A good work opportunity in developing countries
Both speakers agreed that, business-wise, the appeal of street food derives from the simplicity of the operations required, which means it can offer work opportunities to a wide spectrum of society. In particular to lower classes, women and elderly people in developing countries, and to young people in developed economies in times of economic crisis. In developing countries, street food vendors are usually drawn from economically and socially marginal groups – especially women, the elderly, rural immigrants, ethnic minorities – who serve simple traditional food prepared using mobile kitchens, often of a dubious nature.
“I have travelled in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru, interviewing street food vendors”, explained Marras. “In the brief documentary you just saw – “Esta es mi comida” – you will have noticed certain recurring features of street food. Many of those serving it are women, many are native Indians, people excluded from more formal aspects of the labor market who manage to survive by selling street food. They don’t need to have had formal education or training: a few years in elementary school and a handful of simple tools are all they need to make a living.”
In developed nations, qualified professionals are frequently to be found offering street food
In developed nations, street food vendors can come from the same kinds of background as those just described, but there is now also a new class of vendors emerging, generated by a mixture of factors including economic crisis, health-food tendencies, culinary media-presence and social network diffusion. These often consist of young medium-to-upper class professionals driving extravagantly-shaped and graffiti-adorned vans, offering gourmet dishes, advertising “natural” ingredients, communicating via social networks and creating pop-up events in ex-industrial urban spaces. “In developed nations like the USA, vendors are often ex-brokers”, said Marras, “or lawyers who have reconverted themselves as street food vendors because the crisis put them out of work.”
On top of this, also considering the macro-dynamics of the agriculture-to-food chain, the innate flexibility of mobile restoration services puts street food in a strategic position in terms of development strategies based on short supply chains which sustain local farming enterprises, and the reduction of food waste, since street food vendors are experts in avoiding waste.
“What many people don’t realize”, added Corvo, “is that street food can be a great way to support and promote local territories and local products. Slow Food isn’t just about knowing how to sell a certain product – what is known as story-telling – it’s also about thinking what you are doing… not about eating slowly, taking two hours to eat a meal, that’s not it at all! It’s about quality. If you think about what you’re doing, half an hour is plenty of time. Street Food can be a formative experience which contributes to spreading a different awareness of how to follow a correct diet.”
Scattered through the Expo Site, delicacies to suit all kinds of wallets
Numerous vendors of street food offer their products to visitors at Expo Milano 2015, providing the opportunity of tasting regional and exotic delicacies without spending much money. They often offer various tasty menus including thirst-quenching and delicious drinks prepared freshly when ordered. Scattered across the Expo Site are mobile pizzerias and frying units selling specialties of the Italian regions, but also trucks or Pavilions offering all kinds of Asian noodles, fish dishes and fried chicken, Middle-Eastern kebabs, seaweed or crocodile-meat hamburgers and richly-filled pitas. For those with a sweet tooth, there are also plenty of opportunities for cooling off with excellent Sicilian granitas and cannoli, artisanal ice cream and freshly baked French croissants.
