The British Street Food Awards 2013

The British Street Food Awards are nailing their colours to the mast and going all European for 2013. The massive party -- that has become an end-of-season institution since it was founded back in 2009 -- will showcase the very best street food talent from across the entire continent. On the weekend of September 28-29, along with a series of how-to seminars, music mash-ups and beer buckets, the public will get to sample all the finalists, and vote for their ultimate winner. At stake? Bragging rights - big time.

The Awards organisers have already had applications from Claus Meyer - the restaurateur behind Noma in Denmark, voted the World's Best Restaurant for three years running. He'll be hoping to lead the Nordic contingent. And Kristin Frederick from Le Camion Qui Fume, whose 'tres magnifique' burgers are smashing up the streets of Paris, is hoping to represent France. She'll want to book space on the car deck with De Oesterkar from the Netherlands and Keep On Toasting from Belgium. They all want to come and stick it up the Brits.

The BSFAs have always been about showcasing the very best of homegrown British talent, and -- because of Britain's street food revolution - can hope to compete with whatever Johnny Foreigner can come up with. Whether it's an electric milk float serving home-made organic ice cream, a driftwood beach shack with razor clams fresh from the North Sea, or a converted horse box with a family salt beef recipe, British traders will fight - man and woman - to keep the Awards in Britain.

The end-of-season bash comes at an exciting time for British Street Food. They are involved in the craziest, most exciting street food scheme ever - to LIFT vans, trucks and trailers onto the first floor of the upmarket Trinity Leeds, the new retail destination in Leeds. All those shiny new floors. Trinity Kitchen (who are sponsors of the 2013 British Street Food Awards) opens in October this year, with five new traders - drawn from the very best of the Awards - parking up every month. Food retail will never be the same again.

British Street Food are also developing street food 'brands'. They are advising SSP, the international food and travel company, about traders with the ambition to move into permanent premises. Thanks to the collaboration with SSP, Ginger's Comfort Emporium - winner of the British Street Food Awards 2012 - are now selling their ice cream in Manchester Airport. Other BSF traders are already lined up for King's Cross, Euston and Gatwick.

And, in an effort to future-proof the street food revolution, the BSF team are about to launch the app for iphones and smart phones, which will showcase the best in street food. With live GPS maps showing who's trading where and when, it will detail the daily specials of the best traders, and encourage punters to photograph - and review - food, helping to involve everyone in the street food community. The app's rating system will produce the world's first street food Top 10.

Richard Johnson, the founder of the British Street Food Awards, sees 2013/2014 as a period of huge growth. Johnson (who is a regular presenter of the Food Programme for BBC Radio 4, a food columnist for the Guardian, and the author of the best-selling Street Food Revolution) is even working with the government and Leon to put street food swagger into children's school dinners. "It feels like the message of street food - that good quality, fun food should be accessible to everyone - is finally getting through."

Full information is available at:

www.britishstreetfood.co.uk

www.facebook.com/britishstreetfood