F. Cooke’s pie and mash store is likely one of the oldest of its form in London, and positively in East London.
Handed down from father to son for 4 generations, this unbroken pie and mash legacy harks again to the Victorian period.
The store first opened in 1862 by Robert Cooke, the namesake of the store.
Joe Cooke is Robert’s the great-grandson. He carries on the East Finish conventional meals of jellied eels and pie and mash.
Joe Cooke of R. Cooke pie and mash store
(Picture: MyLondon)
And identical to Joe and his household, his prospects are additionally intergenerational.
“See what individuals do not perceive about household companies is that it’s not simply the enterprise that stays within the household,” he mentioned. “So do our prospects. I’ve one buyer who nonetheless will get a weekly pie and mash and I’ve recognized him for 60 years.
“I’ve recognized him since I used to be a boy, working in my dad’s store.”
Even now, in lockdown, Joe says he nonetheless will get his weekly takeaway of pie and mash.
Robert Cooke (1842 – 1897), founding father of R. Cooke Pie and Mash Store
(Picture: Joe Cooke)
From great-grandfather to grandfather, to father, to son, the recipe can also be the identical.
Joe mentioned: “We use the identical strategies, the identical manner of gutting the eel, shredding the suet for the pastry.”
Their menu is easy. They promote beef pie made with the standard suet pastry with liquor: a parsley sauce. And naturally, the well-known jellied eels.
Joe additionally will get the eels from the identical place that his forefathers did, at Billingsgate Market.
“Again then [Joe is referring to the 1800s], the eel sellers would go all the best way to Billingsgate Market and stroll again.”
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In actual fact, liquor with pies was an invention by Robert Cooke himself. F. Cooke’s might not be London’s oldest present pie and mash store (that honour goes to M. Manze’s in Bermondsey) however they have been the world first in what’s now an iconic pairing.
“Parsley sauce was historically made for fish. And it was my nice grandfather who first paired that with pie and mash.”
Joe was at all times destined to take over the pie and mash dynasty, and he wouldn’t need it any otherwise.
When Joe’s father took over his grandfather’s store within the Forties, their store was primarily based in Broadway Market, the place Joe was additionally born.
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“I used to be at all times within the store serving to out my father as a child. I used to be born and raised out there.
He learnt all of the strategies from chopping the eels, boning the meat, within the store.
And since Joe took over the store within the 70s, pie and mash has been a gradual favorite by way of the years, regardless of beef falling out of style.
“Our prospects are all kinds. We get those we have recognized for 60 years, we get youthful individuals who dwell right here, we get individuals who come to the world to work, just like the builders.”
Joe mentioned that on a Friday, orders from workplace employees within the metropolis would explode – as a result of they might deal with themselves to a hungover pie and mash brunch after workplace drinks on a Thursday.
After which in 2016, the standard pie, mash and jellied eels exploded within the foodie world when Vice’s Munchies channel did a video about F. Cooke’s. It has practically 12 million views of YouTube.
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“After that, I’d have individuals from everywhere in the world who would come right here and say ‘Joe!’ as a result of they knew me from the video.”
All of that buzz has stopped for now, due to the pandemic. They’re nonetheless doing takeaway, however their footfall has been diminished to nearly zero.
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However they’re nonetheless holding on.
“We will simply hope for greatest. The factor is, everybody on this road are struggling. So if we get evicted, or if we’re fully gone, who’s going to interchange us? The entire companies are struggling.”
Now in his sixties, Joe hoped to take a step again in some unspecified time in the future as a partial retirement of kinds. “I wished to go away the daily, and solely are available if one thing goes bang.”
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That future could also be unsure, however with the top of the pandemic in sight, Joe is hoping for the very best, for F. Cooke’s sake and the remainder of the companies on Hoxton Road.
“We’re hoping that we’ll pull by way of.”
