Street food traders cook their way to success in city
Two local street food traders will be representing Birmingham in the British Street Food Awards competition; Baked in Brick and Buddha Belly, who are both regulars at Digbeth Dining Club.
Photo credit: Baked in Brick
Lee, who trained as a chef and previously lectured at University College Birmingham before his street food saw success, heard about the British Street Food Competition two years ago and was eager to get involved in the evolving scene. He said: “I used to go to Digbeth Dining Club as a customer and loved it and now I go along to events across the Midlands as well as various festivals and a range of private events like weddings and birthday parties.The two, who both have aspirations of opening a restaurant and a permanent base in the region in the near future, will be cooking up their cuisines as part of the competition. Lee Desanges, 34, from Sutton Coldfield is the chef behind Baked in Brick, often takes his classic Mini along to street food events across the UK, where he cooks a range of tasty treats and snacks from the car bonnet!
“People are really moving towards supporting independent businesses nowadays and street food is about the food, atmosphere and the theatre behind it all. It is essentially a night out.”
Awards at the event will be everything from best sandwiches and snacks to best vegetarian dish and the overall winner.
Despite the pressure of the competition, Thai street food trader Buddha Belly’s Sai Deethwa, 30, is looking forward to cooking up great food for the event. She said: “The competition will be fierce, but we feel very privileged to be representing Birmingham in the competition, but we’re just going to do what we do best and hopefully we can bring home the award for Birmingham.”
Photo credit: Buddha Belly
Sai and her husband James, who are from Stourbridge, quit their jobs of a social worker and teacher to get involved with all the excitement of street food. For Sai, it was simply a part of her heritage to do so. She said: “My family are all in the street food industry in Thailand. I was briefly on Masterchef in 2012 and that made me think, actually, I could cook for a living and obviously, Thai was the natural choice.”
The duo have won various awards in the past and enjoy cooking all over the country, “It is an exciting time for street food and more and more people are trying it out. Street food is accessible to everyone and the people that cook give it lots of love.
“It is a new way to eat and socialise with others. It is great that you can now go somewhere and all have something different rather a sit down meal.”
