Peter Goers reminisces on the hugely popular progressive dinners in the 1950s, 60s and 70s

Food was served in ramekins and often eaten with a splade or spork in the wildly popular progressive dinner trend, as Peter Goers reminisces.

Australia’s gifts to cuisine are few but yummy.

There’s pavlova (though those pesky Kiwis boldly claim that), pineapple on pizzas, Vegemite and the lamington. That’s it.

The tuna mornay (on which this country was raised) was an American concoction.

Remember ramekins? Actually, they’re back in vogue thanks to all that trendy MasterChef carry-on but the ramekin ruled in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

A progressive dinner was improbable without them.

Actually, progressive dinners were improbable too but they were very popular in the ramekin decades.

Progressive dinners were a major social event in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Picture: iStock

For the young and those who have regressed into vagueness, progressive dinners involved a small group of friends or members of a church social group or club who would progress by driving to different homes for each course of a dinner.

They would drive in a convoy of champagne-coloured or white Kingswood Holdens or station wagons. If it sounds quaint, it was.

Nice, middle-class people had progressive dinners. Nice, houseproud women prepared the food wearing hostess aprons and displaying their best tea towels and napery.

The guests would sit on the vinyl lounge suite and teak chairs brought in from the dining room.

The lounge room had wall-to-wall Axminster and later Berber carpet in autumn tones, terylene curtains over venetian blinds and a TV set and a china cabinet polished to a mirror finish with good old Mr Sheen.

Ramekins – a staple of the progressive dinner.

As was the Splade, an all-in-one fork, spoon and knife that was invented in Australia.

The plastic flowers and the telephone table in the entrance hall had been dusted. Everything was “just so”.

The first course at the first house was cubes of pineapple, cheese and cocktail onions on toothpicks artfully stuck in oranges (this was very gay), plus cheese and gherkin on Jatz biscuits plus devilled eggs and smoked oysters.

There might also have been a cob loaf, top excised and hollowed out and filled with a particularly revolting and hard-to-eat dip.

In the winter, the appetiser was probably soup (served in ramekins) and soup was principally tomato. French onion soup was very exotic.

At the next house the main course was, inevitably, tuna mornay (served in particoloured ramekins with handles) and eaten with splades or sporks.

Tuna mornay was a main course of choice.

If you don’t know what a splade or a spork is I can’t be bothered telling you.

We were Methodists hosted by other Methodists so it was a teetotal progressive dinner with a fruit punch.

There may have been fondue which is probably the only Swiss gift to cuisine.

Dessert was served at the next house – pavlova or cheesecake, or individual trifles and brandy snaps served with milk coffee from a stoneware coffee service, followed by after-dinner mints (Red Tulip) which were then the acme of sophistication.

After the final course in the final house came intercourse. No, I jest.

The nice couples returned home at 9.30pm, stonkered with food, and caught the end of The Penthouse Club with Willsy and Bob Francis on the TV, before retiring to twin beds and modest dreams.

Look familiar? You’ll probably recognise this old fondue set if you frequented progressive dinners.

Progressive dinners were neighbourly, friendly and something to do on a Saturday night.

They built community in a simpler age.

Drink driving laws helped end progressive dinners as did the rise of restaurants.

In those days the only restaurant nice, modest, middle-class people went to was the Red Apple in Target shopping centres.

Our first visit there as a family was a big deal.

My sister and I had to practice our table manners as not to offend waitresses and other diners who, we were told, would all be watching us.

It was terrifying and we’d checked out the menu in the window beforehand and it was decided that we would order – guess what? – tuna mornay because it was cheap and easy to eat.

We could’ve had it at home but we were overwhelmed by the glamour of the Red Apple Restaurant.

Progress ended the progressive dinner which is now as old-fashioned and comforting as mulled wine, hero heaters and a home perm.