Signature Dishes that Matter: the most influential dishes in the history of restaurants

What makes a signature dish?

The way information circulates nowadays - faster than lighting, with the potential to go viral and reach millions of people - we may forget that since restaurants came to be, chefs have created dishes that shaped the way we eat and think about food. 

A new book curated by the likes of chief food critic at Bloomberg, Richard Vines, writer and editor-at-large at Bon Appétit, Christine Muhlke and senior food and wine editor of the South China Morning Post Susan Jung traces the history of gastronomy and catalogs the past three hundred years of memorable restaurant dishes; historical ones, like the original Tarte Tatin and Oscar Tschirky's Eggs Benedict to Heston Blumenthal's notorious Meat Fruit invented in 2011.

Alongside these are the casual signature dishes that we take for granted; from the Hawaiian Pizza and Francis Coulson’s Sticky Toffee Pudding, to the famous Spotted Dick from Sweetings in London, Bill Granger’s Avocado Toast and Le Beccherie’s accidental creation of Tiramisu.

The book is part travel guide, part encyclopedia of gastronomy, with a total of 187 recipes, illustrated in watercolour by artist and chef Adriano Rampazzo. 

Recipes from icons of the past - such Pierre Gagnaire, Guy Savoy, Pierre Troisgros -  are joined by ones from chefs at the top of their game, from Raymond Blanc and Fergus Henderson to Claude Bosi, Wolfgang Puck and even Brat's Tomos Parry to paint a holistic picture of restaurant food's past and present.