Food trucks are about to be really big in the UAE.
How big? Let Debra Greenwood, director of the Dubai Food Festival, explain.
“There is about to be an explosion of food trucks in this city,” she says of the festival, which is rolling out food trucks to Dubai’s business districts Sunday-Thursday until February 26.
By the end of the month, as more and more local trucks get up and running, “there will be around 12-15 trucks” in the convoy going around neighbourhoods from Downtown to Dubai Academic city, selling their wares to hungry office workers.
It’s not just Dubai that’s getting on board what seems like a global food trend.
Abu Dhabi is running its own food festival this month, sending food truck convoys, including local brands Salt and Love Donut, out for the Street Feasts segment on weekends to Madinat Zayed and Al Ain and ending up on Abu Dhabi’s Corniche on February 19.
While Dubai’s festival has focused entirely on local brands, Abu Dhabi Food Festival has also gone to the huge effort of flying in trucks from the UK.
In Abu Dhabi, the Tourism and Culture Authority “are keen to demonstrate what street food is about and encourage the local scene to pick up a bit,” says Fabio Diu, festival manager for Real Food Festivals, a UK-based company that has been brought in by the TCA to organise Street Feasts.
So what exactly is a food truck, and why are they getting so popular?
It’s pretty simple — food served from a truck, more often than not a kitsch vintage vehicle — that either stays in one location (as with the UAE’s Salt, down on Kite Beach) or moves around a city, often using social media to announce its next stop.
What makes the food truck movement interesting, however, is that many of them aim to serve top quality food — this is not just hot dogs, burgers and chips. Trucks are cheaper to run than a restaurant, meaning they are a great way for talented but cash-strapped chefs to focus on a few perfect dishes, or be more experimental than they would be with an owner breathing down their neck, and serve it more cheaply to ever more discerning customers. The film Chef (which screened as part of Dubai Food Festival’s Food & Film series, with Dubai’s food trucks providing dinner) told that story brilliantly — a chef unable to spread his culinary wings buys a decrepit truck, soups it up and travels across the US serving one perfect dish (a Cuban sandwich) using social media to gain a devoted following, and finding a new purpose in life as he does it.
Ok, so that’s a Hollywood movie. The reality in the UAE is a little different, partly because the regulations for food trucking aren’t fully established yet. Trucks can’t simply roam the streets.
“There’s already existing procedures in place, for example trucks are allowed — such as Salt at Kite Beach, Ghaf Kitchen popping up — to go to events and be in certain locations. What is part of the growth of this industry is looking at how we can work with the government departments to grow the number of places they can be located in,” says Greenwood.
But the fact that both Abu Dhabi and Dubai food festivals — both of them government-led initiatives — have dedicated food truck segments is a sign that the trend is getting backing from the top, and formal regulation should soon follow, say the organisers. Greenwood calls Dubai Food Festival “a case study”.
“We are getting great support from the government departments to put this on. This is where a lot of SMEs [small and medium enterpreneurs] are going to set up, and a lot of companies, SMEs or not, are able to test a concept. They are going to be in the F&B scene long-term,” she said.
“Part of what we’re here to do is foster the movement in the UAE,” says Diu. “There are still issues around permits and licensing. [Government bodies] are very keen to work out good processes to enable more food businesses to be able to trade in a mobile informal way.”
For existing restaurants, it’s a good way to spread their message and try new things.
Hind Almulla is the owner of Dubai restaurant Home Bakery, and is taking part in Dubai Food Festival.
“We will be offering new desserts and something slightly different on the truck, to keep the cafe and the truck slightly different, while still maintaining our home bakery feel.
“But everyone’s favourite cookie will be there — the chewy melts.”
Inspired to do your own, one day? Be warned: As with any f&b job, “it is hard work but it’s a lifestyle choice,” says Diu. “It’s being your own boss, it’s freewheeling, you’re part of a community, it’s a great way to have a direct relationship with your customer. It’s about finding something which you love, that’s different and focused, and proposing something new and exciting.”
