City is streets ahead when it comes 
to food

Street food used to suggest either something dodgy from a van as you stagger out of a nightclub, or a mysterious concoction bubbling away on an Asian pavement

Well, British street food 2014 is neither of these. It is the fastest growing eating trend in the UK and beyond, as people are increasingly time and cash-poor and in search of something more exciting than a soggy sandwich for lunch.

And Leeds is at the forefront of the movement which is revolutionising the way we cook and eat food.

In testimony to this the City has been chosen to host the fifth British Street Food Awards next week. (September 26 - 28).

The man behind the awards is journalist and food writer Richard Johnson, who was involved with creating the boundary-pushing Trinity Kitchen.

“My relationship with Leeds started some years ago when I had a conversation with Land Securities who own Trinity Leeds,” explains Johnson.

“They wanted to put street food onto the first floor of a building. I thought they were mad.”

According to Paul Smith, Trinity Leeds Marketing Manager, he wasn’t alone.

“There was a time during the development of Trinity Leeds that we had to stop for a while. It was worrying at time, but actually it gave us the opportunity to sit down and decide exactly what we wanted to do. There were lots of meetings where people were just invited to come up with ideas, no matter how outlandish.”

It was at one of these meetings that someone suggested lifting street food wagons, vans, carts, sheds and trucks up onto the first floor of Trinity Leeds. Five vendors would spend a month in Trinity Kitchen and then the whole process of lifting the wagons into place would be reversed and another five street food.

“Once we had decided that we could do it we had to work out how,” says Smith.

They had to find a way of lifting the vans up the side of the building, in through an opening in one of the walls and in to the first floor food hall. Every month the road next to Trinity Kitchen (above Boots) is closed so that specialist hydraulic lifting equipment can lift the vehicles into place.

“We did have a few sleepless nights,” admits Smith. “Nothing like Trinity Kitchen has ever been done before and so there was nothing to follow we had to take the lead in everything.”

Once they had worked out the logistics they then had to find the street food traders to take over the pitches.

“We knew above all everything that it had to be authentic,” says Smith. “People are very savvy and they know if something isn’t genuine.” As Richard Johnson had been in on the idea from the beginning it made sense that he be consulted about who could fill the five pitches.

“I have been passionate about British street food for many years and that’s why I started the street food awards five years ago.”

“We knew within days that we had his on something good,” says Smith.

In the last year Trinity Kitchen has seen street food from Morocco, Japan, Caribbean, Vietnam, Spanish, French and English serving everything from Seafood chowder, Naan rolls and noodles, to crepes and waffles.

It is a testimony to the success of Trinity Kitchen and the street food scene in Leeds that Richard Johnson has decided to hold his annual awards in the city.

“I have been working in the city for 18 months and have grown to love it.”

Johnson fell in love with street food after he had an epiphany with a burger.

“In the old days, British street food meant cheap sausages and over-fried onions, served off rusty metal handcarts. But that’s changing.

“I had this burger from a street food trader in a car park outside a carpet warehouse and it tasted amazing, It made me realise what a burger should taste like.”

Johnson talks about this burger, and the bun it was delivered to him in, with such reverence it is hard not to be infected by his passion.

It was this burger that set him on his mission to raise the profile of British street food. “Street food is anything that is sold on the street, but for me I want to see action, I want theatre.”

Back at Trinity Kitchen there is plenty of theatre. There is Tom Hunter from Leeds who, with his wife, Louise, has run Street Fodder for just over a year.

Working out of a blue van decked in bunting, chef Tom worked in restaurants all over Leeds before deciding to go it alone. “There was a gap in the market for Asian-style street food which is what I love,” says Tom who also does events, festivals and wedding.

Zopito Di Domenico is selling both ice cream and pizza from his Piaggio Ape Classico for Brio Gelato, part of Brio restaurant in Harrogate. “We were lucky, we started just before the Tour de France and now we have this space at Trinity Leeds. It was a big investment but worth it.”

Behind a brightly coloured shed with its own decking area is Tanja Quinn from Pop-a-Ball – a acomplete reinvention of Asian bubble tea with jelly-like balls that pop in your mouth.

“Suddenly they get a shock and they just love it,” says Tanja.

There is also Lewis Maude from The Salty Cow in Clifford who was selling locally sourced beef which they brine for seven days to produce tasty salt beef sandwiches.

To start weeks of first birthday celebrations Trinity Kitchen is sponsoring the British Street Food Awards.

“Trinity Kitchen is a year old and has been a huge success already,” says Johnson. “It was a very brave move, but it will now be copied around the world.”

To find out more visit http://britishstreetfood.co.uk/