In March last year, Switzerland-based graphic designers Sasa Noël and Heike Grein published their book Food Truck Kitchen (German language). The cover looked great so I was keen to check it out. I have to admit that I often don’t read much the text in food books because it’s often quite long, but Food Truck Kitchen is entirely different. The texts are short, informative and varied. You’ll find biographies of the people behind the portrayed food trucks, accounts of their inspiring stories of how they came up with the idea of a food truck business, and there are many personal recipes from the food truck owners.
Around the world with 25 trucks
The book contains portraits of 25 Swiss food truck businesses – if you live in Zurich and visit events with food trucks, you will know quite a few of them already; on a short stroll through Bellevue’s Weihnachtsdorf (Christmas market) last month I saw at least five of the portrayed trucks. While the trucks from the book largely operate in Switzerland, their owners and cuisines are an exciting mix from all around the world. You’ll find street food from Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Spain, Bulgaria and many more. Each food truck chapter comes with a short bio and history of the business and its owners and a handful of recipes. Unlike the recipes from other food books I own, the recipes in this one are pleasantly short and easy and motivate to give them a try at home.
Stories and recipes that inspire
There are so many lovely stories of people in this book that made me smile. For example Sami Khouri, owner of the truck Palestine Grill who thinks that there’s enough war in the world already and who would like his food to bring people together instead. One of his dishes is called Friedensplatte (peace platter), a meal for two made with Palestinian and Jewish ingredients. Or Sri Lankan Thileeban who enjoys giving a more public face to his many hard-working fellow-countrymen who work the background of Switzerland’s restaurants. As of recipes, I’ve got a long list of the ones I’d like to try myself. From homemade pita breads to a Lahori beef stew and Iberian churros with a sumptuously dark chocolate sauce.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and will have even more fun trying many of its recipes.
Food Truck Kitchen
Sasa Noël, Heike Grein
AT Verlag
192 pages, language: German
A thank you to the publishing company AT Verlag for kindly sending me a free copy of the book. The ideas are entirely my own.