From curry goat to onion bhaji burger: Unique stadium food and the stories behind them

The late, great Anthony Bourdain — one of my personal heroes — once said that good food is “very often, even most often, simple food” and one of the best representations of this sentiment is in football. When you attend a match, you are looking for comfort in your food that complements your fandom.

If attending a match can be considered a communal, almost religious experience, then the food served in and around the grounds is the soulful accompaniment. When you eat a tasty dish at a stadium, that day becomes more than just the scoreline. It is an invitation into a culture, a neighborhood, a lifestyle.

The popular social media account FootyScran is a communion of food, an aggregated celebration of different dishes at football clubs, showing thousands of images of delicious options around different grounds all over the world. There is no other description other than the dish, its price and the club that serves it. The word “scran” is defined by “scraps of food,” but there is nothing scrappy about it.

“I started FootyScran two years ago, and I wanted to showcase what foods are available around grounds all over the world,” says Tom Sibley, creator of FootyScran. “I never expected it to reach this many people or go as big as it has but it shows the love for food in football.

“The classic is a pie and a pint, but nowadays there’s chicken wings, curries, roasts. It’s nice to see it’s evolved.

“I think FootyScran has done so well because the correlation between food and football is so massive. For a great amount of people, it’s part of the match day ritual.”

I wanted to explore the relationship between food and football by visiting different grounds — I focused on London and nearby regions — that told unique stories through their dishes. But what I discovered was much more than just the dishes being served. It was about the people behind them.

IN THE SOUTHEAST OF LONDON in East Dulwich, there’s a nonleague club with a historic reputation of practicing inclusivity. Surrounded by local parks where families enjoy a Saturday afternoon, Dulwich Hamlet FC welcomes their fans in a colorful voice. There are rainbows all over the ground, and the words “IN THIS HOUSE WE ARE ALL EQUAL” are painted above the dugouts. Their kit — a bright pink and navy — is emblematic of this message.

The club is 131 years old, born during the last years of Queen Victoria’s reign and between two World Wars. They were known as one of the best amateur football clubs in the country. These days, they welcome a diverse crowd at Champion Hill as they play in the seventh tier of the English football pyramid.

On my visit, it’s all about their gyros. The stall, thanks to a group of Greek chefs and entrepreneurs who created Come and Go Souvlaki, which started in Finsbury Park, serves some of the best gyros I have had. They include chicken and pork gyros served with handmade pita — prepared right in front of you — with tomatoes, red onions, parsley, french fries, homemade sauce, paprika and oregano. There is also a station where souvlaki (meat and vegetable skewers) is made.

“This is our third year here. People love them, it’s always very, very busy,” said Nicholas, a team member and one of the quickest gyro makers I have ever seen. “We’re Greek people, working together for this and it’s going pretty well. The queue is always like this.” He pointed to the mass of people waiting to order.

As it gets closer to kickoff, almost everyone inside the ground is eating one of their gyros. Young families, older folks, students, locals and kids devour them as the Hamlet earns a corner and they chant with excitement.

Dulwich Hamlet’s story revolves around fan support, inclusivity and gyros, while the influence of Greek culture (there are approximately 150,000 Greek nationals in the UK) on the club that’s been around for more than a century showcases the power of multiculturalism when it is both accepted and celebrated.

MY NEXT STOP TAKES me to the Premier League and Luton Town, one of the most inspiring stories in English football.

After suffering a 30-point deduction in 2009 due to financial irregularities, Luton were relegated from the Football League. After multiple attempts and much heartache, they finally returned in 2014 and, from that moment, they never looked back. Now in the Premier League, their Kenilworth Road stadium is one of the most unique, beautiful and quintessentially English grounds in the country. The stadium is literally a step, skip and jump away from local houses around the area, and the away entrances are alongside back gardens. There are only a few more years to enjoy it as the club plans to move to a new stadium by 2026, closer to the town center at Power Court and the train station.

Aside from the stadium and the club itself, another aspect of Luton’s story is their commitment to community-driven projects and the relationships they build with local food businesses.

“We’ve been here a few years now and the club looks after us so well,” said Norman Dorsett, the owner of Norm’s Caribbean Food stand by the entrance doors of Kenilworth Road. “It’s a family community. They look after their locals.”

The club has a direct partnership with Dorsett as part of its food and catering department. His stand offers unique dishes compared to other food vendors at English stadiums. From curry goat and rice, stew chicken to lamb patties with coleslaw and his renowned jerk sauce, the menu is an ode to Dorsett’s roots.

“I was born in Montserrat and I came over when I was nine years old, first lived in Hackney and then eventually moved to Luton,” he said, talking to me in the kitchen while his daughter Tia, son Luke and niece Faye serve the customers. “And Luton is so different. They like all sorts of cuisines. There’s a big Caribbean community, too. And all of us here get on well, and all the different communities love our food!”

The food is so good that Dorsett’s biggest problem is that there’s not enough of it. Away fans who have since heard about Dorsett’s stand want it on their side, too.

“We’re working on it! When the new stadium comes,” affirmed Dorsett. There are other options for fans outside and inside the ground such as burgers, chicken fingers, local beer and french fries. It’s the usual menu to satisfy any palate at the ground, and it’s all tasty, but the most appetizing aromas are the ones from Norm’s Caribbean paradise.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CLUBS and their vendors are not always about making a profit by providing a unique service. Sometimes, there is also a mission behind it. The best possible example is Enfield Town, the first fan-owned club in the country.

Enfield is a vibrant community and a 20-minute train ride heading north from London. Their history is borne out of rebellion and a wish to do better. After a period of disarray with the original Enfield F.C, the Supporters’ Trust decided to break away in 2001 and form their own team. Nowadays, they play alongside Dulwich Hamlet in the Isthmian League Premier Division.

“Part of our philosophy is [helping] our community,” said Geoff Lee, one of the club’s directors and treasurer. “Where for example on a Saturday morning we work with youth training and our disability squad, we also work with the pupil referral unit [an alternative educational provision for children who can’t attend school] and walking football for older people. And you know, quite a range of different things.”

The food is also part of this mission, as last summer the club formed a partnership with Cooking Champions, a food-focused social organization that promotes healthy eating as well as providing meals for those less fortunate. In fact, they are the only dedicated community kitchen in the borough and provide free meals for the community. Last year, they distributed over 6,000 parcels of food, including during Christmas time, when the club’s manager Gavin MacPherson and one of his players, Jonathan Hippolyte, joined to help.

“It’s been a real eye-opener in terms of what Cooking Champions do and how far it extends in terms of feeding people in the local community,” said the manager via their website. “For me, it’s been an education. There’s obviously a close association between the football club and Cooking Champions and it was an absolute pleasure to be there, quite humbling in some respects.”

As a result, Cooking Champions are in charge of the food at the ground, and it’s been a successful relationship. But how about the food itself? Well, it’s delicious. On my visit, Cooking Champions’ CEO Clare Donovan served me a classic steak pie with creamy mashed potatoes, peas and onion gravy. It was the quintessential English football dish on a cold Saturday, and it was made with perfection.

“We also make sure that that we can source local ingredients, work with local suppliers and we have what you would call a typical football match menu,” said Donovan, who also hires local people, especially young people looking for work, and helping them on an apprenticeship of sorts. “But we also try to do weekly specials, we do a curry night for example — and recently we played a Danish team and we had meatballs, Danish hotdogs and a few other little treats.

“Food is at the heart of everything we do … it’s our passion and what drives us every single day. It’s a connection and everyone has an opinion on food, it’s a talking point. Food brings people together just like the club does and it’s very special place to be.”

I RETURN TO SOUTH LONDON for my last stop at Charlton Athletic and The Valley stadium, which has been their home for more than a century.

I remember the glory years under Alan Curbishley, from 1999 until 2007. He was head coach for 15 years and as a former player and manager, he is adored by the club who named a stand after him.

The Addicks now play in League One and, while their heydays are a distant memory, their fanbase and community remain as passionate as ever. In the mid-1980s, due to financial instability, they were nearly dissolved. They also had to leave The Valley through these years, but little by little, thanks to the supporters who helped rebuild the stadium — literally and figuratively — the club returned to their home.

It’s this kind of passion that kicks around today despite the struggles on the pitch (Charlton are currently 16th in League One) and several projects illustrate that connection between club and community. One example is the the club’s Upbeats program, an initiative from the community trust for children and adults with Down’s syndrome.

According to the trust, more than 170 young people are registered with 40 regular attendees every week. There’s a team that plays in the Kent Adult Disability League and became league champions in their debut season. They have also been crowned national Down syndrome champions nine times. On match days for the first team, they have their own food stand where they sell dishes including the magnificent onion bhaji burger.

As part of the Upbeats program, club chef Marc Crawford and his kitchen team formed a group with some of the Upbeats members halfway through the 2021-22 season, and what followed was an instant hit.

“We tried to make something new for the menu,” said Crawford, talking to me behind the counter as fans ordered drinks and food before a Tuesday night game against Northampton Town. “They wanted a burger but we also needed something that was vegan-friendly so we ended up coming up with the onion bhaji.”

After a few culinary tests, supporters couldn’t get enough. The Upbeats team also had their own stand to sell the burger, but the problem was that it was only served on one side of the stadium while word spread about how good it was.

As a result, since the beginning of the 2022-23 season, the club decided to serve it at every stand in the stadium. And let me tell you something: It is incredible. The onion bhaji is the clear protagonist; made from waste knot onions — onions that been harvested despite not being perfect, in order to support local farmers — it’s also crowned with homemade coleslaw (produced on site), fresh coriander, spices, vegan mayo and mango puree, served between two vegan brioche buns. It’s a breathtaking burger, and the fact that it’s plant-based is even better.

Charlton exemplifies the power of food and how the inception of a community-based project between the club and Down syndrome youth allowed for unity and culinary innovation.

All these stories show how — in the words of Bourdain — “sharing a meal with someone tells us a lot about who they are.” When it comes to these football clubs, their food gives us insight into their identity: proud, local communities that are not just hoping to celebrate a victory on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. They’re also hoping to connect.