Who Brought The Parmo to Boro 1st ..

[BlindBoyGrunt]

Saw this on Facebook today which sheds some light on the American Grill theory.

 

[morrissey]

Apparently first served in The Helenique, brought over and modified from Cyprus.

 

[morrissey]

a cypriot guy called charlie constantine who took over the buck at great ayton in the noughties claimed he invented the parmo in the 60s working in a restaurant in the boro, cant remember the name he said, lovely guy, ive always hoped it was true, hes been in the gazette a few times

Was told last weekend by someone who'd have a decent chance of knowing, that it was first served in The Helenique in Midflesbrough and was brought over by a Cypriot...could be him/this restaurant?

 

[Alexander Supertramp]

I think the Oz one being mentioned is a “parmy”… breaded chicken with a tomato / marinara sauce on top. Basically a chicken parmigiana

 

[Starbuck]

First one in Bibi's early 80's
Wish it had been my last. Had many more until mid 90s and just cannot look at them now
Awful food.

 

[BiggEggo]

Ben Houchen - wasn't it?

 

[paul66]

Was told last weekend by someone who'd have a decent chance of knowing, that it was first served in The Helenique in Midflesbrough and was brought over by a Cypriot...could be him/this restaurant?

possibly, i cant remember the name of the restaurant he told me he was working in at the time, it was about 17 years ago i had the conversation with him

 

[TeaCider]

They're a hero, whoever it was.

 

[t4tomo]

You could buy a parmo in Australia in the late 70's. I am pretty sure that's where it came from.

No. the Parmo recipe was shipped over to Oz with the steel for the Sydney harbour bridge.

 

[Randy]

a cypriot guy called charlie constantine who took over the buck at great ayton in the noughties claimed he invented the parmo in the 60s working in a restaurant in the boro, cant remember the name he said, lovely guy, ive always hoped it was true, hes been in the gazette a few times

We still use his bechamel sauce recipe to this day too at the buck.
Nobody else does it like we do as they don't know the secret ingredient.

Chicken Parm is very similar. Tomato sauce instead of bechamel.

 

[Quicksilvera]

chicken Parms are delicious, parmos are grotesque.

 

[IR35]

As BBG said, there was plenty of places in Middlesbrough serving them long before the 80's and I took a young lady to Bibi's in 78. It was the first time I had gone to a restaurant without my parents and I had Escalope Parmesan and a peach melba for dessert and she had a carbonara and also peach melba.

It was all paid for out of my apprenticeship wage of £17.35.

And did you get afters, nudge wink say no more..

 

[ThatFragranceGuy]

chicken Parms are delicious, parmos are grotesque.

I quite like chicken marashala at Central Park but nowhere else seems to do them apart from one other place in boro

 

[Sheriff_John_Bunnell_ret]

Dammit now I want a parmo. I ate nothing yesterday to try to lose weight. Now I'm going to ruin it by eating parmo and chips tonight.