GOOD luck to our own 2017 British Street Food Awards finalists Chaat Cart and Dim Sum Su when the national finals come to Manchester on the weekend of September 16 and 17.
The showdown for the toughest street food competition in the world will be held at GRUB at the iconic Mayfield Depot when after five regional heats, the 17 best traders in the UK will fight it out to be crowned champion – and win the right to represent the Britain in the inaugural European Street Food Awards in Berlin.
Hosted by GRUB, the city’s innovative street food events company, it promises to be quite some event. Lucky punters will enjoy free tastings of the competition dishes as well as testers of the craft beers involved in GRUB’s craft beer festival, drawn from the best breweries in Manchester and beyond.
The free tasters — introduced as part of the BSFA’s new ‘mad minute’ — will help decide the People’s Choice. A guest panel, including Andi Oliver (judge on the BBC’s Great British Menu) and Michelin-starred chef Brad Carter, will vote for the Best of the Best.
Fingers crossed for local winner, Chaat Cart and Dim Sum Su.
Dim Sum Su: “Sue Chiu-Fan Lee was born in Hong Kong and worked in the family food business as soon as she was old enough to reach the till. She’s now all grown up, and cooking authentic dim sum, gua bao, wontons and spring rolls – exactly the same way her family did back home. The queues for Sue’s bao were impenetrable at last year’s final. This year, she’s after silverware.”
Chaat Cart: Also no stranger to the Awards and still keen to win even after “going legit” with a permanent base inn Marple, too. Aaarti Ormsby, below, specialises in South Indian snacks and small plates such as bhel puri, gunpowder fries, homestyle lentil dal and masala dosa that champion British produce.
Both People’s Choice and Best of the Best winners will go to Berlin, where they will take on national winners from France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Russia, Ireland and the Netherlands.
“Street food is taking over,” says Richard Johnson, founder of the BSFAs in 2009. “And that’s because we are choosing to eat in different ways. We don’t want a fixed starter-main course-dessert menu any more – we want a bit of this and a bit of that. It’s flirty, low-commitment dining, and it’s why pop-ups and street food have become so popular. Street food is making the world a much nicer place to be.
“After Berlin, the next step is to form a European team to take on the Americans. Take a container ship to New York, full of our very best traders, and compete on the streets of Manhattan. Then it’s the Far East. Although not sure how well we’d do on a floating market. This way of eating is all about coming together and sharing food – that feels like a positive message right now.”
GRUB founder Jason Bailey said: “We’ve worked hard for the last three years to build our events and Manchester’s street food scene, so it’s a massive honour for us and a great acknowledgement of our home city to be hosting the British Street Food Award final. It’s going to be magic”.
2017 British Street Food Awards, Mayfield Depot, Baring Street, M1 2AD. Sat, Sept16, 12pm-10pm; Sun Sept 17, 12pm-6pm. Tickets £5 available in advance here and on the door. Full information is available at www.britishstreetfood.co.uk.