To hear Kevin Pyke talking about street food is to hear someone talking about soul, to hear someone talking about soulfulness. Street food, for Mr Pyke, isn't just a way of cooking. Instead, it is a calling, a way to get the best food to the customer in the best possible way.
He discovered his street food on travels through South East Asia, in India, in Indonesia, and had that epiphanous moment when an 80-year-old Asian lady cooked soft-shell crab for him, sitting on the street. He had found that “street food is the heartbeat of the city.” He has been chasing that heartbeat ever since.
Mind you, he didn't settle on it at first, for on his return to Derry he found himself running the kitchen at Watts & Co, where he fashioned an excellent reputation. But the heartbeat was beating in his ears, and he began to look at how to get his food straight from farm to van to customer. He latched onto an old British Leyland Van, spent half nuthin' converting it, and...
Today, it means that if you stroll down to Queens Quay, hard by the River Foyle, you will find Pyke ‘n’ Pommes, and you will have found the food truck of your dreams. You make your mind up, place your order – The Codfather; the Notorious P.I.G; the Legenderry Burger – you sit on a bench or you sit in your car and eat it, and you ask yourself: how on earth can this food, which has been finished in an old British Leyland truck parked beside a river, possibly be so good? For Mr Pyke cooks restaurant quality food, cutting-edge food, magnificent food. The sourcing is superlative – he only buys from the best – and the finishing does more than justice to impeccable ingredients. Pyke ‘n’ Pommes makes it worth the trip to Derry just to eat this inspiring food.
“It’s a bit of theatre, having a bit of crack. That’s what makes it work”, says Mr Pyke, but there's more to it than that. What makes it work is Mr Pyke's passionate conviction, as well as his impeccable sourcing and his razor-sharp cooking skills. He has caught the heartbeat of food.