It’s street food mania, eating on the street is the new gourmet

No more star-studded! The real success in the restaurant world is now street food. Street food beats every gourmet and marks incredible results. In the last 5 years, itinerant catering companies have doubled, but the most important fact is that young people under 35 and foreigners are leading this new phenomenon.

The last survey dates back to the second half of last year and examined the 2013-2018 period. In this period of time food trucks (this is the name of the sales points on wheels) have gone from 1.717 to 2.729 today. Of these, over 600 (22%) are managed by Millenials with a growth in the five-year period of 23.9%. The diversification of the offer is witnessed by another data that sets the market share represented by foreign entrepreneurs at 52.1%.

Global street food researcher, Maurizio Rosazza Prin, runner-up in the second edition of MasterChef Italia and TV face, reports in his blog Chissenefood, recipes, ideas and stories that he collects in the most disparate places.

What are the reasons for the success of street food that have made it go from food for the less affluent to a cutting-edge proposal?

 The hands, the tactile sensation and the freedom of movement that gives you the enjoyment of a food without having to sit at a table is absolutely priceless. The conviviality remains without the need of the geometry of the table. More than avant-garde, it is a return to the past where food had a functional meaning and was cooked where it was meant to be consumed. And after the hangover of the tasting menus, the triumph of the table with the thousand courses, this need for freedom was born in parallel. Like any counter culture it ended up becoming the dominant culture and it is not at all uncommon for it to be offered in large restaurants as an element in a tasting menu. My criticism is that it must remain popular in prices and in the proposal: I would say to street food vendors not to charge the price of your marketing operations but to give us something real, with the soul and at a right price. That’s how it should be. And before thinking about marketing formats and gastro operations, think about making good food, only this is the success of a dish, if it is good and right, prepared thinking of people not business plans.

For many, street food is synonymous with food made quickly and with little care, what do you think?

Quite the contrary, there is a lot of care. Those who choose to stay in the middle of the street to cook, choose to want to be in contact with the end customer and can no longer lie to them, we are all too careful and we notice everything. I am seeing great passion from those who have truly chosen to dedicate themselves to this lifestyle. For us it is a phenomenon, while abroad it is the reality and the engine of gastronomic culture, think of Asia, where it is normal to eat on the street. Going to stand in mile long lines for a dish, in shacks that do well maybe just that one dish, but make it divinely. A Chinese chef friend of mine always tells me that when he is in China, he wakes up at 5 to go to the market at the fresh tofu banquet, where they can only know how to do this but with a thousand sauces, only that and they have been doing it for 150 years. Do you think that in 150 years they have taken little care or little hygiene in making it?

For many, street food is synonymous with food made quickly and with little care, what do you think?
Quite the contrary, there is a lot of care. Those who choose to stay in the middle of the street to cook, choose to want to be in contact with the end customer and can no longer lie to them, we are all too careful and we notice everything. I am seeing great passion from those who have truly chosen to dedicate themselves to this lifestyle. For us it is a phenomenon, while abroad it is the reality and the engine of gastronomic culture, think of Asia, where it is normal to eat on the street. Going to stand in mile long lines for a dish, in shacks that do well maybe just that one dish, but make it divinely. A Chinese chef friend of mine always tells me that when he is in China, he wakes up at 5 to go to the market at the fresh tofu banquet, where they can only know how to do this but with a thousand sauces, only that and they have been doing it for 150 years. Do you think that in 150 years they have taken little care or little hygiene in making it?
 

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