Laura serving pasta Moretti

Today we want to share our experience at the most amazing and inspiring weekend of street food we have ever had as traders!

The Birra Moretti Gran Tour, which took place between July and August 2015, covering three cities – Edinburgh, London and Leeds – is a celebration of regional Italian street food from some of the best traders across the UK. We were invited to attend the final leg of this tour, which took place in Leeds Town Hall over four days.

Leeds Town Hall Moretti
We were advised by the event organisers that we would trade from a stall inside the venue (sadly they don’t let Vanstaurants, however amazing they are, inside Leeds Town Hall), so we got together everything we needed for our inside set-up – tables, indoor lighting, coolboxes, bigger menu boards, etc. – and made the hour-long journey up the M62.

Giordano Vanstaurant Leeds
When we arrived, we saw the most beautiful space we’ve ever traded in. A collection of Italian lights, olive trees and crates bearing the event’s name were scattered around the hall!
Moretti Leeds setup
Each stall had their own sign and a description of their dish, plus the name of the region we were representing. Given Giordano’s heritage (he was born in Parma and his father is a Michelin-star chef from Modena) we were doing our bit for the Emilia-Romagna region!
Tigellae sign Moretti
As you can see from the description above, we gave our popular pulled pork pasta dish an authentic Italian twist, slow-cooking the pork for 12 hours and braising it in Birra Moretti. On the first night, which was attended by Yorkshire’s most famous food bloggers, street food magazine editors and journalists, this dish was among the most-tasted plates of Italian food on offer – we made nearly 250 portions on the first night alone!
Fusilli pulled pork Moretti
The objective for those attending the event was simple: complete the Gran Tour! On arrival guests were given a passport and a wristband of tokens entitling them to two dishes, one ice cream and two drinks. They could sample all of the dishes on offer by paying a little extra to the traders directly if they had run out of tokens. If they tried our food, they collected a stamp from us in their passport. If they managed to try everything on offer, they got themselves a goodie bag (with lots of beer in it)!  

Tigellae passport Moretti

We also met some inspiring traders and were lucky enough to taste their food ourselves. London-based duo Arancini Brothers made some beautiful, all-veggie arancini, and cheese-obsessed Laura also enjoyed a couple of plates of beetroot gnocchi with crema di gorgonzola, crushed hazelnuts and rocket from Pasta e Basta. It was also great to hear their stories of street food trading and it’s really made us think about how we can go forwards and make a whole variety of regional dishes in the future. Grazie mille! 🙂

Tigellae sign Italia Moretti

If you want to see more of what the Moretti Gran Tour was like, just have a look at our Facebook and Instagram pages or use the hashtag #morettigrantour. You’ll find a LOT of photos!

Laura and Giordano baffi Moretti

Grazie di cuore 🙂

 Laura and Giordano

2 comments

  1. Pingback: Introducing the foldable Vanstaurant |Tigellae
  2. Pingback: British Street Food Awards 2018 - we're FINALISTS!

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