Just four short weeks ago, Tyler Florence met eight eager teams of first-time food truckers, each with big dreams of running their own mobile business. But now, after a month of racing halfway across the country, only four of those hopeful teams remain after Under the Crust, Barbie Babes, Pizza Mike’s and Coast of Atlanta were eliminated in Los Angeles, Flagstaff, Amarillo and Fayetteville, respectively.
Though this competition is designed to separate the contenders from the pretenders, all eight teams were made up of food truck rookies with a similar lack of experience, so the race could have been anyone’s game. Do you think that the eliminated teams simply suffered a case of beginners’ bad luck, or did their tactics alone lead to their early exits? If you were to give just one team another chance at food truck royalty, which would it be?
Tell us: Which eliminated food truck team would you bring back if you had the chance?
Go big or go home. This week, contestants of The Great Food Truck Race took on the college town of Fayetteville and the students from the University of Arkansas. The challenge: Adjust their menus, prices and strategy to attract their demographic. The Food Truck teams learned a very important lesson this weekend: Good food doesn’t have to be pricey.
For the next couple of weeks, we’re following the Food Trucks city by city with our guide of the best eats, compiled by the On the Road app and website. Today we’re exploring the best that Arkansas has to offer. Come back next week for our picks in Nashville.
Whole Hog Café
Whole Hog Café founders Ron, Mike and Steve have long devoted themselves to the pursuit of barbecue perfection. Their devotion is reflected in the wildly popular dishes Rachael checked out when hunting for the best barbecue: pulled pork, beef brisket, smoked chicken and award-winning ribs.
The third season of The Great Food Truck Race took the remaining five trucks more than halfway across the country to Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark., this week. With a grand prize of $50,000 on the line and the chance to keep their truck, each team tries to pull out all their tricks to stay in the game, but ultimately one truck must go each week. Every Sunday night, FN Dish will bring you exclusive exit interviews with the latest Food Truck contestants to get the boot.
This week the teams struggled with a new challenge: dealing with a college town. Prices, menus and strategies all needed to reflect their new demographic. Between location issues, timing, the Speed Bump and the Truck Stop, Coast of Atlanta couldn’t rally from behind this week and, unfortunately, the three sous chefs, Tawanaca, Lena and Mike, had to give the keys of their truck back to Tyler.
After three weeks of getting knee-deep in the food truck industry — starting first in Los Angeles and traveling through Arizona and Texas — the remaining five teams have proved they have skills and passion, but only one will win $50,000 and their own food truck. Seoul Sausage has taken the top spot three weeks in a row, but can they keep up the momentum? They certainly have to watch out for the competition: Nonna’s Kitchenette, Coast of Atlanta, Momma’s Grizzly Grub and Pop-A-Waffle are certainly tired of seeing Seoul win first place and they’re going to do whatever it takes to claim the top spot this week.
Come Sunday night, the remaining five Food Truckteams will have made it past the halfway point of the competition. By now their dreams of owning their own food trucks are so close they can practically taste them, and for some that has them racing to the finish line. Momma’s Grizzly Grub, however, comes to a screeching halt on Sunday, thanks to a run-in with local law enforcement in Arkansas.
Here Tiffany and Angela are seen powwowing with a policeman, looking caught off guard and far from happy. Were the ladies the victim of a roadside fender-bender, or were they caught driving their bright-orange truck too quickly around Fayetteville? What could a traffic ticket mean for these Alaska natives and their future in the race?
Before you tune in this Sunday at 9pm/8c to find out what happened, we’re challenging you, Food Truck fans, to write your best captions (tastefully appropriate, please) for this law enforcement moment in the comments below.
Which is your favorite food truck team so far? Cast your Fan Vote up to 10 times per day.
Fans of Cupcake Wars are in for a sweet treat: Viewers now have an unprecedented opportunity to cast an episode of Cupcake Wars with four returning challengers.
Meet the contenders:
Alisha Nuttall from Cravings in Pleasant Grove, Utah, appeared with her twin sister, Angela, and wowed the judges with an adventurous pizza cupcake.
Brandon Arnovick is a Cupcake Wars veteran appearing in not one but two prior episodes. His big flavors and fun personality charmed judges and fans alike.
Doron Peterson is a three-peat contender, looking to make the fourth time the charm. She’s known for her explosive creativity with cupcake flavors, which is no small feat for a vegan baker.
Halloween Wars returns for a second season on Sunday, October 7 at 9pm ET/PT with five new teams, each consisting of a pumpkin-carving artist, a cake decorator and a candy craftsman, battling it out over the course of four episodes to create the ultimate Halloween-themed display that will feature heart-pounding creations. One team will be eliminated each week by the judging panel, made up of renowned cake decorator Shinmin Li and award-winning special effects, makeup artist and horror movie actor/director Tom Savini. The last team standing will wind the grand prize of $50,000. Hosted by Justin Willman (Cupcake Wars), each episode will also have a rotating guest judge that is no stranger to scary situations: Shawnee Smith (Saw, Anger Management), Rutina Wesley (True Blood), Chaske Spencer (the Twilight saga) and Sara Canning (The Vampire Diaries).
Premiering Sunday, October 7 at 9pm ET/PT
Evil Clowns: In the first of four battles, five teams, each made up of a pumpkin-carving expert, cake artist and candy craftsman, must combine their talents to create the most terrifying clown imaginable. At the end of the battle, one team will be eliminated.
Special guest judge: Shawnee Smith
When Robert Irvine visited Frankie’s in Three Rivers, Mich., he found a dusty, outdated restaurant with dangerous levels of food safety and a kitchen stocked with more microwaves than pots and pans. After meeting owners Jay Woehrmyer and Tina Wyman, however, he realized that poor management and a lack of leadership were their biggest problems. Robert had just two days to turn around this 13-year-old restaurant and attempt to fix Jay and Tina’s failing partnership. We checked in with Jay and Tina to find out how they and Frankie’s are doing a few months after their Restaurant: Impossible experience.
Since Robert left, sales at Frankie’s have risen 39 percent, and Jay and Tina report that the makeover is attracting new customers. Both count the new open layout of the restaurant among their favorite parts of the decor.
Go big or go home. This week, contestants of The Great Food Truck Race found themselves deep in the heart of Texas — Amarillo to be exact. The remaining food trucks cruised into town and were greeted by Tyler Florence and their first challenge: Prepare ballpark fare for hordes of hungry fans after an Amarillo minor league baseball game. One thing is for sure: Texans sure know good food when they see it.
For the next couple of weeks, we’re following the Food Trucks city by city with our guide of the best eats, compiled by the On the Road app and website. Today we’re exploring the best that Texas has to offer from all over: Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio. Come back next week for our picks in Arkansas.
It would be hard to disagree with anyone who argued that the spiritual home for a dollop of cream cheese is on a toasted bagel, in my case accompanied by an equally large spoonful of crunchy peanut butter.
As I hope the Iron Chef and his challenger proved during their exciting battle, however, this fresh, tangy cheese is far more versatile than some people might imagine and is definitely worth keeping on hand as a refrigerator basic.
What is cream cheese?
Cream cheese is a soft, fresh unripened cheese that is made from a combination of milk and heavy cream and by definition must contain at least 33 percent milk fats and less than 55 percent moisture.
It is one of the most popular cheeses in the United States and the most recent research I could find from 2008 reports that the average American consumes a little over 2.5 pounds of cream cheese every year.
After three weeks of getting knee-deep in the food truck industry — starting first in Los Angeles and traveling through 
