Rory Carron worked in finance for eight years before deciding it was time to pursue his true passion. He bought a food truck and started trading at Killruddery farmers’ market last summer. His main motivation was to get a sense of the food business before heading to Ballymaloe Cookery School in September to study the 12-week certificate course.
He describes the Ballymaloe course as “a pretty transformative experience” and found that he was missing his food truck and the whole market experience. He decided to give it a proper go when he finished the course and has been trading as Mama’s Boy in Herbert Park since March. His food is inspired by his travels to Vietnam, the food culture there and how tiny restaurants and hawkers specialise in one dish. His focus is on bánh mí, a Vietnamese sandwich of sliced meats, pickles and coriander served inside a crispy baguette that has been slathered with mayonnaise and split lengthways, almost like a submarine sandwich. The bánh mi is purported to have first been invented in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, in the 1950s and become a popular street food.