Let’s get this food truck on the road
ALTHOUGH not famed for its native cuisine, London has profited from its openness to outside culinary influences, allowing the capital to punch above its weight. Food is big business – the hospitality industry employs around 2.5m people in the UK. But times change. If London wants to keep up it must embrace innovation – including of the kind that drives into town in a truck.
Food trucks have taken US cities by storm. According to David Weber, founder and president of the NYC Food Truck Association and author of The Food Truck Handbook, the number of branded food trucks across America has grown by more than seven times since 2009, and is expected to double again by 2014.
He thinks the rise of the food truck in the public’s imagination is driven by a number of factors:
■ The economic downturn which made capital more scarce and the low start-up costs of a food truck more tempting.
■ The relatively rapid improvement in the overall quality and variety of food now served on trucks.
■ Developments in social media, which makes it easier to track trucks over space and time.
London has the demand and already boasts some quality food truck businesses. But there are supply-side blockages. Rob Atthill of Ca Phe VN, a Vietnamese coffee and tea specialists says “one of the problems is that the street markets are owned, run and regulated by local councils – popular markets are full, with waiting lists of two or three years or more.” Nicola Smith of Healthy Yummies and Mark Jankel of Street Kitchen agree that getting a regular pitch can be tough. London could and should be at the leading edge of this food revolution. But for this to happen, councils first need to grant more space to trade and allow more private markets. Keep on trucking.
Twitter: Philip_Salter