The Change-Over...

So the day has finally arrived. After many amazing sounding applicants for job of Choc Star manager, I came upon this pair. Presenting: Shrimp & Ben!

Both were wilting in their office jobs and longing to get to grips with the Choc Star world. It's really physical, LONG hours, no weekends off, I kept telling them. We're so ready, they said. We want to get stuck in!

Until I starting putting the word out there for a replacement so I could get on and pursue other things, there was one thing about doing Choc Star that had never occurred to me. Yes, it's knackering, yes, you've got to be really on it to do it and yes, you are working while most other people are playing. But there is one thing that has never happened to me once in the van - and that is grappling with the desire for the clock to hurry up until home time. It just isn't like that. The rhythm is different all the time, the punters are often different and the day passes in a blur of nice chats, chocolate offerings, neon lights and music.

I'll miss this. But I'm truly excited that while I am ready to move on, two others are ready to step in. Shrimp and Ben are a delight already - do stop by and say hello if you're near.

Jimmy will be on the Southbank as part of the street food section of the Real Food Market by the Royal Festival Hall, Fridays-Sundays most weekends (but check the blog for more specific details).

Hope to see some of you there at some point - we're under the new industrial commemorative staircase, down form the Hayward Gallery.

For now, here are a few snaps of what we've been up to lately (apologies for the yawning gap between posts - life has been mental).

Book launch of Richard Johnson's Street Food Revolution - this old boy was a devil for the choc!

Cast and crew for Ridley Scott's prequel to Alien. Charlize Theron wanted to give them all a treat so we hot-footed it over to Pinewood. (Sadly no pics of CT scooping in the van).

A wedding in Somerset - this guest loved Jimmy so much he was behind that counter faster than all hell. I hit the dance floor while I had the chance....

Some of my Friday regulars on the Southbank. These two are hilarious and demons for the shakes.

Under the new stairs for the Festival of Britain celebrations. It's becoming a real chow and hang zone...

Another wedding down in the countryside. We take in large lungfuls of sweet, balmy air while we can - suck it up and save it for London.

Two of our most regular customers - Anne and Manny. She likes cupcakes, he likes death metal. Always a pleasure to see.

By the bandstand for the Royal Street Food Festival that eat.st showed out for. Great group of traders, we had a ball.


Another choc fiend...

And here is Jimmy nuzzling up to The Rye as part of the #16days event that eat.st and The Meatwagon put on. Peckham, we love you!


More soon. Enjoy the sun y'all!

January Weddings

January has been the month of weddings. We've traveled down snowy lanes and through landscaped parkland, along the old faithful M4 Corridor and into winter wonderlands - all to bring warmth and joy via the exultant medium of hot chocolate. Often with rum. OK, it's been the coldest winter in 13 years so almost always with rum.

And we've discovered that Jimmy likes getting out of snow more than he does getting out of mud. No tow-bar action for this little snow monkey!

Phoebe's wedding in the 'burbs

My cousin Phoebe got married to her long term boyfriend, Dom, at the weekend. He's a massive chocolate fan and has been a big advocate of the Choc Star cause since the beginning. They insisted that only the choc-mobile would do as dessert. Knowing how our family is I suggested also laying on a large supply of chocolate martini shots - they really got things jumping. Everyone kept insisting that I let the waiters run the show so I could enjoy the party but there was no way I was going to let that bunch of pubescents loose in Jimmy - I enlisted the help of Belli and Bendy inside and had Beps set up a bar on Gennie from the Box out back. Before long the marquee was depleted and the van was fairly rocking with activity....as ever the Choc Star magic did the trick and I actually kinda liked having access to all the backstage gossip with the caterers.

Alex & Maurice get hitched.

Who knew that a mere five miles from the M25 lies some of the most beautiful countryside I've seen on the whole trip? Beps and I were racing through the lanes down by Edenbridge, trying to find the wedding of Alex and Maurice when we were pounced upon by a dingly dell of an area of Kent that cried H.E Bates like a skylark.

It was a really fun wedding with good people - all of whom seemed to love their chocolate...especially the chocolate martini shots. While Vee and I toiled away in the van, Beps set up shop on the stainless steel 'bar' (i.e. Gennie from the Box), pouring out those powerful little suckers to a constant stream of thirsty guests.