FOOD& | HETTY MCKINNON, ARTHUR STREET KITCHEN

Hetty McKinnon is going stateside. Three-and-a-half years after establishing the highly successful Arthur Street Kitchen (ASK), she’s moving it to Brooklyn and taking her delicious recipes, creative food concept, and delivery bike with her.

Hetty first launched Arthur Street Kitchen from her home in Surry Hills, Sydney, in 2011. “A local kitchen for local people” is how she describes the lunchtime service that saw her creating fresh healthy salads and delivering them to locals on bike.

The kitchen was in Hetty’s home with her preparing weekly menus, taking inspiration from her mother’s Cantonese kitchen, extensive travels, and the different flavours and textures of seasonal vegetables.

Very much a one-woman show, she delivered her orders on Thursdays and Fridays with her menus being sent on Wednesdays by email. Come rain or shine, each order was delivered on bike, with Hetty frequently making multiple trips between her home and local businesses. From sourcing local food to delivering it in person, community was at the heart of her kitchen and local businesses, neighbours and families couldn’t get enough.

Within six months of starting, the kitchen was selling out — some days in ten minutes. “People were really connecting to the food and that’s because the person making the food was also delivering it.” Such was its popularity that she limited orders to sixty a week, resisting lucrative offers to deliver to Sydney’s central business district. She wanted to keep things small and local.

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