The popular Kenilworth street food business 'Meat Meets Bun' has celebrated its first anniversary.

Chris Hardy launched the pop-up burger joint in April 2021 shortly after quitting his job as an engineer at Rolls Royce.

Having worked in hospitality after leaving school, Chris then lost his appetite for working with food, but it was launching his own food blog that rekindled his desire to work with food again.

"I left school and went straight into working with food, from pot wash all the way to becoming head chef at a few places," he said.

"I fell out of love with the kitchen and so I started working for Rolls Royce aerospace which was obviously a bit of a career change!

"While I was there I started the 'Fat Foodie UK' which is my food blogger page.

"I always knew I wanted to get back into it but I just didn't know how."

Chris then took the plunge to leave his job during the pandemic and started working at Libertine Burger in Leamington Spa before going solo and launching Meat Meets Bun a year ago.

From there he took his first pitch at Zumhof in Digbeth and now takes his popular burgers around the country to events and food festivals.

Keeping things simple

Whilst writing for The Fat Foodie Chris started visiting independent street food businesses across the UK and now brands himself as "a bit of a burger snob".

Having sampled burgers of all types he said he was clear in what he wanted to do with Meat Meets Bun.

"I have always loved a burger, and I think everybody does really.

"The issue I have always had is that I was having burgers from chain restaurants where they come in frozen, are cooked to within an inch of their life and are all dry.

"But it had also got to that stage where people were taking burgers that little bit too far and the concept with Meat Meets Bun is taking it all back to what the burger should be about and that is the beef."

Having sampled ingredients from a variety of sources Chris settled on using aged beef from supplier Meet Matters.

"When I first started I contacted loads of incredible meat suppliers up and down the country but I wanted a 50-day aged patty," he added.

"I wanted to be able to taste the difference, that mature flavour in the beef and I wanted that to shine through.

"I tried Meet Matters and from the first patty I knew they were who I was going to use. With the meat being ex-dairy, it's such a different flavour of beef. Its more buttery, you can just taste it."

A year of success

Having now celebrated his first year since going solo Chris was able to reflect on what he had achieved.

"I feel very proud. We have had our ups and our downs as many businesses do within the first 12 months, but I think we have found a really good rhythm.

"We have just joined Digbeth Dinning Club who are obviously known throughout the country. We are just getting the ball rolling now and we have some great events coming up.

"There are a lot of exciting things in the pipeline that I can't talk about yet, but watch this space."

And Chris, who lives on Dalehouse Lane with his wife and two children, said the support of people in Kenilworth has been invaluable from the start.

"The good thing about Kenilworth is that people always turn up for us," he said.

"I feel like I have a good reputation for Meat Meets Bun and what we deliver in Kenilworth that every time we pop up the numbers get bigger and bigger."

And if you have not had chance to sample Meet Meats Bun, make sure you catch it at Kenilworth Food Festival on July 24.