What the Dickens?

For our first food feature, we went to Chatsworth Road Market in Hackney, London, to meet What the Dickens? Three earnest besuited gentlemen who are combining their love for iconic British grub with a love of tweedy attire to dish up a rather different breakfast to Sunday morning shoppers.

Seeking to resurrect, revive and revitalise time-honoured British dishes, What the Dickens? can be found bright and early amid the vintage bric-a-brac of Chatsworth Road Market serving up English muffins with scallops and black pudding, home-cured bacon butties and devilled kidneys (a Victorian breakfast of lamb’s kidneys, Worcestershire sauce, mustard and cayenne pepper on toast).

As we wolfed down kedgeree, (traditional British breakfast originating in colonial India based on eggs, smoked fish and rice – and the perfect heart warmer on a cold November morning), I asked these three school friends about their love of Victorian breakfasts and persuaded them to share the secret behind their devilled kidneys…

Read more about What the Dickens? in a whopping two page feature in issue one of Pretty Nostalgic, on sale 1 May.

…and if you know anyone else who is reinventing traditional British dishes, drop us a line, we’d love to meet them.