From rations to ready meals , Britain ’ s kitchen cupboards have held the secrets of how we eat over the decades . And in just two and a half months last summer one family of five munched their way from the post-war era to modern times to reveal how dramatically things have changed . The Robshaws found the 1950s wholegrain National Loaf particularly hard to stomach , and ten-year-old Fred was overjoyed when sweets came off the ration . The Robshaw family took on a culinary challenge to eat as a family would have in each decade from the 1950s to the 1990s . Pictured ( from left ) Rosalind , mother Rochelle , Fred , father Brandon and Miranda 'in the 1950s ' Forty years later , the Robshaws found themselves eating in the Nineties , sampling such delights as homemade pasta . 'Within living memory , the way we eat has been utterly transformed , ' remarked Mr Robshaw . The experiment , filmed for a six-part TV programme , ended with the family feeling extremely grateful for the variety of foods available today . Back In Time For Dinner , which starts on BBC2 next Tuesday , follows the Robshaws – Brandon , 53 , Rochelle , 52 , and their children Miranda , 17 , Rosalind , 15 and Fred – from the 1950s to the end of the millennium , with the final episode casting an eye towards the future of food . In the 1950s the children had to wait patiently for their father to finish his dinner , knowing his leftovers would be their supper . The 1960s saw the birth of the sugary cereal , while motorway service stations became almost fashionable as places to eat . Vesta convenience meals were available and the more adventurous home cooks could buy exotic foreign ingredients such as garlic and olive oil – from the chemist . Baking supremo Mary Berry teaches the Robshaws how to make a cake as it would have been done in the 1950s ( pictured ) for the six-part TV programme 'Back In Time For Dinner ' , which airs on BBC next Tuesday . The Hairy Bikers ' Dave Myers pictured with the Robshaw family as they sample the food of the Sixties . In the early 1950s , families ate bread - often the rationed 'National loaf ' - and left-over roasted meat fat aka 'dripping ' for breakfast ( left ) , before Cornflakes ( right ) made their first appearance in the UK in the 1960s . In the 1970s , working women were learning to balance their careers with cooking for the family . The decade also saw the rise of the Pot Noodle . In the 1980s goats cheese , mange tout and kiwi fruit became the foods to impress your dinner party guests . Gourmet dishes and nouvelle cuisine took over from the simple but hearty dishes of earlier decades . By the 1990s , sushi and curry were as popular as traditional English dishes and ready meals became the norm . The programme also shows how fridges , freezers , microwaves and even televisions revolutionised the way the country ate , and how the rise of supermarkets changed shopping forever . The Robshaws found that food in the 1970s was brightly-coloured - but perhaps less enticing - than before . Families began to get a taste for spicier food in the sixties and Vesta introduced an early ready meal in the shape of a beef curry . In the same era , cooks could buy ingredients such as garlic and oil from the chemist . Spaghetti bolognese arrived in the UK from Italy in the sixties ... and it has n't left British dining tables since . Mr Robshaw , a freelance journalist and children ’ s writer , said 1950s-style rationing left them feeling hungry all the time and was particularly hard on Fred , who ‘ literally danced with joy the day sweets came off the ration ’ . He went on : ‘ None of us found the National Loaf easy to digest . As flour was scarce , it was padded out with potato starch. ’ When the family entered the 1960s , Mr Robshaw said ‘ food became fun ’ thanks to the likes of fish fingers and ‘ it all felt extraordinarily liberating after the austerity of the 1950s ’ . He added : ‘ It [ the show ] brought home to us all how British food has been revolutionised in an incredibly short time. ’ Throughout the series , in which the family saw not only their menus given an overhaul but also their wardrobes , kitchen and daily routine , they were helped by famous faces including Mary Berry and Hairy Biker Dave Myers . The Robshaw family ( pictured in their 1980s-style kitchen ) found the decade to be all about convenience . Three layers of sweetness ! The Fab ice lolly proved a huge hit with youngsters when it arrived in the 1970s .
BBC : Back In recipes For ##shaw aimed at eating recipes of 50-year period . Robshaw family tasked to eat food from different decades over 10 weeks . Experiment saw family try foods from each generation from 1950s to the 1990s . TV challenge saw them explore post - war cuisine and nouvelle cuisine .