New Street Food Salon opens platform for pasta takeaway innovation

The International Salon Culinaire expanded its programme on Jan. 15, 2026 by launching a Street Food Salon within HRC 2026 at ExCeL London. The new competition puts chefs in fully equipped mobile street-kitchen units to cook live in front of judges and a public audience, formally recognising the growing commercial and creative importance of mobile and takeaway formats.

Entries opened with a deadline of Feb. 20, 2026. The Street Food Salon will run alongside the broader Salon Culinaire programme, which again features dedicated pizza and pasta sections. For pasta-focused vendors and chefs this is a practical opportunity to translate pantry recipes into serviceable, takeaway-friendly formats and test concepts under pressure in front of trade buyers and consumers.

The format is straightforward: competitors operate from mobile street-kitchen units supplied on-site, preparing dishes to be judged and sampled by attendees. The competition highlights innovation in street food and takeaway dishes, directing attention to how flavour, speed of service, packaging and reheating resilience work together in a high-volume, mobile environment. Judging criteria will centre on those innovations in takeaway-ready food, with panels assessing how well concepts marry culinary technique to the operational realities of street service.

Prizes will be awarded to top performers across the Street Food Salon categories, supplying both recognition within the Salon Culinaire framework and visibility at HRC 2026. Partner organisations involved in the programme support the competition by providing the mobile kitchen infrastructure, audience engagement and links into the wider hospitality and street-food market. Details on entry procedures, categories and exhibit logistics are available now to interested teams planning to compete.

For cooks used to restaurant passes, Street Food Salon competition conditions are a practical stress test. Expect to adapt sauces for transport, rework portioning for grab-and-go trays, and rethink plating for a takeaway rhythm rather than a plated dining pace. This competition is a way to refine those skills in a judged setting and to catch the eye of operators looking to add pasta-led street concepts to festivals, markets and late-night takeaway menus.

What this means for the pasta community is clear: mobile kitchens and takeaway formats are not fringe experiments but legitimate commercial channels. Chefs and vendors who want to enter have until Feb. 20, 2026 to submit; for everyone else, the event is a new place to scout trends, recruit collaborators and see how classic pasta techniques stand up when they have to be saucy, portable and fast.