The history of mobile food in the US is an intriguing one, going back to the first chuckwagon, a scrappy invention by a Texas cattleman in the 1860s to feed frontier cowboys. But the background of the street food movement in San Francisco is perhaps more fascinating. It seems hard to imagine that the plethora of food trucks, stands, and bikes that have emerged in recent years was seen at any prior date, but in fact, this recent abundance has roots in our city at the turn of the 20th century.

After the 1906 earthquake and the fires that raged due to a series of gas line ruptures, cooking in any building that remained intact was prohibited for the weeks and months following the April events. Our San Franciscan ancestors approached their dilemma with a similar spirit to that seen in the street food community in San Francisco today: innovative, entrepreneurial, and a little bit cheeky. Residents took to the streets, building brick ovens or moving their home stoves outside to sit directly over the gas mains, to cook for their families and anyone else in need.

Rough structures were built around the outdoor kitchens (often called “gutter kitchens”) using whatever was available: cloth, shutters, roofing, or corrugated metal. Photos of the city from April and May of 1906 show innumerable pop ups, rivaling the numbers we see at today’s Off the Grid or the San Francisco Street Food Festival. Even in dire straights, low on food and shelter, these street food groundbreakers kept their tongue-in-cheek humor intact. Popular spots emblazoned their ramshackle eateries with ironic names like “The Palace Hotel” and “The Appetite Killery.” Communities emerged around these kitchens and mottos such as “Make the best of it. Forget the rest of it.” reflected the resiliency of the city.

While these kitchens slowly disappeared as chimneys were rebuilt and the gas turned back on, the approach to dishing out food with limited resources has stuck with us!

More details coming soon! Please check out the San Francisco Street Food Festival website for more information!

www.sfstreetfoodfest.com

An important note for our Conference Attendees:

We regret to announce that Jonathan Gold will no longer be able to participate in this years’ National Street Food Conference as he originally had planned, and as appeared on the schedule. He sends his sincerest apologies and regards! The good news? This panel is still stacked with some amazing folks: Francis Lam, Celia Sack, Karen Leibowitz and Niloufer King!

We’re looking forward to Sunday!

Sunday, August 21st

12:00-1:30PM “EAT YOUR CART OUT” BRUNCH

Join Top Chef Masters contestant Suvir Saran, Wise Sons Deli, Ingrid’s Lunchbox and  La Cocina’s Azalina’s Malaysian for a delicious culinary extravaganza. Eat and drink to your cart’s content!

1:30-3:00PM PANEL ONE: BUT OH, IT TASTES SO GOOD: Chefs in conversation about the world’s best street food

Panelists: Jessica Battiliana, Suvir Saran, Azalina Eusope, Hoss Zare and Andrea Nguyen

3:15-5:00PM PANEL TWO: WRITING ABOUT STREET FOOD IS LIKE…

Panelists: Celia Sack, Karen Leibowitz, Francis Lam and Niloufer King

Monday, August 22nd

9:00-10:45AM PANEL ONE: TALES OF TWO CITIES: From Taco Trucks to Gastrobuses: Has American “Street Food” Fundamentally Changed?

Panelists: Michelle Branch, Gail Lillian, Lizzy Caston, Lucero Munoz Arrellano and Luis and Maria de la luz Vazquez

11:00AM-12:00PM BREAKOUT TRACKS

• INCUBATOR AND VENDOR ORGANIZATION TRACK Advocacy and Organizing: Participants: Leticia Landa and Matthew Geller
• VENDOR TRACK Marketing for Mobile Food: Participants: Baylen Linnekin, Joshua Henderson, Matt Cohen, and Brian and Lisa Wood
• PLANNING TRACK Policy Lab: Participants: Wendy Mendes, Warren Hansen, Dan Sider

12:00PM-1:00PM LUNCH, SPONSORED BY METAL GOURMET AND PREPARED BY ALICIA VILLANUEVA OF ALICIA’S TAMALES LOS MAYAS

Metal Gourmet manufactures and distributes food carts and trailers for the mobile food industry, including entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, caterers and other food service professionals. www.metalgourmet.com

1:00-2:30PM PANEL TWO: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE GREAT AMERICAN FOOD TRUCK Aka, How to Make Money in America on Wheels

Panelists: Annaliese DeNooyer, Ernesto Hernandez, Daniella Sawaya, Alicia Villanueva and Robb Walsh

2:45-4:00PM BREAKOUT TRACKS:

• INCUBATOR AND VENDOR ORGANIZATION TRACK Advocacy and Organizing Participants: Robin Burger and Matthew Geller 
• VENDOR TRACK COGS, POS and Increasing Your Revenue Participants: Laurie Aaronson, Gio Mahmoud, Wendy Weiden, Denon Moore
• PLANNING TRACK Mobile Food as Economic Development Participants: Jordan Klein and Wendy Mendes

4:00-5:30PM PANEL THREE: MAKING POLICY WORK, A Vertical Conversation

Panelists: Robin Burger, Joshua Henderson, Lauren Dunning, Gio Mahmoud and Maria Piedad Cano

Get your game on!  La Cocina is proud to present the third annual San Francisco Street Food Festival Game.  

We’re teaming up with The Go Game again to bring you the ultimate foodie adventure, a three-week scavenger hunt culminating at the San Francisco Street Food Festival on August 20.  Contestants can vote and track their progress on Facebook, “liking” photos and videos to rack up points, all the while inching closer and closer to prizes that their food lover friends will be drooling over. 

Get started today!  Signing up is easy – just head to the Street Food Festival Game homepage and click on “Play Game” on the left-hand panel.  You can invite up to nine other players to join your team, so grab a handful of friends and let the madness begin!

Once you’re signed up, make sure to check back regularly for updates on prizes, who’s in the lead, and which photos are getting the most love on Facebook.  May the most devoted foodie win!

The Street Food Festival is all about celebrating the diverse food (and people) that makes San Francisco the amazing it is to eat and live, and we’re confident that this year will have the best of the Bay Area’s best. Still, when it comes to street food, we have to admit that there are some other places that do it pretty well. That’s why we’re more than a little bit excited to announce that we’ve signed up vendors from some of the best known food cities in the country to join us this year, and help us taste what we’re missing in Seattle, New York, Madison and Portland. Read on to hear about the food and the people behind it:

From rainy Seattle comes Joshua Henderson, the creator of bacon jam (which you may have seen popping up in stores across San Francisco) and the proprietor of Skillet Street Food. Skillet is known for dishing up innovative twists on American-inspired food, with a burger to live for (topped with his bacon spread) and poutine (fries with gravy) as menu constants. The five-year old airstream business was so successful that Joshua opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant, Skillet Diner, earlier this year.

The American coasts tend to get a lot of culinary acclaim, but we think we’ve found street food that might help the heartland get the attention it deserves. Madison, Wisconsin representative Ingrid’s LunchBox was named the number one spot for street food by Bon Appetit way back in 2008, and from the sounds of it, the popularity of Ingrid’s farm-to-table breakfast fare hasn’t abated a bit. Ingrid’s motto is ‘the finest of the heartland’ and we’re looking forward to digging into whatever she whips up.

Finally, no list of food truck cities would be complete without a rep from food-crazy Portland, Oregon. We’re pleased to say that we’ve signed on the nationally-lauded Big-Ass Sandwiches. Tag-teamed by husband and wife duo Brian and Lisa Wood, Big-Ass Sandwiches was named the number one Portland food truck by locals in 2010 and was featured in the Cooking Channel’s Food Truck Revolution. They’re known for ample, fry-stuffed sammies, and we’re drooling just thinking about them.

Stay tuned for more information!

A pirate walks into a bar with the entire steering wheel of his pirate ship stuffed into his pants. He sits down and orders a drink. The bartender just stares at him and asks, “Doesn’t that hurt?”

The pirate responds, “Aye, it’s driving me nuts.”

* * *SCAVENGER HUNT CLUE* * *

Now that we’ve got you thinking in Spanish at Mijita, it is time for you to translate the following to find your next answer: butterflies, earth mothers and someone who lives in a port city. FREE HINT: all three of these things can be found in the Ferry Building! And all of these vendors use ONE KITCHEN to produce their delicious treats. If you think you know what we are talking about, write the NAME OF THE KITCHEN to move on! 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Banh Mi Burgers or Ooh La La Lumpia? Sweet Potato Pie Waffles or Samosas? Why not have them all!

La Cocina is taking to the streets once again, for the 3rd Annual San Francisco Street Food Festival on Saturday, August 20, 2011. Over 50,000 people are expected to attend this year’s event, which will feature more vendors than ever. 60 sellers, half of whom are part of La Cocina’s incubator program, will be setting up shop over 8 blocks in La Cocina’s Mission neighborhood. The San Francisco Street Food Festival will also feature a hand-selected group of talented chefs with brick and mortar establishments and food trucks in other cities, providing visitors a unique opportunity to graze from a selection of the best foods from all over the Bay Area, in a block party atmosphere.  

Admission is free and food is priced between $3 and $8, but you can buy a passport to save time. Buy your passport in advance online, and you’ll save money too.

3rd Annual San Francisco Street Food Festival

When: Saturday, August 20, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Conference on August 21 -22)

Where: In the La Cocina neighborhood of Folsom Street from 22nd to 26th Streets, and 23rd and 25th Streets from Treat to Shotwell.