Having your own food truck is a great way to combine your catering business, love for cooking and travelling. If you’re thinking of having your own mobile restaurant, find out how to get started on the food truck adventure – what to sell, what burger packaging to buy, whether to invest in a themed food truck or a classic food truck trailer?
Food truck: what is it?
A food truck is a mobile catering establishment, a kind of mobile restaurant or café. The food truck has a trailer equipped with catering equipment. The dishes are prepared in the trailer and served directly from it. The popularity of food trucks has been constantly growing. People are opting for street food much more often as they are also more often eating out, whether somewhere in the city or on the road. Eating out has become a common trend. This is the perfect time to open a catering establishment that fully meets your current needs and preferences.
Themed food truck – Zombie style trailer
A fantasy or horror themed food truck? A themed food truck is a way to stand out from your competition. A zombie food truck will certainly catch the eye and spark up some interest, but the customer will only return if the food is really tasty. So both an original idea and delicious food are important. Without tasty food, we will not be successful. So what to sell in a food truck?
What can you sell in your food truck?
The idea behind street food is that the served food should be quick to prepare and convenient for takeaway. So the dishes you will serve from the food truck should not only be tasty, but also simple to prepare and easy to pack. Therefore, in addition to the dish itself, the packaging in which you serve the food is extremely important. French fries packaging and burger packaging or chicken buckets must be sturdy and durable, providing your customers with an enjoyable dining experience.
What sells best in a food truck?
When designing menus for food trucks, it is important to remember one rule above all: only heat processing of food is allowed in food trucks. You cannot cook or do any pre-processing of food in it, such as peeling vegetables or cutting up meat. How to meet sanitary requirements in a food truck? We asked a friendly foodtruck owner, Oliver from Manchester, about this.
“When I was planning to open a food truck and thinking about what food you can cook in a food truck, I came to the conclusion that you can actually serve anything – as long as you have access to a stationary kitchen. You take the semi-prepared products you made in there to the food truck, where you just heat them up and put them together. What to do when we don’t have a kitchen and our only cooking space is a food truck? Food should be bought already in semi-prepared form. You can easily get already chopped chicken, peeled and washed vegetables at any wholesale food store“.
Food truck menu
How do you create an interesting menu for a food truck? As a chicken coating manufacturer, we recommend dishes based on coated chicken pieces. You can use it as a base to make burgers, tortillas, grilled cheese, salads or even waffles. Coated chicken goes well with French fries and sauces, and you can serve it alone or with vegetables, bread and a variety of dips. A varied menu based on one type of dish provides convenience and comfort for the person in charge of making the food and a rich choice for the customer.
Food truck ideas
Here are 7 ideas for a food truck. These food trucks are popular and the dishes served in them are easy and quick to prepare.
- Breaded chicken food truck
- Ice cream food truck
- Pizza oven food truck
- Dumpling food truck
- Sandwiches food truck
- Toastie food truck
- Waffle food truck
Is food truck profitable?
Running a food truck certainly requires lower costs than running a common restaurant. A food truck trailer does not require as much money, both in terms of start-up capital expenditure and in terms of running costs arising from rent or property rental.
“The lower cost of opening the catering business is not the only advantage of running a food truck,” assures Oliver, “running a food truck gives you much more freedom and liberty than running a traditional restaurant. When running a food truck, you can follow the customer – literally and figuratively, meeting their expectations, adapting the menu to the prevailing trends. Taking part in food truck festivals is both a duty and a great pleasure for me”
Food truck – costs
Do you want to open your own food truck but wonder how much it will cost and what costs you need to be prepared for? The purchase of a food truck car and a food truck trailer, including equipment, can range from a dozen to tens of thousands of pounds. It all depends on the standard of equipment you choose. How much did it cost to open Oliver’s food truck?
“The cost of opening the food truck was around £6,000. I opted for a second-hand food truck car and basic equipment. It is important that, when preparing your business plan and cost estimate, you include parking fees (as you will be charged for a space during the event: between between £60 and
£100 per day), concessions, social security, bookkeeping and staff payments. I run a one-person business and can handle simple bookkeeping without any problems. Of course, bookkeeping can be outsourced – in which case this cost should also be included in the cost estimate”
What equipment for a food truck?
The equipment of the food truck will depend on the menu you intend to serve in it. Whatever type of food you’ll be preparing, here’s the equipment worth equipping every food truck with:
- power generating unit or power source
- gastronomic fryer
- waffle maker
- electric grill
- a Salamander grill
- hood
- refrigerating cabinet
- display cabinet
Food truck – permits
There are a number of formalities involved in opening a food truck. Oliver opened a food truck three years ago, but was happy to share his knowledge with us. What do you need to bear in mind?
“Firstly, registering the business, secondly drawing up a technological design of the food truck, depicting the car, trailer and equipment, and thirdly obtaining permits from the Sanitary Inspectorate. Of course, we can also opt for a ready-made concept and avoid all this paperwork. It is also important to be aware of the permits that allow both parking and trading at the site. If you use a deep fryer, look for an oil waste collection company”
Food truck – earnings
How much money can you make running a food truck? The financial success of a mobile catering business is made up of many factors: location, size of your business, menu and quality of food served, but also the ability to promote oneself and establish a social media presence. Oliver confirms that his average earnings reach £3,000.
Food truck – how to get started?
How do you start your food truck adventure? Here’s a list we’ve compiled that is sure to come in handy for anyone planning to open a food truck serving coated chicken!
- Find out if you can’t apply for grants to open your own catering business. Remember that operating a food truck falls under the door-to-door trading law!
- Prepare a business plan in which you include all: investment costs costs.
- Conduct a thorough market analysis: Do research on your competition and the location. Analyse what actions you can take to stand out from your competition.
- Create a menu and an action plan:
- Create a list of events (rallies, music events, concerts, cultural events, sporting events, entertainment) that you would like to attend.
- Register your business.
- Plan the purchase of equipment.
- Stock up on essentials (including marinade and Holly Powder chicken coating!) as well as takeaway packaging and promotional materials to use as both posters and photos for social media. All this can be provided by Holly Powder, a chicken coating manufacturer that supports its customer comprehensively.
- Act on your plan and fulfil your big dream of owning a food truck.
Good luck!
