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From Pop-Ups To Michelin Stars – Where Does Street Food Go Next?

Since its stripped-back beginnings, the new wave of so-called street food has had a major impact on global restaurant culture. It began as an antidote to the formal dining scene of the 1980s and 1990s, with makeshift markets popping up in derelict car parks and vendors building hype on Twitter. Now it is ubiquitous. There’s been an explosion of modish food courts and walled-off markets and hundreds of permanent restaurants, which started out as street food traders. Street food – and it seems a stretch to define it as such these days – has influenced everything from the dominance of casual dining to the rise in restaurants that specialise in highly elevated versions of single dishes. Chefs who forged their reputations on tiny food stalls have built slick and influential food businesses. How did taco trucks and burger vans wind up having so much sway in the food industry?

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