Street food is our passion
Their love for creating fresh, delicious food drove these entrepreneurs to foodie success
their love for creating fresh, delicious food drove these entrepreneurs to success
‘We’re cooking up to 60 pizzas an hour!’
Debs Nelson-Yates, 45, lives in Brockham, Surrey, with husband Simon and their two children. In 2016, she and Simon founded The Wood Fired Larder.
THE IDEA
I trained as an actress, but sadly never made it to the big time. Following drama school I had lots of jobs, and after I had children I became a self-employed childminder. I’d always wanted to run a business and as Simon and I were passionate about eating and entertaining, we wanted to do something foodie. One day I saw an ad for a teardrop-shaped caravan with a wood-fired pizza oven. We went to see it, and although we didn’t end up buying it, we were sold on the idea of getting something similar.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
We own a caravan and often spent weekends at local campsites. Over the years we became friends with another couple, Chris and Emma, who were doing the same thing. It turned out that Chris knew some people who made vintage-style caravans and that’s how we ended up meeting Lyn and Richard Stark of the English Caravan Company. Around the same time we came into a windfall and had the choice to reduce our mortgage or launch a new venture. It was a now-or-never moment – so in November 2015 we commissioned a teardrop van. While it was being built, we experimented with different pizza dough and toppings, and learnt how to cook with a wood-fired oven. We took delivery of ‘Patsy’ (as we now
BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT
It was at our first event when I looked up and saw a huge queue of people wanting to buy our pizzas. People came back afterwards to say that it was the best pizza they had ever had!
STEEPEST LEARNING CURVE
We didn’t anticipate how hard it would be to run the business while holding down our day jobs. We prepare the dough from scratch and it takes 12 hours to prove; then it’s divided into portions and proves for another six hours. And we make most of the toppings too. On a busy day we can be cooking up to 60 pizzas an hour! We kept going by telling each other it wouldn’t be like this forever.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
In June 2017 I gave up childminding to concentrate on the business. This has paid off, as we’re now catering partners at two local wedding venues. Weddings are good because we know exactly what our costs will be and there’s no wastage. With festivals, so much depends on the weather, plus the more popular ones have expensive pitch fees. We’re also booking more private parties and are looking to hire more staff. Our children, Jess, 15, and Jamie, 13, love helping us at events too.
We’re not yet drawing a salary – and Simon is still working in his landscaping business – but that’s because we’ve reinvested our profits in a second vehicle, a shepherd’s hut with wood-fired oven and coffee machine. We have a weekly pitch lined up for it at Leith Hill Place in Surrey, where we’ll be offering sandwiches, toasties and hot drinks. >>
Nisha Katona, 47, lives in Merseyside and is married with two teenage daughters. She is the founder of Mowgli Street Food restaurants, and in 2019 was awarded an MBE for services to the food industry.
THE IDEA
Back in 2013 I was working full-time as a barrister. I loved my job, but I was also obsessed with food, especially the simple, healthy Indian dishes we ate at home. I thought there was a gap in the market for a restaurant serving dishes like these, but as the family breadwinner, I was reluctant to take it further. I had started uploading cooking videos on YouTube, so I thought, why not go for it while working full-time?
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
I spent a year researching how to run a restaurant. In my lunch hour I’d sit in cafés counting footfall and taking notes of who ordered what. After work I stood in the corner of commercial kitchens taking notes on how they operated, and I scoured the city for premises. Eventually I found a little unit, hired a general manager and hand trained a local chef – I didn’t want anyone to meddle with my recipes, which had been handed down through generations, mother to daughter.
I also shared everything I was doing on social media – even asking my followers to pick the restaurant name. This built a momentum towards the opening. At times I was running on four hours’ sleep a night. There was a lot at stake – I’d sunk all my savings into the venture.
I launched Mowgli Street Food in October 2014 and that first day was incredible – we had queues snaking around the block. In the early days I’d finish my law work at 4pm and go to the restaurant to serve customers, while the kids did their homework at one of the tables. After four months I gave up law to devote myself to the business.
BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT
After three weeks of trading I was offered a huge sum of money to sell the business. With 90% of new restaurants failing in their first year, my forensic approach to getting every detail right had paid off.
STEEPEST LEARNING CURVE
The hardest thing for me was deciding whether or not to take investment. I finally went ahead when I felt I’d found the right people. On the plus side, it has allowed me to grow the business faster and given me a breathing space.
WHERE I AM NOW
We have seven restaurants and employ about 400 people – by the end of this year we should have opened another four. I still do all the social media – I don’t have a PR company and have never paid for advertising. I’m looking for new sites, training staff and giving talks on everything from business strategy to culture. It’s exhilarating to work for myself and to see the business – and the people in it – develop. For instance, one of our kitchen porters has just become a head chef – that gives me real joy. BUSINESS BREAKDOWN Start-up costs:
Labour costs, stock, uniforms, equipment: approx £20,000
Fitting out the restaurant: £250,000 Current turnover: £10 million mowglistreetfood.com
‘My recipes were handed down through the generations’
‘We’re on a roll with vegan wraps’
Janice Thorp, 51, and alex Bohdanowicz, 50, run wrapture, a vegan street-food business. They live in Shipley, Yorkshire, with their Border collie, dexi.
THE IDEA
In 2017, we emerged from a difficult few years – our loved ones had been ill and it made us re-evaluate everything. We realised that if we wanted to make a lifestyle change we had to do it now.
We’d been toying with the idea of a street-food business so, using some inheritance money, we took time off from our day jobs as a web designer and a money advice manager at Citizens Advice to think about our future. We’d always loved going to festivals and thought having a food stall would be fun. Initially, we thought of selling pierogi (stuffed polish dumplings), as Alex has Polish heritage, but we soon fell out of love with rolling hundreds of them! So we turned to falafel wraps, as we want to offer food that is plant-based, fresh and healthy, and quick to serve.
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
In March 2017 we held an event at home for friends and made everyone fill in comment cards. It taught us what worked and what didn’t. We also joined the Nationwide Caterers Association, which is great for info on insurance, food safety and other areas of the business we hadn’t thought about. We both completed a food hygiene course – and got a five-star hygiene rating. We chose the name Wrapture because it says what the business is and it also gives a nod to the Blondie song Rapture – we both love Blondie. Our first event was at Leeds Dock. We literally took everything – including a large kitchen sink! – and the setting up and taking down took longer than the trading, but we were so excited to actually be in business.
BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT
In June 2017 we traded at the first all-vegan day food event called Plant Powered Sunday, run by Grub in Manchester. We were so busy, we didn’t draw breath. We sold out and got so many great comments about our food, we left exhausted but on cloud nine.
STEEPEST LEARNING CURVE
Our first year was great and we learnt loads, so in the second year we wanted to do larger events and festivals. But we quickly realised that the bigger events attract a much higher pitch fee and don’t always result in more profit. At one event we lost thousands and were left with mountains of food, which we spent a whole day distributing to local charitable projects rather than throw it away. At this point, we considered giving up.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
We’ve built a loyal following and we know what events we enjoy and work for us. We still work part-time in our old jobs, but in the summer we are at events most weekends. We’re also starting a pop-up in a local vegan shop, so we’re excited to see how that goes. And in January and February when nothing much is going on in the street-food world, we can take time off. Last year we took our dog and camper van around Spain for two months. w & h
BUSINESS BREAKDOWN
Start-up costs:
£4,000, comprising gazebo, deepfat fryer, tables, large cool boxes website: we designed it ourselves Current turnover: £32,000 wrapturefood.co.uk