Brits are pulling on their metaphorical platform shoes for a strut down memory lane and a return to the kitchen fashions of the ’70s. Even occasional restaurant goers will have noticed the return of mainstays like coronation chicken and prawn cocktail to the nation’s menus. Now the fashion for retro eating is making its way into our homes too.

Ireland’s queen of cookery Rachel Allen is currently launching her own range of cooking appliances, exclusively through Argos. Now celebrating its 35th anniversary, the iconic store has itself been a fixture of British life since 1973, so the timing couldn’t be more apt. As for Rachel, she couldn’t be more enthusiastic about the return of ’70s culinary style. “2008 will see the trend to cook and bake at home continue to grow,”she says.” Products such as slow cookers and bread makers are becoming more and more popular in domestic kitchens, combining good wholesome food with convenience.”

Perhaps as a positive side effect of the current national necessity for belt-tightening, eating in has become the new eating out. Brits are already the third largest hosts of dinner parties in Europe, with a massive 313 million gatherings each year. Rachel thinks that the vogue for retro entertaining may yet make us more sociable still.”I predict 2008 will see the return of the tea party,” she attests, “with gorgeous freshly baked buns and cakes. The tea party will become a real contender to challenge the cocktail party as the fashionable way to light entertain.”

So it looks like the messages about the value of preparing of our own food and healthy eating we’ve been bombarded with over the last few years are beginning to have an effect. Whether we’re blanching, bread making, blending or bonding with our friends in it, the kitchen really is reclaiming its status as the main room of the house.

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