New food hall will not serve 'bland' cuisine

Cambridge Street Collective food hall in Sheffield features mostly local vendors

The majority of trading spots at an "authentic" new food hall in Sheffield city centre have been taken by local vendors.

Cambridge Street Collective has 20 different street food concessions and a theatrical cookery school with live demonstrations and masterclasses.

The city council said 85% of the vendors that will occupy the space, which opens later, were from Sheffield.

Councillor Ben Miskell, chairman of the regeneration committee, said: “What I’m really excited about is that these businesses have been given an opportunity... to open up in a venue like this."

Ushma Adhikari works at Hungry Buddha

The food hall is set over three floors on the corner of Cambridge Street and Wellington Street.

Its operators, Blend Family, already run Cutlery Works in Sheffield and similar ventures in Manchester and Liverpool.

'Traditional, authentic cooking'

Spokesman Matt Bigland said: “It took time to curate the perfect selection of kitchens. We’ve never wanted bland or deep-fried food, we always wanted Granny’s best recipes.

“The diversity in the city centre is different to what it used to be, there is a huge Asian market. Sheffield is multi-cultural and everyone gets along, but when it comes to food, the city still plays it safe.

“We want to bridge the gap and allow people to come in to try new things and we also want the food hall to be a platform for new talent.”

Hungry Buddha, which has operated a Nepalese food stall in the Moor Markets for eight years, will open its second venue at the food hall.

Staff member Ushma Adhikari said: “The idea is to have a sense of community, as when we came to the UK we missed that community, the flavour and the tastes. We try to connect with people who moved here and want to have the same food as at home.”

The food hall is part of a £470m scheme to transform Sheffield city centre with shops, offices, restaurants and bars, entertainment venues and a boutique hotel.