Telford couple celebrate world food and local produce at new street food stall

At the start of May, Wellington Market welcomed Telford couple Matt Palin and Wioleta Odrakiewicz and their new stall, Odd Pals, to the bustling food court.

Aspiring to provide restaurant-quality street food to their hometown, the couple has created a menu filled with global inspiration, from Philly cheese steaks to Katsu curries and bubble tea to French toast.

While their menu spans the breadth of the globe, their ingredients come from much closer to home.

With 90 per cent of their kitchen stock coming from Wellington Market itself, the pair pride themselves on celebrating the local with fresh ingredients sourced daily.

"The market has almost everything we need," Matt, 29, explained: "We get all of our fruits and vegetables from Top Fruits, Green Cove for most of our herbs and spices and fresh meat from the butchers.

"I wanted to keep it local and give back to the businesses that are in there. It also gives us fresh produce daily and means almost zero wastage because just we get enough for the day.

"We can just run round the corner and get more if we need to, it's really as fresh as can be."

Over the last decade and a half, Matt Palin, 29, has worked his way right up through kitchens across Shropshire.

Starting his journey as a kitchen porter aged 15, his dreams of joining the Marines were shattered when he broke his back in three places.

As a result of his injury, Matt stayed behind the kitchen doors, climbing the ladder from line chef to head chef, and even co-running the Four Crosses in Bicton before its sale in 2020.

Wioleta, 24, has spent her career in hospitality, starting behind the counter at Costa, before taking on a management role at a hotel.

The pair welcomed their first child, River, last year. Matt said: "We were sick of working for other people, we've got a child now and we saw this spot come up and thought it was time we branched out.

"Wellington Market is very up-and-coming, there's been lots of investment. It used to be very run down, it was worn and it had its day. That's changed a lot in the last couple of years. We thought it was a brilliant opportunity for us."

Wioleta added: "I definitely see a big potential in the Market, and hopefully we can be some sort of inspiration to people.

"There's not much of a foodie market in Telford, and I think there's a real potential here for that."

The couple are busy preparing for their first late-night event, which sees thousands of revellers descend on the market once a month for food, drinks and live music.

The stall will see a whole new menu for the event, complete with boozy bubble tea and cocktails.

Wellington's next late-night event is scheduled for this Saturday, May 27. The venue will be open from 5pm to 10pm.