The 20 finalists in the Awards have already made it through five regional heats, and will serve up food from 5pm until 10pm on Friday (21 September) and from 12pm to 10pm on Saturday 22 September. Guests at the two cook-offs will vote for their favourites, before judges including chefs Atul Kochhar and Skye Gyngell announce the winners.
The overall champion at Hawker House will go on to compete at the European Street Food Awards, to be held a week later on Saturday 29 September in Berlin. The European prizes were set up last year by the team behind the British Street Food Awards, and will have double the number of participants in 2018. The British winner also gets a free pitch at a Street Feast market.
The British Street Food Awards were launched in 2009, and have helped to promote the country’s burgeoning street food scene. Awards founder Richard Johnson said: “Street food is taking over the world, 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.”
There is more information about the British Street Food Awards here, and on this Facebook page. Tickets for the two cook-offs can be booked here.
