the oldest restaurant in existence today having opened in 1725. Ethnic restaurants in Britain are a phenomenon of the twentieth century but the recipes and dishes themselves did appear on menus in Coffee Houses and taverns over a hundred years earlier.

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