WHEN Emma Moran moved to London 12 years ago, she didn’t realise she was planting the seeds for what would become a haven for Irish expats and curious Londoners.
Emerald Eats, the nostalgia-fuelled food venture, has quickly gained popularity because it brings a slice of Ireland’s beloved deli culture to the streets of London, one chicken fillet roll at a time.
“I’m from Dublin,” Moran said, recounting the winding road that led her to start Emerald Eats. “When I finished college, I lived in Whistler for a year, then lived in New York for a year. Then I went back to Dublin, but there were no jobs at the time, so I decided to move to London.”
Moran settled into corporate life in Britain, working in national account management for various wineries and a gin distillery. But something kept pulling at her. “I just thought I really wanted to do something for myself,”.
The idea for Emerald Eats was born out of a noticeable gap in the London food scene. “In Ireland every deli shop, every petrol station, every newsagent, every shop at home has a fresh deli counter where you can get chicken fillet rolls and just any type of sandwich made to order, and they are amazing,” Moran explained. “When we were over here, we’d always talk about the fact that you couldn’t get them.”
The realisation hit her again during a work event at the London Irish Centre in Camden. “The staff were talking about how the one thing you couldn’t get in London was a chicken fillet roll. I was like, Oh, we’re all saying it. It felt really obvious.”
With encouragement from family, especially memories of The Coconut, a shop in Dublin run by her aunt, uncle, and cousins, Moran finally took the plunge. “I’d spent so long thinking about it,” she said. “I stayed in my other job for a year after I started.”
“I basically just started cycling around to different council offices, trying to see if I could get a spot for weekends. Hackney Council gave me a spot on Broadway Market on Sundays. So we just set up a little stall, and yeah, that was kind of it.”
From market stall to festival food truck (Photo by Emerald Eats)From that humble beginning a year and a half ago, Emerald Eats has grown fast. “Even over the last couple of months, it’s evolved so much,” she said. “We used to just be a stall, then we were doing a gazebo, and then I bought a food truck last summer.”
That truck has since rolled into some of Britain’s biggest events. “We did Cheltenham in March, which was incredible. Then we’re doing Formula One in a couple of weeks. We started doing different football matches too – we did Chelsea Football Club.”
Not content to stop there, Moran also launched an indoor catering menu, tailored to office environments where frying isn’t an option. “Our winter menu is a slow-cooked lamb stew with homemade soda bread. We’ve got a summer indoor menu of pulled spice bag chicken with different kinds of salad.”
Despite the expansions and event bookings, the classics remain the cornerstone. “The chicken fillet roll does very well, and we also do a spice bag as well,” Moran said. “It seems to have taken off.”
The name "Emerald Eats" came to her in a flash of inspiration. “I just remember waking up the next day and I had it written on a napkin.”
Looking to the future, Moran is cautiously optimistic. “My hope would be for this summer to be really good, and then maybe have a bigger truck and a larger trailer so that you're able to serve more people. I’d love to do Glastonbury—that would be incredible.”
For many Irish Londoners, Emerald Eats also serves a slice of home. And for Emma Moran, it’s the realisation of a long-held dream, one made with soda bread, slow-cooked lamb, and of course, the famous chicken fillet roll.
See More: Emerald Eats, Emma Moran, Irish Cuisine, London
