2018 Award Winners STREET FOOD OF THE YEAR 2018

Food Depot - Gourmet Street Kitchen, Clonakilty & Courtmacsherry Co Cork

Ireland has gone street food crazy lately and there’s some real quality popping up in food trucks and stalls in the most unlikely places, including industrial and business settings as well as markets, parks and open air events. From farmers looking for a new market for their produce to budding chefs and restaurateurs frustrated by high rents and punitive rates, there are some highly talented people involved and the delicious food and the service they offer is going down a treat - and it looks as if they’re here to stay. With food standards matching some of the best permanent restaurants in some cases, it’s time to salute the leaders.

Diana Dodog became a household name when she won MasterChef Ireland in 2014 and that didn’t do any harm at all when she and her husband Mike O’Donovan set up their innovative mobile food kitchen in West Cork.

Great taste is the key to success when it comes to street food and there’s no shortage of that at The Food Depot - Gourmet Street Kitchen, where customers happily queue to bag the day’s treats from a wide repertoire of dishes which may be ethnically diverse but they’re all based squarely on the best of seasonal local produce.

Dishes like steaming West Cork chowder, O’Neills 3-meat chilli (beef brisket, cheek and mince), Cajun chicken wrap or Veggie Delight (Grilled Hallumi Buddha Bowl) have ‘em coming back from more - plus gorgeous desserts and home bakes, and terrific West Cork coffee.

No wonder The Food Depot is the in-place for weekday lunches at the West Cork Business Technology Park - and on Sundays you’ll find them nearer home, beside the beach at Courtmacsherry.