An annual survey in the UK has found that millennials are leading a shift away from traditional celebrity cookbooks by the likes of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Olivier with their precise instructions which guarantee perfect dishes. Instead, the trend is towards TikTok cookery videos where banquets are showcased in under five minutes and ‘influencers’ take the stage instead of well-known chefs.
The underlying reason driving this movement seems to be that TikTok instructors have mastered the art of throwing a culinary video together with instructions to add ‘a pinch of’ this and ‘a glug of’ that. Young wannabe chefs say that it allows them the freedom to adjust the ingredients to express themselves in their cooking rather than being straitjacketed by very specific ingredient lists and exact(ing) measurements.
It made me think that this is also perhaps the emotional response that moved Bahrain’s ‘foodpreneurs’ to get into the food truck business which is currently under threat.
Those brightly lit restaurants on wheels give a gypsy touch to eating out – they make us, the customers, feel we are participating in a commercial dining experience where the layers have been peeled back to show us a glimpse of Restaurant BTS.
It looks like that but in reality, food trucks are not just vans fitted with service windows and cooking stoves. They have to fit out their food trucks as per Health Ministry restaurant regulations – if not as stringently as for conventional restaurants, then at least enough to rack up serious costs.
The two main things in food trucking success – besides the food – are the food truck decor which projects the personality of the business and the location which drives your profits and shapes your customer profile.
Which is why I feel arbitrarily asking Bahrain’s food truckers to move to government-designated less congested spots or accusing them of misusing public space is a low blow.
I agree that sometimes there is a traffic jam near the more popular food trucks but this is mainly during weekends or holidays and nobody is in a tearing rush then. The food trucks are not messy – I have seen regular restaurants which have dirtier surroundings that attract flies and vermin.
In fact, if anything we should be seeing a crackdown on the ubiquitous Karak Chai shops – not the businesses but their habit of offering drive-thru service without a drive-thru lane, making the public road their pit stop and causing traffic snarl-ups. And have you seen the litter of paper tea cups around Karak shops? The food trucks have not been flagged for such issues.
The authorities must stop sending out signals which are at cross purposes with the avowed promotion of SME culture and Bahrainisation. If government is so discouraging then how can private restaurant owners be expected to ramp up their Bahrainisation efforts?
I know of top Indian restaurant franchises which have invested thousands into meeting all requirements but are stuck because laws require them to employ x number of nationals – since theirs is not a cuisine that simply flips frozen burgers, that is a difficult condition to fulfil.
Food trucks are almost all Bahraini-owned and add so much young energy to our food scene. Let government not step in and ruin the casserole!
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