and when I decided that it would be a
really good idea to start my own
chocolate van and I was going to buy an
old ice cream van on eBay and do it up
and fill it with all kinds of chocolate
treats from brownies to sundaes to
chocolate milkshakes to chocolate ice
creams – hot chocolate truffles frozen
chocolate dipped bananas and iced
chocolate martini shots under the
counter and I was so taken with this
idea that I decided to buy the van
unseen it was up in Inverness and I
didn’t have time to go and look at it
before the sale was ending so I bought
the idiots guide to starting my own
business had a quick flip through flew
up to Inverness of a friend of mine I
did afford a road trip back to London
with this fan which I’ve never driven a
van before so it was a bit hairy coming
home and suddenly I’ve got this fan and
it’s terrifying and I started to fly
pitching around London which wasn’t very
successful because I got threatened to
cut off my nice cat quite a few times by
mr. whippy and I then went to Portobello
the wrong end under the Westway where
everybody just wanted hot dogs and cups
of tea all day and I could help them
with their cups of tea but not with the
hot dogs and then I went to Brick Lane
where I found my people
loads of happy hungover hungry for
chocolate people just coming in their
droves to sample all the delights from
my van I then branched out to festivals
to weddings to parties to bar mitzvahs
all sorts of things and I realized after
doing this for a while that I was doing
more than just flogging a few brownies
out of the back of my van I was creating
a connector for people I would have
people come up to the van and ask me all
sorts of questions they want to tell me
their life story they want to talk about
their favorite chocolate bars
some people just wanted to sit on the
stoop and leave through my chocolate
recipe books and just hang out and I
don’t think that’s something that people
would have just felt as comfortable
doing if there hadn’t been that food
to connect them so they were coming and
they were buying the hot chocolate and
then they were chatting and they were
hanging out and I really loved that
connection that it gave me it was
something that I never had in an office
job it made me feel connected to London
in a way that was really really
meaningful and addictive I also clipped
onto the informal trader community
actually done any of my slides that’s my
fan that’s how old it is because what
fresh and world doesn’t exist anymore I
think my generator blew up that day as
well so I clocked on to the informal
trader community and I met all these
amazing characters with heart and soul
and swashbuckling go-getting ways about
them the guy with the trolley it’s Angus
who is just like the magic man of the
kerb frankly if any one of you have had
the pleasure of meeting him and trying
his food it’s really special he does
stuff with a knife and a tiny tiny
little chopping board that you would
just blow your mind and he produces this
coke cutters treat the street snack that
tastes so wonderful and fills you up in
a way that goes so much beyond the food
that you’re eating and this is Nicky
from healthy yummy she’s one of the
founders of fabric and she decided she
was going to turn her her pizzazz and
love of life to food and she serves the
most incredible seasonal British food
she thought she’s making scallops there
that she serves in a show with celeriac
puree and bacon bits
and C sea vegetables and it’s just
wonderful and I met so many other
characters like this and I thought why
don’t we just get together and get
organized and make something bigger than
that’s just the sum of our parts let’s
amplify all of this magic let’s create
strength in numbers let’s make ourselves
more visible let’s create more
opportunities and let’s make the food on
the streets better by putting all of
this talent together and really
agglomerating it all so I launched eat
Street which was a street food
collective it was kind of a hobby that I
did in my kitchen really and in the
in-between scooping ice cream
when I was at markets I go scouting
around for talent and it was just
something kind of pretty informal we I
mean I can’t really even remember what
we were doing like we would we would get
together with people at Yanni from the
meat wagon and Nikki and Angus and Nick
from hamana hamana and all these
different characters and we’d do things
like go down by the towpath in Hackney
which is now a space that there’s a
development on you can’t go there
anymore we’d go to the south bank we go
down to Peckham we were all over the
place but it was all pretty kind of
fly-by-night it was in 2011 there argent
the developers at Kings Cross I don’t
know what way it is because I’m
completely disorientated but like very
near to here got in touch and they said
they’d like each Street to come to Kings
Boulevard which was a completely new
Street at the time and in live in the
space and create a new narrative for it
whilst the whole place was a complete
building site so that was brilliant that
was really a really great move for us
and it made me realise that this could
be more than just a hobby that I did in
my kitchen it could be a business so
kerb was what was launched as a result
of this in 2012 and it was it was
probably 20 traders something like that
and we rolled along we did a few
pictures here and there and I think we
did like two days a week sort of six
traders and it was really exciting times
it was a time when Twitter was hot as
hell so this is you know 2011 2012
everyone’s crazy about Twitter Street
food is kind of becoming a thing there’s
a frisson of excitement people are
talking about it and the whole London
dining scene was starting to informal
eyes in really exciting ways and we kind
of were part of that wave today we have
got about 70 traders that we work with
we have gone from the few pictures a
couple of times a week at Kings Cross to
over seven and a half thousand pictures
all year across our sites which is five
sites across London
we’ve got an expanding private events
section and we’ve got an expanding
public events section and we are looking
at this year feeding 1.5 million dishes
to Londoners across our markets that’s
over four thousand dishes served by kerb
traders every single day of the year in
London so it’s really grown what what at
the same time has happened is that
people it’s like street food has become
almost a parody and it’s talked about is
as if it’s this really cool thing this
hot thing and you get you get street
food concept restaurants which I always
find a bit with you get a street food
recipe Street food style recipes and
magazines you get street food dishes in
supermarket shelves and you’ve got a
load of investors just clamouring to
find the hot new street food trader
who’s going to be the next Bao who’s
gonna be the next Bleecker burger who’s
going to be the next piece of pilgrims
everyone’s really really excited about
it but I think the thing that I’m the
most excited about with Street food and
which continues to intrigue me and what
make me want to be part of this scene is
something that’s a bit less intangible
something that you can’t see and you
can’t quantify you can’t put it in a
spreadsheet
it’s got no rateable value and you can’t
download it and I think the best way of
explaining why what what all of this
intangible stuff is is the reason that I
called kirb kirb in the first place
so I see the kerb as a really really
flat vital part of city life and all of
the stuff that it can produce I see the
curve as a platform as a platform for
businesses with very little to make a go
of it it’s the lowest barrier to entry
profession that there is anywhere in the
world anyone can have a go at it as long
as you’ve got a gas burner and and maybe
a bit of food and a bit of way about you
to kind of make something happen and I
think it’s really really important that
London continues to provide this stable
platform as stable as it possibly can be
because this is a really uncertain
business I mean anyone that wants to
have a go at making a business work from
a 10
in the London weather is needs all the
help that they can get so it’s really
about creating this platform and we
really believe and a lot of markets in
London as well believe in this whole
need to bring in raw talent constantly
whether we’re always looking for new
ideas and new people who are innovating
and it’s kind of feeding the city in
ways that’s untrammeled that people can
experiment and try ideas without feeling
like they’ve got to answer to their
financial backers or they’ve got to fill
it in on a spreadsheet or anything and
that’s really exciting and as long as
we’re allowing spaces and creating these
platforms for these fresh ideas to come
through then London’s going to continue
to have a little bit of something about
it that’s interesting and it’s really
really important so the other thing that
I think the kerb brings is a stage I see
it as a stage I see the trader as the
main character in their own personal
play their van or their gazebo as their
set and their signage and their
equipment and all their different bits
and bobs as their props I also see it as
an opportunity for people to bring their
stories to that stage and so you’re
eating the food but where the food comes
from is really exciting to me it’s all
the journeys that the food is taken
across continents and across years so
this is barbecue dreams it’s Lee and
Sinead Sinead from go away and Lee is
half Filipino he grew up in the
Philippines and they’re making this
Filipino deliciousness that if you
haven’t tried it you’ve got a you’ve got
to go and get involved but his parents
met in Hong Kong years ago and then they
moved to the Philippines and he grew up
learning how to make chicken adobo and
all of these delicious Filipino dishes
and what you get when you come to one of
these traders is you don’t know it you
can’t see it but you’re tasting the
journeys of what they’re bringing to the
table and that’s really exciting and
when you put all of that together on the
curve and especially when you look at
all the steel and glass that’s kind of
building up around you all the time
it’s cool it’s a moveable it’s it’s
rigid and then you’ve got all this
theater going on it’s really exciting it
makes makes London just that a little
bit more kind of of a meaningful human
place and don’t forget it’s not just
about the traders selling to you the
customers are just as important in this
production I think if it is a
co-production of space where everyone
belongs there you’re looking in the eyes
of the people that have served you the
food and you’re seeing who’s making you
your lunch I never get that when I get a
laminated sandwich from a chain sandwich
shop and I think it’s really it’s
powerful it makes you feel something and
you exchange stories and you I mean when
the wind picks up you might have to grab
the legs of the gazebo and stop it from
flowing away or something but you’re
involved it’s participatory and I think
as long as London is providing ways for
us to participate in ways that we
weren’t expecting which in ways that are
unmediated and then choreographed it
makes you feel a little bit more human
and I think that’s really important the
curbs also a leveler so everyone belongs
there and no one owns it so it creates
this just balance you’re not in somebody
else’s shot for someone else’s
restaurant under someone else’s manners
you’re all on the same level and that’s
brilliant
you don’t need any kind of certification
to join the street food industry
although you need to get it once you
started cuz otherwise you might get in
trouble but you and you don’t need as a
customer doesn’t matter who you are
aware you’re from everybody’s welcome
like this is the public you know that
the street is democracy’s is the is
democracy’s greatest arena you know this
is where we all belong and this is where
we should all feel like we belong
without having to kind of be governed by
somebody else’s rules so it’s a great
leveler and it’s not a spectator sport
everyone should get involved with it
June 24th last year woke up to the
terrible news that Britain has voted to
leave the EU and that night we’ve got an
event on in Kings Cross a granary square
very close to here and we’re wondering
the hell is going to want to come out
tonight this is just not a time for
partying this is a disaster and we were
all kind of kicked in the guts about the
news and what happened was amazing so
many people poured into that square no
tickets needed nothing but just come
along buy some food buy something to
drink
kick off your kick off your heels to all
that back porch music that we got from
maverick festival and it was this
amazing bomb that I think everyone just
really really needed that night I was at
the brisket store eating some brisket
from Howard’s Meat Company and this
woman from the Ukraine came along
looking really devastated
she’d been living in London for 20 years
and she was just absolutely gutted about
what was going on and she said what I’m
like can I not be here anymore what am I
going to do and I didn’t really know
what to say to her rather than do you
want half of my sandwich and she was
just delighted and she felt so it was
almost like this kind of symbolic
Britain loves you here have half of my
sandwich and we had a hug and off she
went and she was she was delighted and I
was delighted and I I can’t I look back
on you know I’ll never see that woman
again but I look back on that day as
starting off with this awful awful
feeling and then ending off with this
amazing feeling of kind of hope that was
really powerful and that was given to me
by the streets under this sky that you
know people have been dancing and eating
and drinking under for hundreds and
hundreds of years and I think it’s
really important to remember that the
kind of traditions and the roots of
street food food served on the street in
the city for so long so I think that
everyone should go to markets and you
should go and soak it up and soak up
that atmosphere because there’s an
energy and a lifeblood that you
participate in by going to Street
markets and you help to feed it and
energize it and become part of something
that is about so much more than just
eating the food it nourishes you and by
extension it nourishes the city thank
you you