StrEATFood Awards winner interview

Streat Food Dish of the Year winner, Eliot Hilton, Houston and Hawkes

Congratulations on your win, you must be delighted! Can you please tell us about your winning dish and how you came up with it…
“I got engaged in Lanzarote recently and I had some baby squid bao buns. So I took inspiration from that.

“About a week after I got back from holiday, my director of food said, ‘Do you want to enter a street food competition?’ So I came up with this dish and I thought the squid ink bao buns would be a good twist

“I filled them with Szechuan squid, some pickled vegetables and XO sauce… and that’s how I came up with it.”

How have you found the event?
“I’ve loved it, it’s the first one that I’ve competed in. I was so, so nervous before I started – I cannot tell you how nervous I was! – but I enjoyed it so much.

“Dean, my sous chef, said to me, ‘Mate, it’s what you do every day. Just enjoy it – once you get out there, you know what you’re doing’. So I just did what I had to do and I somehow ended up winning.”

I think I know the answer this one then, were you expecting to win?
“Hell no! I was not expecting to win at all, not one bit. I gave my all, I did my best, so to get this… I’m blown away.”

How did it feel when your name was read out then?
“It was unbelievable. I mean, when I came off the stage I was crying.”

So, you got engaged on holiday and now this… do you want to say this was better?!
“[Laughs] I can’t say that, my fiancé is here with me! I’ll say it was a close second.”

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