Welcome to My Vintage Tea Party Sussex Blog

Silver Wedding Anniversary Tea Party

My name is Patricia and I own VTP Caterers Sussex in Southwick, which is near Brighton in England. We specialise in Vintage Tea Parties.
I have been cooking and baking food for over 22 years as a professional cook /sous chef - and can remember as a little girl watching in my Grandma's huge kitchen,seeing her making delicious and nutritious food from scratch. Food was always seasonal and never wasted.

The Sunday roast on Monday became slices of cold mutton (not lamb - mutton was much tougher and had to be cooked for ages) with hot bubble and squeak - fried left overs of vegetables such as potatoes,cabbage,swede and carrots with fresh chopped onion to add some flavour then covered in delicious gravy made from the meat jelly juices - just yummy.
Her steamed steak and kidney puddings were just amazing as was her homemade soups, cakes and apple pies. All made by hand, no gadgets in those days - except for hand whisks and grinders for mincing left over meat to make the best Shepherd's Pie ever.
Dripping sandwiches were also very popular for high tea using the cold jelly from the joint with a smear of fat to make a delicious and probably fattening sandwich.

But back in the 50s, nobody was obese because food was cooked from fresh and only in season and many people grew their own veg and fruit in a garden or on an allotment. there were no takeaways so the food fresh and not with added chemicals the farmers put into today was far healthier for you.

The only TV cook then was the formidable Fanny Craddock ,who was dressed to the nines with poor old Johnny her husband, showing wines suitable to accompany the food (always looked like he had sampled some prior to  the programme going on air).

Kitchen housewares

 You can buy these vintage items at our sister site  

Pretty Pink Vintage Boutique

http://www.prettypinkantiques.co.uk/index.html

This rather striking blue and off white pattern was all the rage in the 50s, my Gran also has salt, sugar and flour in large cannisters in the matching design. As well as plates in various sizes.

I came home from school one day to find she had change the enamel topped table in the breakfast room  - the cooking and washing up area was in a room next door - to a very smart red formica table with  4 matching chairs.

Also the two windows were now adorned with venetian blinds - REALLY trendy for those days - but sorry Gran the colours were a bit bright, sunshine yellow with a red tape matching the kitchen set that went down vertically where the pulley system was on the blinds. That woke you up in the morning!

Another thing in my Gran's kitchen was a walk in larder, which was tiled from top to bottom.It had shelves and cold meat and cheeses were among the food kept there.

But she also had a fridge,it was massive and looked like the American ones in the 1950s.

Gran had a two butler sinks ( very popular now) and wooden draining boards that were scrubbed with salt  for hygiene. Must have been a chore of love - mind you when I went up to senior school, when we did cookery the sinks were all wooden.

Her sister in London, my Aunt Belle got a stainless steel sink with a stainless steel draining board - Gran was not impressed - but when she moved in later years that was now the normal thing for kitchens.



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