Parked outside St Mark’s Church in Kennington is a black street food truck, adorned with gold writing and two picnic benches plopped in front of it. This is the home of Bokit’la, a trailblazing street food business bringing French-Caribbean cuisine to the capital.
Established by brothers Nico and Thierry Baptiste 13 years ago, Bokit’la has been flogging traditional Guadeloupean street food to hungry customers at markets across London. The business has built up a loyal customer base, accumulating an impressive 40,000 followers on Instagram.
The name of the business derives from bokit, a staple Guadeloupean sandwich consisting of deep-fried dough, spicy sauce, and pretty much whatever toppings you like. Nico and Thierry swear by their chicken bokit - freshly baked dough slathered with their mother’s fresh chilli sauce, and stuffed with chicken, plantain, avocado, and spiced tomato salad. Thierry assures me, “this one is a banger”.
Bokit’la is one of the food stands featured in the Standard’s new video series Street Food Stories. It looks at the lives and businesses of immigrants who have moved to London and diversified the capital’s food scene.
Upon settling in the capital over two decades ago, the brothers said they noticed a gap in the market for authentic French-Caribbean food as nowhere really seemed to be selling it.
“Observing the influence of the food in London, it's really pretty big and there's a lot of types of food all across the board”, Nico reflects. “We were thinking, you are actually missing something, which is us, the French-Caribbean cuisine. We feel like it should be added and it should be a winner too because if others can make it, we can make it too.”
Bokit’la is very much a family-run business, with siblings and parents all chipping in in some way. Nico says they are “lucky and blessed” to have such a strong bond and to all get along so well. He did note that it can, of course, come with challenges, but overall they wouldn't have it any other way.
“Communication is about everything, right,” explains Thierry. “You can argue, you can laugh, but at least we never hold something [in].”
Nico chimes in, “everything is out on the table. We know that the end game is to go forward basically. So regardless of what happened, we need to move forward, to go through the issues.”
Looking toward the future, Nico and Thierry have their sights set high for Bokit’la.
“End game is for us to be worldwide, all across the world, and to share what we've been sharing now to the UK, to everybody else as well. We’ve got plenty in the works but the end game is for us to be worldwide.”
