When you first set out into the big wide world of street food, this is one of your big choices. We are currently going through the whole debate again for the Bedford, so here are the two different cooking methods, side by side. You can decide if cooking on gas or electric is better for you.
The main point to note about an electric setup is that it’s easy. Carry on film easy. You buy the equipment and you plug it right in. Once a year you need a PAT test, which costs less than £100.
Gas equipment may be a faff to get organised, but it is cheap to run. Especially compared to an electric setup. If efficiency were sexy, gas equipment would be strutting around topless. A minor consideration for those who do not trade from a large green van: you cannot use it indoors. Technically legislation blah blah blah you can theoretically get round this, but if any organiser tells you this is fine, you need to see some proof.
Cooking on Gas or Electric: The Great Debate
In the Bedford we have both options. A gas setup will be much more labour intensive and will require a whole bunch of safety features: gas shut off valves, extraction and not-setting-fire-to-yourself to name but a few. It is, as I have said before, dangerous stuff. However once you have your gas connected you are free. Not needing power means you can trade anywhere your van can travel, without having to worry about plugging in. This is what we have aimed for so far in the Jabberwocky. The Beast (long may he thunder despite a recent MOT failure) even carries a 1kva generator around with his just in case the need arises. It means we have been able to trade at some fairly random places and be flexible at short notice when things go horribly wrong.
Places we have been that you would struggle to bring a lecky-hungry setup to. Gazebo cooking can happen on gas too.
But as street food becomes more of an industry and more traders arrive on the scene the change has invariably come pounding in. More and more venues are opening their doors to traders, and more and more traders are going for electric setups. This means that as the number of traders increases, so to do the power provisions. Three years ago I would never have considered cooking on electric, because it would have meant shipping a small car’s worth of generator around with us. Now, with power readily available all over the place, it seems terribly viable.
The personal generator has one other noticeable downside: It’s noisy. A silent generator will clock in at around 60-70 decibels. An open frame generator, which is a much cheaper option, ends up around 70-90. The different doesn’t seem huge, but an extra 10 decibels means something is twice as loud. So you need to be looking at a silent generator if you want to hear what your customers are saying.
Not just that, but electricity generation is not nearly as convenient as we are all led to believe, living in houses where it just comes out of the wall. To generate enough power to run a fridge, you need a generator the size of a microwave. For something big enough to run a grill, you need one the size of a small fridge. To run your fryer, bain marie, oven, air conditioning unit and 50″ TV (for the quiet times) you need one that comes on a trailer and is half the size of your unit again.
This does sway the decision back towards gas though. I would hate to be ruled out of an event just because the organisers didn’t have the power to run our gear. To sum up, here is a raunchy little comparison between cooking on gas or electric. Update: We went for gas.
- Cheaper to run
- Faster cooking
- More flexible
- No need for a giant generator or nearby power source
- You only need a tiny amount of electricity (at festivals, for example)
- FIRE!
- Cook Indoors!
- No need to mess around with gas safety
- Less chance of blowing yourself up
- Replacements are easier to find
- If power is supplied at a flat rate to traders, it is actually cheaper than gas
- Lots of power isn’t really feasible because of the generators required.
- Noisy
Hellooooo not sure where to ask this…do you have any experience on how to go about working out what kind of generator might be needed (to hire or buy) I have a coffee van conversion and I don’t know where to start….espresso maker and grinder and fridge…All use power….help?!!!
Hello all, just i quick question: can i have gas and a generator just for a frier together or i’m ogni to pay extras licences?
Thx
Hi Guys,
I’m in the process of setting up my street food stall. We will only be using a salamander grill and possibly a unit for frying(still in the testing stage) so the power usage will be minimal. We will be trading out of a gazebo and could set up anywhere but as we are just starting I would hate to turn down a job because we don’t have the right set up. I think electric would be best but as mentioned I want to work anywhere I can! Any advice?
I am currently using gas burners to fire up my pots on our street food stall. I want to do indoor events but gas indoors I’m seeing is a big NO! What electric equipment can I get to replace the gas burners. I need to fire up 2 Dutch pots with oil in them. Do I need any paperwork to have this Equipement also?
Hi guys
I’m in the process of building my specialty coffee caravan
Are most sites powered or will I need a genarator most of the time?
I have la marzocco linea coffee machine 2500w a grinder 1200w 2000w water boiler and two fridges and also don you know if councils allow a caravan as a catering vehicle in regards to licensees etc
Thanks
Joe
HI everyone
I am in the process of setting up my own catering business from a minim marquee, Blissfully having purchased a combination of gas and electric appliances to ensure I don’t use to much electricity supply at venues, I have now come up across a potential problem after speaking to Calor with having too many gas appliances (4) within a confined area? Its not definite yet but they are suggesting that I might need a manifold? Do you think this is necessary? The appliances are a water boiler/ Bains Marie/ Griddle and 2 ring gas hob (all suitable for indoor use… or so I thought !! I am now worried that this will be then of my business which hasn’t even started yet !!
Any advice and guidance would be most welcome
Hi I’m setting up my stall as well, council don’t provide electricity & not allowing generators at all, sowe’ll have to use gas.1-is gas & LPG same thing or different? If hot water requirement, is there a water boiler on just gas? 3- Do we turn up on market & just plug in our gas to appliances or we need a professional to set them up for us? If so, where could we find them? Thank you
Sam
Hi I’m setting up my stall as well, council don’t provide electricity & not allowing generators at all, sowe’ll have to use gas.1-is gas & LPG same thing or different? If hot water requirement, is there a water boiler on just gas? 3- Do we turn up on market & just plug in our gas to appliances or we need a professional to set them up for us? If so, where could we find them? Thank you
Hoss
Hi
What if I want use charcoal? Is it allowed to use it in a 3x3m gazebo? If so, do you have any tipo how do deal with the smoke, is there any portable appliance?
Thanks,
Felipe
Hi,
I’m in the process of setting up my street food business trading at markets from a 3mx3m gazebo and was wondering that since I will be using gas cylinders (2x19kgs) as I was told by one of the cylinder providers, where do I store them? Im stuck as I have hired a storage space but they dont allow gas cylinders to be stored for health, safety and hazard reasons? Any tips?
Hi Felicity,
Is your 1kw generator LPG powered or do you use petrol? Just trying to figure out the best set up for ourselves.
Thanks. (Great book BTW!)
Hi again! Sorry for my lack of clarity on this, but I can’t seem to find any definitive answers anywhere. Maybe you can help… Like most of the people on this forum, I’m trying to plan exactly how I will power my business. It seems LPG combined with a backup gennie is the way to go. It’s the finer details I’m stuck on. Does each LPG appliance (griddle/Bain Marie/Rice cooker) need its own individual cylinder to run off? Or can you using a connecting hos/pipe run 2 or more appliances off 1 cylinder? It seems a smaller 1KW generator would only be of use for lights etc, and not as a main power source for a bigger cooking appliance? Could you perhaps explain what you use your generator for for example? I’m guessing that the best advice is to try and streamline the gear needed to cook on. Thanks for the help.
Hi I am thinking of thueros bbq Charcoal or wood chips and smoker(charcoal and or wood chip) will I have problems with this at events. I am using a Gazebo to start doing Plant base products. want to give it a fresh smoked flavor without gas or elect. I love bbq with charcoal and want to serve this my customers. Th thueros bbq are catering bbq from Germany and tabletop and would be good so people can see me bbq they food. I have got your book cant wait to sit down and read it..want to be up and running by Aug this year..thanks
[…] the grand decision between gas and electric. We have covered this many times before, most notably here, so read that (and the comments – I’ve added a lot of extra info) and pick wisely. Then […]
I’m still trying to get my head around the Gas precautions – Am I right in saying it’s still allowed to have a gas grill in a food trailer? I’m getting the impression that Gas isn’t allowed, can someone please clear this up for me!
😀
Hi guys,
Market stall newbie here. I’m currently running two standard counter-top electric deep fat fryers for my pop-up stall, though am reliant on the provision of connection to power mains (not ideal for portable trading!).
Therefore, we’re looking to become ‘power independent’. I’ve looked into gas fryers but they all seems to be very heavy duty, and not ideal for transport. It’s got me thinking if a ‘silent’ inverter generator would be more suitable to run our two electric fryers (both 1500kw).
Would you have any tips on what is the best option: gas equipment or generator?
I’m assuming to run two 1500kw fryers (3000kw) total for an extended period of time (up to 8hrs) I may need something like a 4500-5000kw generator? Or is that excessive?
Hello everyone, I’m hoping someone can give me some good advice please.
I’m a full time student, and have bought a Wilkinson Travel Chef, which is pretty much kitted out with griddle, bain marie and pie warmer (all lpg). My current electrical requirements are below 300w.
My dilemma is that I’d like an oven in there to add some variety to the food I intend to serve.
Ideally I’d like an lpg oven ( possibly potato oven) with a minimum of 90L capacity, failing that I would go electric, but would it would need to be around 2000w as my generator at maximum is 2800 and don’t want to run it at maximum for the duration of trading.
My budget for this is £500 and would much prefer something brand new which doesn’t seem to be enough for anything LPG.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Hello
i am a year 11 student from OneSchool Global, doing an internal for school about food trailers.
i was just wondering what would be the best supply to use as in gas or a generator to cook the food.
Hello, for a food truck working outdoors, making burgers and fries, I would presume that gas is better for a fryer and a griddle. I am thinking that I would also need a generator for electrics, lights, music etc. Do you think that this is the best way forward?
Thank you.
I enjoyed the book by the way.
I have planned to switch my gas stove to electic. Thankfully this post explained the benefits of having gas stove over electric one.
Hi, I’m in the process of starting up a mobile catering business but not too sure whether to go with gas or electric…in my trailer I’m thinking of having 2 x crepe maker (3000w each!) a fridge, a freezer, a hot water tank, and some smaller appliances. Also, my car is not very powerful so the lighter the whole weight of trailer would be the better. I’m not even sure who to ask questions like this so any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks 🙂