Phat Pasty at 20 - Part 1
How Phat Began – From a Kitchen Table and a Converted Campervan
This is the first part of our Phat Pasty story - how it all began from a kitchen table, a converted campervan and a big belief in hand-made Cornish pasties. Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more chapters from the last 20 years, telling the story of the people, moments and ideas that shaped Phat into what it is today.
Twenty years ago, The Phat Pasty Company started with a simple idea: to bring authentic pasties, handmade in Cornwall, to our local community and businesses.
What followed was months of planning, dreaming and plenty of conversations around the kitchen table. From the very start, we knew what mattered — using our own unique recipes, being handmade in Cornwall, and using the very best British ingredients. Our aim was to create pasties and savouries that stayed true to Cornish heritage, but with a modern twist.
At the time, Cornwall itself was changing. It was becoming the destination for seaside holidays, replacing the cheap package deals of the 1990s. Surf culture, local food and a growing pride in Cornwall were all part of that shift — and we wanted Phat to reflect this modern Cornwall.
So, we converted a campervan-style vehicle inspired by a classic split-screen camper. Phatty 1 was painted in a bold two-tone red, complete with a surfboard on the roof. It was fun, eye-catching and unmistakably Cornish.
Around the same time, our daughter Emma - just 15 years old, came up with the name ‘Phat’.
The name came from surfer slang meaning sexy and cool, with the acronym Pretty, Hot And Tempting perfectly describing our hand-crimped Traditional Cornish pasties.
With a bold logo painted down the side of the Phat Van, along with matching packaging and uniforms, everything about the business reinforced a surfer-inspired, modern Cornish look and feel….we didn’t know it at the time, but this was also the start of the ‘Street Food’ and using converted vans as a new food revolution!
Then came launch day.
On a cold January morning in 2006, working from our converted garage and kitchen table, we set off in Phatty 1 to visit local offices and businesses. With an oven full of pasties, we were sold out by 11am on that very first day.
The claxon horn announced the arrival of the quirky little van, and curious customers spilled out of offices and industrial estates to see what was going on.
Each day, the numbers grew. By Thursday of that first week over 40 stops were added, we knew something special was happening. The popularity of pasties was about to change the idea of the traditional sandwich van and the daily lunchtime snack.
Word spread quickly, and before long we had a growing list of businesses asking for a daily visit. Within a week, a second Phat Van was on order, this time in a lovely ‘baby blue’ - and what started at a kitchen table was already gathering momentum.
This was only the beginning.
In the next part of our story, we’ll share how Phat grew from one van into something much bigger - the challenges we didn’t see coming, the risks we took, and the moments that nearly stopped us in our tracks. Now supplying some of the countries larges caterers, restaurants, cafes and pubs, the Phat journey had begun.
The Phat Team