Vol au vent has fallen out of favor, just like many 1970s dishes.
However, this classic of cheese and wine parties seems to be on the rise.
Sales at Waitrose are up around 25 per cent year on year and yesterday there were no packs of Waitrose Party 12 vol au vents – filled with roasted mushrooms, and smoked ham and cheese – left on its website.
Vol au vent is French for ‘flight of wind’, a reference to the snack’s light puff-pastry case.
As with a lot 70s-style cuisine, vol au vent has fallen out of favor in recent years. The staple at many a wine and cheese party seems to be back (stock photo).
They were a staple of 1970s Britain’s dinner parties. Martyn Lee of Waitrose said: ‘Nostalgia has played an important role within food over the past couple of years and the return of the vol au vent is a great example of this.’
Based on search results on the website, there has been an increase in demand for traditional beverages, such as snowballs and Dubonnet, port, and lemon.
Professor Ratula Chakraborty, of the University of East Anglia, said: ‘When things are constantly changing, like during the pandemic, we crave comfort food and the memories of our childhoods and youth.
‘Vol-au-vents may have gone out of fashion after the 1970s but their comeback helps customers recreate nostalgic Christmases of years gone by – which is especially important when we’re all trying to have the best Christmas possible in a time of crisis.’
Sales at Waitrose are up around 25 per cent year on year and yesterday there were no packs of Waitrose Party 12 vol au vents – filled with roasted mushrooms, and smoked ham and cheese – left on its website (stock image)
Paris’s Vol au Vents, which were popularized in Paris around 1800, were often filled with a chicken- or fish-based savoury.
In post-war Britain, from the 1950s to the 1970s, they were considered a must-have at any buffet or as dinner party canapés. They were no longer in fashion, and they weren’t seen much after the 1990s.
They are now back in supermarkets, some with retro 1970s fillings such as coronation Chicken.
M&S has a 12-pack filled with salmon and creme fraiche, goat’s cheese and onion or ham hock and cheese for £5.50. And Tesco is selling a pack of four large mushroom and spinach vol au vents for £10.