A short guide to starting and running a street food business.

Street Food is the new way to eat gourmet dishes without paying the earth. It’s a bunch of passionate, motivated owner-operators who have a product they love and create it right there in front of you using local, high quality ingredients. The people you are buying the food from are the chefs, the owners, the drivers, the marketers, the buyers and the servers of the meal you’re eating. It’s artisan cooking at it’s most direct. This distinguishes it from more established cousins festival caterers (larger units, often many units owned by one company, mainly large festivals) and mobile caterers (think markets and car boot sales, selling straight forward food) although there is a lot of crossover, and you will find us all hanging out together when it’s raining.
Set up as a sole trader or a limited company. Then you need to register a food business with your local authority. They will get the Environmental Health on your case and ultimately get you a Food Hygiene rating. That’s the only licence you need, but you will need some other paperwork before you can serve the eager masses: Public liability insurance is a must, a gas safe certificate (if you’re using gas) and a PAT Test certificate if you’re using electricity. Get all of these scanned onto your computer and ready to attach to applications and all you need are some events to attend.

Street food isn’t just about the meal; the people who give you pitches won’t have tasted your food. They will be looking for quirky vendors to enhance their festival/fair/show. I’m biased towards a truck, but here are your options:

Gazebo

The gazebo has merits. It’s the cheapest to get started, requires no insurance (other than standard public liability), always starts and won’t fall apart on the motorway. Most catering pitches are standardised to your regular 3m x 3m marquee so you also won’t be paying over the odds. You are at eye-level with the customer, which is an added bonus. It does involve a lot of carrying, so this is not an option if you have mobility or back issues.

Food Truck

Arrive, open hatch, serve. We can be the last people to arrive and still start trading first. In the winter we will be deliciously warm compared to the stalls, even if it can get a bit hot in summer (Pro tip: paint the roof a light colour). Food vans are also rarer, so you and your unit will stand out, especially if you have a ravishing paint job. Before you rush off to buy one a word of warning: Food vans, old ones especially, go wrong. Humorously, continuously wrong. You may also end up paying for dead space if your pitch is measured by length, as you won’t be serving from the cab. However, anecdotal evidence suggests they would be the superior choice in the event of a zombie apocalypse.

If you are thinking of investing in a new one I would recommend having a browse on the subject of converting your own before you spend big bucks on a professional one.

Trailer

In many ways this is the best of both worlds. Practical but compact, without the overheads of a van, although a well kitted out trailer will still set you back thousands. Even with an amazing paint job trailers don’t have any of the iconic vehicle status that you get from a classic VW or Citroen, and they can still break down. I’ve heard some things, man. They are also not trucks. I love your optimism, but unless it has an engine, it’s a trailer.