SINGAPORE — The inaugural World Street Food Congress concluded in Singapore yesterday (June 9). The 10-day feasting jamboree, which kicked off on 31 May, was hosted by Singapore’s Makansutra under the leadership of KF Seetoh, and saw 37 stalls from different parts of the world come together at the Formula 1 Pit Building to celebrate street food culture. The variety of food on offer allowed visitors the opportunity to experience street food from around the world.

Some major names from the global F&B industry attended, taking part in a two-day dialogue session from 3 to 4 June. Speakers included Managing Editor and co-owner of Food Carts Portland Brett Burmeister, Co-Owner of world-famous Danish restaurant Noma Claus Meyer, Editor-In-Chief of Saveur James Oseland, Iron Chef Thailand Ian Kittichai, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdainas, not to mention numerous Singaporean spokespersons such as Ex- Director General of Public Health in Singapore Daniel Wang.

During the two-day dialogue sessions, discussions included how to encourage Singaporean youths to continue family traditions in the hawker industry in face of the current lack of interest; how sharing ideas between different food cultures is important to encouraging global gastronomic and entrepreneurial innovation in the street food industry globally; how some countries face a lack of government initiatives that target the preservation of street food — and what this could mean in the congress’ mission to conserve culinary heritage.

The event culminated in an awards ceremony on 9 June to honour street food excellence. The awards aimed to promote skills development and stimulate entrepreneurism and self-employment opportunities, while also celebrating new menus and culinary innovation.

Speaking to organizer KF Seetoh today, he shared: “The response by the public and the media has been phenomenal and we estimate that around 80,000 people attended the event. We have received a lot of feedback from the public. We realized that this year’s location was not wholly convenient, so we will take this into consideration and look at additional services such as shuttle buses to allow for added convenience for visitors in 2014.” Seetoh also mentioned that they have already had requests from private and government organisations in the region with interests in becoming involved – offering new location possibilities for the event in the future.

While there was some criticism regarding the lack of representation of African and Middle Eastern countries at this year’s event, Seetoh is optimistic that this will change since the inaugural congress has generated such positive responses. “I have already been approached by a government representative of Rwanda with an expression of interest in next year’s event. Unfortunately we can’t personally champion specific countries’ food cultures, but we can encourage countries that weren’t present this year to get in touch to participate in next year’s event,” he said.

The winners of the World Street Food Awards will be announced later this week.