Food glorious food heads south for the summer

A choice selection of London’s most popular street traders is heading for Embassy Gardens market on Saturday July 28 offering an international range of mouth-watering produce - from fresh pasta to swordfish burgers, from cookies and fudge to Japanese gyoza dumplings.

Francesco Veltre of Streetfoodish picked the 13 stall holders for the market from 70 street traders who work with his company “according to variety to give the widest choice. And they are all independent traders and no big companies.”

“I believe it will be a great market”, said Francesco. “It’s a very good site and we have had a lot of help from Ballymore in promoting the market to residents and local families,”

So, who’s going to be there?

As people become more health conscious, the bread, cakes and confectionery baked with 100% wholemeal flour by The German Wholegrain Bakers Shop get quickly snapped up from the baking trays at the 10 London weekly markets where the company sets up stall.

“We are popular because people are realising that wholemeal is better for health because it retains the vitamins and proteins lost in over-processed white bread,” explained Susanne Wormstaedt, who runs the bakery with Alexandra Nestle. “We started five years ago because we were missing our German bread! We use old grain, spelt, kamut, rye and barley in our bread and don’t use sugar.”

Said Susanne: “It’s also better for the digestive system because you actually eat less wholemeal bread than white bread because it’s more satisfying.

“Also, we sell quite a few cakes without sugar – using maple syrup, honey and stevia leaf extract instead, as well as wheat-free cakes for people with an intolerance to gluten,” said Susanne, who bakes all their own produce with a home kitchen licence.

Entranced in his teens by Herman Melville’s seafaring novel Moby Dick, Italian Daniele Sergio named his wild fish burger stall he co-founded ‘The Pequod’ after Captain Ahab’s ill-fated whaling ship.

Arriving in London eight years ago, Daniele was already ‘a pescatarian’, someone who avoids meat. He learned his trade in kitchens and in London’s famous Borough Market.

“I have always loved the buzz of the Market, so decided to go full time as a street trader, serving traditional swordfish and tuna fish burger recipes, handed down from my father’s Sicilian family.

“We changed the recipe slightly for the English market, adding cabbage and hummus, and wasabi powder to give a tangy flavour. But the most popular are our tuna, avocado, mayo and salad cress burgers”, said Daniele, who co-founded the business with Leonardo Grassellini from Perugia. Both “go every day to buy fresh from Billingsgate”, before chilling the fish and preparing and cooking each day on The Pequod stall.

Hide Uno originally set up Juzu ten years ago with a street stall in Brick Lane serving Japanese hot food to Londoners who were quickly discovering a taste for ramen – noodle soup and gyoza – flavoured dumplings. “Both are very popular in this country, partly because they are healthier. The sources are vegetable based, not from animal fat as in English gravy,” says Hide who learned on the job as a sushi chef. “I had a takeaway shop, then a market stall and now do a lot of festivals as well, like Hyper Japan at Olympia and the Secret Garden Party.”

When Russian-born Natasha Rogoff lost her job at Lehman Brothers in the 2008 crash, she decided to swop a career in investment banking to a pesto producer. She began helping her boyfriend Giovanni Carleschi run his food business, Seriously Italian, and since then they have never looked back.

“Our pasta is very special, made in a very traditional Italian way by hand with a bronze dye but with flour, milk and beef – all milled and produced in Britain,” says Natasha, revealing that the couple – who now have two sons as well as a thriving Italian pasta business – plan to launch a special new brand when they debut at Embassy Gardens on July 28.

Embassy Gardens Market
New Union Square,
Nine Elms Lane,
London
SW8 5DA