Week 1 of The Great Food Truck Race

This week The Great Food Truck Race kicked off on the Food Network, as eight gourmet food trucks from across the nation faced off selling their delicious goods in Las Vegas. The eight trucks mostly hail from the West coast; Café con Leche and Sky’s Gourmet Tacos from Los Angeles, San Diego’s Devilicious, Seabirds Food Truck from Costa Mesa, Lime Truck from Irvine, Hodge Podge from Cleveland, Boston’s Roxy Grilled Cheese, and New York’s own Korilla BBQ. Each truck is great in their own right, and watching them go head to head makes me wish none of them had to eliminated. However, every week one team must leave the competition, and this week they all headed to Las Vegas to duke it out in the city of sin. Given a mere $500 to buy all their groceries, the teams were introduced and immediately took to the road.

Before the competition even began one team blew a tire on the road to Vegas. Host Tyler Florence informed the truck that repairs would have to come out of their own $500 budget, giving them a considerable setback early in the competition. The remaining trucks immediately got to work on the road, calling acquaintances in Vegas and planning to setup around festivals and hotspots. However more setbacks awaited the teams once they arrived, as one team immediately learned that the famed Vegas strip was no place for a food truck. Others were forced to relocate due to lack of traffic, and later turf wars developed between several trucks as well. Every episode a “speed bump” is introduced, in which the teams are given a randomly selected handicap. This week they were forced to shut off their propane, effectively halting their cooking. For the vegan Seabirds Truck this turned into more of an advantage than anything, but for trucks that rely on their grills to cook meat, it was much worse. In the end each truck produced some great looking food, and enjoyed moments of greatness and failure. For the trucks that knew the terrain better I would like to see how they fare next week, as they continue moving east. As New York’s only representative, my money is on Korilla BBQ, three Columbia graduates with a killer marinade. Stay tuned for more updates as the race continues on Food Network.