In this How To seminar, journalist and broadcaster Richard Johnson will be talking about the revolution in British street food, which prompted him to write the tub-thumping Street Food Revolution, and launch the British Street Food Awards with Marco Pierre White. He’ll also showing how easy – and cheap – it is to stock up and join the revolution yourself.
Richard Johnson
Writes Richard about his project:
‘My name is Richard Johnson, and I’m a food critic. I have presented Full on Food and Kill It, Cook It, Eat It for the BBC. I am the supertaster on ITV’s Taste The Nation, and I’m the judge on Channel 4’s Cookery School. I’ve been a drinks columnist for the Independent, and a food columnist for The Guardian. And I’m a regular contributor to the Food Programme on Radio 4. But, for years, I’ve had a guilty little secret.
‘I’m a food critic, but the best meals I’ve ever eaten weren’t in a Michelin-starred restaurant. They were on the streets. The streets of Bethlehem, with its hole-in-the-wall falafel shacks serving up fat pittas, stuffed with hummus, pickle and broad beans. And the streets of Mandalay, where I first had fishy noodles – for breakfast – still salty from the sea. Street food is exciting. But you wouldn’t say that of street food in Britain. Until now.
‘In the old days, British street food meant cheap sausages and overfried onions, served off of rusty metal handcarts. But that’s changing. And about time too. For a nation that’s stacked with food magazines and food programmes, we’ve run out of excuses. Our food isn’t a joke any more – we’ve got more three-starred Michelin restaurants than Italy. So it’s about time we got our street food sorted too. And make every single one of us proud to be British.
‘The best street food is cheap and fresh. Unlike a lot of restaurant food, which is expensive and left standing on a hot-plate until some sniffy waiter deigns to pick it up and bring it to your table. And street food is all about offering the kind of food that the British people actually want to eat. Restaurants still seem to be hung up on some received notion of what constitutes ‘good food’. On the street isn’t the place for that kind of snobbery.
‘The new generation of mobilers have got none of the grit, or the grease, which used to authenticate the whole British street food experience. And their ingredients have changed too. Where you used to find limp white iceberg, you now find organic lamb’s ear. And where once you squeezed on an (unidentified) red sauce, you now find a rich, home-made tomato ketchup. That’s actually got tomatoes in it. The times are changing.
‘I want everyone to have access to good, cheap, local food – for me, the revolution in British street food has been a long time coming. My book is out. And the British Street Food Awards, which I set up last year with Marco Pierre White, Mark Hix and Anthony Worrall Thompson, are back in September. With a first prize of a pitch in the Olympic Village. And a business makeover from M&S. We’ve come a long way baby…. ‘
Date: Wednesday 27 July
Time: 6.30pm for 7pm. Ends 9pm.
Cost: £20. Free wine and street nibbles. BUY NOW or call 0207 221 5908.
