So you want to start a food truck?

Get your gourmet business into gear and turn your culinary skills into cash

Whether you want to tour the festival circuit or become a regular at London’s gourmet ghettos, running a food truck is a fun way to become part of the foodie community. With low startup costs, it’s an affordable means to learn skills that will prepare you for further adventures in catering or running a restaurant. At this one-day event, speakers from some of London’s leading street food trucks, including Anna Mae’s, Rainbo, Crabbieshack and Oli Baba’s, explain the creative and business essentials of launching a food truck, and how to handle any of the scene’s unique speed bumps.

The event offers advice on how to capture the public’s imagination with a menu that reflects your tastes and personality, as well as how to ensure you use the best possible ingredients without burning your bottom line. You’ll learn how to use all-important social media tools to advertise your products and location, and build a rapport with customers that will ensure their loyalty. The day also offers valuable tips on dealing with the paperwork, including how to secure a pitch, as well as food for thought on how to turn your truck into a rolling social enterprise.

This course is for you if...

• You’re interested in starting up your own food truck business, whether you’ve already developed a product or are working on new ideas
• You’re serious about starting a profitable business, or successful social enterprise

Course description

This large-scale symposium features four of the UK’s food truck pioneers sharing the secrets of their success, and the practical lessons they’ve learnt along the way. Topics covered on the day include:

• How the street food scene works and how to navigate it
• Designing your menu and targeting your market
• Contacting hosting spaces and securing a pitch
• Promotions, marketing and the essentials of foodie social media
• Easy ways to save money and boost profits
• The trials of the food truck startup: what to expect from your first three months
• Street food paperwork and processes – and how to streamline them
• Incorporating social entrepreneurship into your business
• The most common roadblocks to food truck success – and tips on how to avoid them
• How to expand into a bricks and mortar business

Tutor profiles

Oli Baba runs Oli Baba’s, serving meat-free Levantine cuisine. Launched in May 2014, Oli’s menu and cooking style were inspired by his habitual trips to local hummus institution Abu Hassan while living in Israel.

Xochi Balfour and Ben Sheinwald are the founders of Rainbo. Specialising in gyoza and related accompaniments, Rainbo works with Nepalese NGO Base, raising funds to rescue and rehabilitate child labourers in the region.

Anna Clark and Tony Soloman run Anna Mae’s, London’s original mac and cheese specialist food truck. Established in 2009, Anna Mae’s has won plaudits from sources ranging from the Guardian to GQ, including being shortlisted for Best Street Food in the 2012 BBC Food and Farming Awards.

Douglas Robertson-Ritchie is the founder of British Street Food Awards nominees Crabbieshack. Prior to launching his own truck, Douglas trained as a chef at Bistrotheque and ran his own restaurant in Folkestone for two years, before joining the team at acclaimed street food pioneers Jamon Jamon.

Full course and returns information on the Masterclasses website