Food Truck Race–Mother Truckin’

Hi!  Ready for some exciting food truck shenanigans?  Some gourmet antics?  Some financial escapades?  Food.  Truck.  Race.  What’s not to like?

Oh, hell yeah…

The Great Food Truck Race 2 kicked off in fabulous fashion with the starting point in Malibu.  Everyone parks their vehicles and goes running toward Tyler Florence like long lost lovers at the end of the war that separated them.  Tyler tells the 8 trucks the prize this year is even higher—a whopping $100,000!  That is a big increase from last year’s paltry $50,000.00 which went (not without controversy, naturally) to Grill ‘Em All, edging out the highly successful Nom Nom truck.  Will there be controversy this year?  Rivalries?  Hair pulling and scratch marks?  Pain and suffering?  You see, The Great Food Truck Race is more about running a business and making money than the actual food.  In fact, right now there are really too many teams to get to know to even get into what their food actually tastes like.  The goal of the game is pretty simple:  Tyler tells them what city to head to and they have a certain time period to sell the most food (make the most money).  He’ll give each team seed money and it is up to them to drive to the city, buy the supplies and find a place to sell their stuff.  They are on their own.  They do, however, have to keep their cell phones on because you never know when Tyler is going to call ‘em up with some kind of jacked up twist.

Be afraid of the phone.  Be very, very afraid…

So, we all good on the basic rules?  Cool.  Before Tyler tells the teams where we’re all heading, we get little team vignettes to give us a quick look at what we’re in for this season.  Roxy’s Grilled Cheese are two brothers who are failed musicians and their actual chef’s name is Marc.  He tells us he does some confitting.  Yes, he really made up that word.  So the next time you are making duck confit (which if you’re like me is constantly), remind yourself you are confitting.

After confitting, I’m going to get all braisable.

Seabirds are the gourmet vegans and Hodge Podge is from Cleveland.  The Lime Truck is the team with the lime colored headbands, so they’re easy to remember.  And also?  They are completely cocky.  But based on the reviews of their food, there cockiness may be very well deserved.  Sky’s Gourmet Tacos boasts Mexican food with a splash of soul, which sounds delicious, but the only thing to note about this team initially is that they are screamers.  Café con Leche is the team who wears the hats.  They serve Cuban style food.  Devilicious is an engaged couple and their friend.  That is almost all that we see of them this entire episode.

Hi, this is us.  You might see us in the next episode.  Or we’ll be just as boring as hell again next week.

Korilla BBQ are Columbia graduates who have found the job market too tough right now, so this is what they’re doing instead.  They feel like they can outsmart all of the other trucks.  Okay, but you might want to try and outsmart the actual people inside the trucks, okay???

Nothing personal…

After Tyler tells the group about the new prize money and reminds them and us, each truck has only condiments and spices—so their seed money has to buy ALL the food, he announces the first city—Viva Las Vegas!!!  And off they go…Oh, good grief,

TEN AND TWO, TEN AND TWO!!

Show’s over

Just kidding!  Okay, so Café con Leche (Hat Team) immediately decides to park on the Vegas Strip because that is where all the people are.  Devilicious knows that the Strip is not an option, because you can’t actually park there.

Which is why they don’t actually sell these girls through a window

So we know right away that Hat Team is going to be in trouble.  But wait!  Sky’s Gourmet Tacos’ tire just blew and they have to get it repaired out of their ingredient money.  This  drama queen immediately starts freaking.

Now it is going to be Sky’s Cheap-Ass Tacos…aaaughh!!!

Roxy’s Grilled Cheese has absolutely no plan, while we see that Korilla is going to partner up with a food truck they know in the Vegas area.  The Lime Truck is also going to partner up with a local food truck to share in customers.  At first I thought this was a pretty silly idea for the local food trucks, but then I realize—hey, it is reality TV!  Everyone could use some more publicity, so smart move on all sides.  Clap, clap.  After a montage of the teams buying their ingredients we discover the Hat Team has discovered the Strip is not the right place and they actually a find a festival to go set up shop.  Korilla meets up with their contacts in Chinatown and also get started.

Roxy’s is downtown and there is absolutely no foot traffic, so they’re in big trouble.

The marketing plan should probably not include the word “Apocalypse”.

Sky’s not-gourmet-anymore Tacos is way behind.  They were supposed to be at a fundraiser, but because of the delay the fundraiser is over and there is no one in the area.  Barbara takes some more time to bitch to us, but she’s not really part of the solution, now is she?  Her much more helpful teammate finds another food truck and they follow them.  The Hat Team’s strategy is to give out shots of fine Cuban coffee to drum up food business.  Meanwhile what is really brewing is a heated rivalry between the Lime Truck and Roxy’s.  We join them on Day Two and Roxy’s has decided to park right next to the Limeys and that sparks a lot of tension.   So, those teams almost come to blows, but things settle down and they both start doing business.  After Roxy’s calls them the Slime Truck, naturally, because they are twelve.  Hey, let’s join Hodge Podge who pulled up in front of a hugely crowded church!  It seemed like a good idea, but as church let out, Chef Hodge gets frustrated that everyone is just walking by.

Sorry, thanks… all filled up on communion

Chef Hodge starts wheeling and dealing (“I’ll feed all 4 of you for $12.00!!!”).  Yum.  That’s really selling the food.  I mean, it doesn’t look like these people are starving and are just pining for a cheap way to fill their kids’ bellies.  Some random food blogger calls them and tells them to head to Chinatown.  We then see Korilla BBQ doing well in Chinatown and then Sky’s Tacos shows up and they start selling.  Team Hats finds a flea market and Maria goes in front of the microphone to talk about their cuisine.  She is advised not to call it Cuban, but Latin.  Because Cuban food might confuse people.  But even that doesn’t illicit a big response.

*(Non-Cuban) crickets*

Okay, okay…that wasn’t the real flea market.  And with just a few hours left in the selling time window, the phone rings.  Dun, dun, dun….

Why haven’t you checked the children?

He announces to the teams they are going to experience a speed bump, but since this is Las Vegas, the actual challenge will be left up to chance.  He spins a wheel while on the phone with the teams and it lands on “No Propane”.  Thank goodness it didn’t land on , “Kill and Dismember, then sell one of your teammates as part of a tasty eggroll”.  But that would be an awesome show.  So all of the trucks have to turn off their propane tanks.  Jacquelyn from Hodge Podge gets all excited and thinks they can deep fry everything!  Sure, she’s kind of a dummy for not realizing you would still need propane to use the fryers, but man oh man does Chef Hodge really jump her on that.  So, we now have a villain.  He patronizingly describes how they’re going to sell salad as she just rolls her eyes…

The Lime truck and Roxy’s truck seem to do okay with the twist because they have butane (Lime) and a foreman-type grill (Roxy’s).  But not the advantage that the Seabirds have because they have…wait for it…a raw chef on their team!  WTH?  I’m sure her food is pretty and tasty, but wow.  I guess I’m just much more of a hot food fan then, “Wow—look at these amazing carrot sticks!”  The Korilla truck and the Cuban truck both use other trucks’ equipment, which does that seem fair?  The Taco truck still has some heat on their grill, so they’re still turning out food.  And then this happens:

You know she has total celery breath.

And it is elimination time!  The teams are standing outside the beautiful Palazzo hotel, blocking the valet guys when Tyler pulls up all dramatically to announce winners/losers.  This is what is weird about this show.  You would think the teams would know exactly what they made, right?  Are they not allowed to talk to each other while they’re all standing around waiting for Tyler?  It is not like there is some secret judging going on or anything.  It is all about the dollars.  So, here is how it broke down.  The leader is The Lime Truck, with $3145.00.  Korilla BBQ is behind them at $2550.00  Then Hodge Podge with $1970 and $1471 for Seabirds.  Devilicious (who?  See—we never even saw them) came in 5^th place with $1364.00.  So, the bottom three are Roxy’s (who ticked off the Lime Truck), Café con Leche (the Cuban/hat truck) and Sky’s Gourmet Tacos (who blew time and money on a blown tire).  In sixth place and safe:

Yay!  Cuban Latin food!

The last team who is safe is Roxy’s at $1177.00, so good-bye Sky’s Gourmet Tacos—your pink truck will be missed.

But not your particular taste of whiny craziness.

Next week is Salt Lake City!!  There was a lot of action on this first episode with 8 trucks.  Once we get down to 5 or 6 trucks, it will be so much easier to actually get to know these peoples.  I have a feeling, it will be worth it!  There are some very interesting personalities, fo’ sho’.

Thanks for joining me!