Where does cheesecake come from?From ancient Greece to New York, and our vanilla cheesecake at Fiena, King's Cross

Cheesecake's exact origin is uncertain, but it's thought to go back to ancient Greece, where cakes made with cheese are said to have been served to athletes at the first Olympic Games in 776 BC. The Greeks enjoyed plakous, a layered cake made with goat's cheese and wheat flour and, in Athens, soaked in honey from Mount Hymettos. Two centuries later, in Italy, Cato the Elder wrote down a Roman recipe for placenta, the same cake translated into Latin, and the Romans baked a cheese-and-egg cake called libum as an offering to their gods.

Cheese tarts appear in England by the 13th century, and the earliest English recipe, in a cookbook from 1390, fills a pastry shell with cheese, egg yolks, sugar, ginger and saffron. The name "cheesecake" emerged in the 15th century, but the dessert didn't take its modern form until around the 18th century, when cooks stopped using yeast and started adding beaten eggs. Background from Wikipedia's cheesecake page.

• Italy: the crostata di ricotta is a traditional baked cheesecake made with ricotta, eggs and chocolate chips, and ricotta also fills famous desserts such as the Sicilian cassata and the Neapolitan pastiera.
• New York: modern American cream cheese was developed in 1872 in Chester, New York. New York-style cheesecake, made with a cream cheese base, became famous in the 1930s at places such as Reuben's and Lindy's.
• No-bake: some cheesecakes are made with uncooked cream cheese on a crumbled biscuit base, a style invented in the United States.
• Basque: the crustless, deliberately "burnt" Basque cheesecake was created in 1990 by Santiago Rivera at La Viña, a restaurant in the Basque Country, and by 2021 had become ubiquitous in the UK.

Food writers still argue about whether a cheesecake is really a cake at all: some call it a torte, others a custard pie or a tart.

On our dessert menu, the Cheesecake is a vanilla cheesecake, served with forest fruit sauce, and it's vegetarian. Desserts and gelato are served all day, so you can have it after dinner or with an afternoon coffee.

Guests who've tried it have been won over. James had pasta and dessert on a Friday night: I had pasta fiena and the cheesecake. Both very good. (James, Google review) And Maria, who stopped by for a late breakfast, wrote: I never eat cheesecakes but this one is perfect. (Maria, Google review)

If you can't decide, the menu also has Tiramisu, a warm Chocolate brownie with ice cream and seasonal fruit, the Souffle al cioccolato with its liquid chocolate centre, Profiteroles with cream, and the Affogato, ice cream with espresso. For guests avoiding gluten or dairy, the Vegan & gluten-free chocolate brownie comes with blood orange sorbet. Gelato comes in vanilla, wild strawberry and salted caramel, and sorbet in mango, blood orange and lemon. See our posts on tiramisu, gelato and affogato, the chocolate soufflé and profiteroles.

To go with it, a cappuccino or a flat white from our coffee list works well, or a glass of prosecco if you're celebrating. See our Italian coffee.

“the desserts were genuinely impressive”

Ayub, Google review, 2026