Petra Barran

Petra Barran is a British entrepreneur and the founder of the London street food collective KERB. In 2005, Barran began her street food career selling chocolate out of an old ice cream van. As of 2019, KERB has five sites across London, which serve more than 10,000 dishes a week.

Early life Barran grew up in Suffolk, where her father was a fishmonger and schoolteacher who also grew and sold herbs, her mother was a teacher of dyslexic children. They lived in converted stables at a large house owned by her grandparents and ate roadkill.

She became interested in food during her childhood and was first introduced to street food at the age of ten in Mexico.

Her first job was in a local tearoom. From 2005 Barran sold chocolates out of an old ice cream van (named Jimmy) that she used to take to markets and events around the United Kingdom. She toured the United Kingdom, exchanging chocolate pudding for a bed for the night. At a small festival that Choc Star was due to appear at, despite Barran having pitched and paid the fees, the festival folded days before it opened. In 2010, whilst on holiday in New York City, Barran decided to study for a master's degree in Urban Studies. She wanted to make cities more interesting through food. That year Barran was selected as one of The Independent Ten People Who Changed The World''. She was part of the University College London Urban Laboratory, which is part of The Bartlett and the Department of Geography.

She has also lived in Africa and Italy. The incubator is a three-month programme, and KERB takes on around 5% of the intakes.

Barran called for Boris Johnson (then Mayor of London) to help people sell street food around London. KERB has several partnerships, including Street Child, supporting mothers in West Africa to set up their own businesses to fund school uniforms and supplies. In 2019 KERB opened a permanent resident at Seven Dials market in London. The site will host 25 vendors and features a cheese conveyor belt. 2015 Evening Standard Most Influential People