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S07.E02: Family Face Off: Things Get Berry Interesting


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The five remaining food truck teams head up the Pacific Coast Highway to Ventura County, where they're the main attraction at the California Strawberry Festival. The teams take on a challenge where they must create one sweet and one savory dish featuring locally-grown strawberries. One team uses their family network to attract customers, tension develops when another team can't get organized, and rivalries form as all the trucks jockey for selling turf.

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Why did the Lei-Away Ladies' truck steering wheel have plastic wrap on it?

I kept wondering the same thing.  Very odd.  It reminded me of people who keep plastic covers on the living room furniture to protect the upholstery.

I found it hard to believe that the Hawaiian women were able to buy all their ingredients including numerous flats of strawberries, chicken and fresh tuna for $300.  Maybe tuna is less expensive on the Pacific Coast than I think it is.

I was glad the Mista (?)  truck was eliminated.  I liked the husband but the wife was awful with her loud, almost unintelligible jabber and she seemed pretty unpleasant when things weren't going her way.  

I'll never believe that those massive trucks just drive around until they happen upon parking spaces big enough for their vehicles.  I suppose the show has already arranged for whatever permits they need and I'll bet they also know where the trucks will be located.

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The Sweet Southern Soul truck has to have the most unappealing graphics I've seen on this show.  The pink/blue scheme looks like old cotton candy at a really cheap carnival.  No clever logo or sense of fun.  If I were walking by there would be nothing that would inspire me to eat there based on appearance alone.  (Realizing the contestants had no say in the designing of their truck.)

I don't like the Sicilian truck occupants at all, and their food looks like everyday Italian with everything covered in tomato sauce.

The cheese guys and Hawaiian Leidies have peppier, fun-looking trucks.  Aloha won a couple of seasons back, so maybe the Leidies will be at a disadvantage.  Their food looks fresher and lighter than any of the others (no healthy option trucks this year), so maybe they can pull it off.

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The team that won the $300 still came in third for total sales, and I think it was about $500 less than the team in first. They must not have sold very much at all.

Vinny was lamenting that they were just behind the team in first place, but it seemed like it was about $300 less, and that isn't close as it applies to this challenge. I was going to re-watch to get the amounts, but forgot.

Next, Tyler told the Grilled Cheese teams that their prices were too low, but weren't they the team that had to lower their prices because they were not selling at the higher price? I wouldn't spend $10 on a grilled cheese sandwich unless it was something great, and it didn't seem like theirs was anything special. 

Tomato sauce with strawberries in it sounds vile. Tomato and strawberry does not seem like it would go together. They want to open a restaurant or food truck but don't even know the definition of savory, a pretty basic cooking term. They may as well just flush money down the toilet. I don't think everyone needs to attend culinary school before opening a restaurant, but do think you need to have a basic understanding of food to succeed. If you can make 10 things really well, you'll probably get some early business. But not a lot of people want to eat the same things continuously, and will eventually tire of your food. There is not much hope for a successful restaurant with such a limited menu, in my opinion. 

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I like the Hawaiian women and the team with the police officer, but honestly none of these people scream ready for a restaurant or a food truck. It's kinda like hey, we think we can cook, we want to win $50,000. I'm not sure why they even filmed this season, the fact there were only 6 teams and they didn't leave the state, kinda screams they just phoned in the whole damn thing. I will be 100% shocked if this show sees the light of day after this season. 

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I'm nit paying $6 for a grilled cheese let along $10+ unless they fancy it up like a food truck is supposed to. They aren't so I hope they go home. At least Waffle Bros fancied it up a bit.

By the way, is the new Tyler S&S pilot special on demand or the app? I missed the airing and can't find a repeat.

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Can't stand the Italian team, but that's probably from the first episode where the guy (don't ask me his name) said, "You know me from Jersey Shore" and then went all Z-list celebrity.  No, dude, actually I've never heard of you and with any luck, I'll never see you again.  That and the whining this episode about having to work with strawberries.

How does taking shitty white bread and putting it in a waffle iron make it less shitty white bread? 

Real question--do real food trucks buy their provisions at a retail grocery store? 

The graphics made it look like the strawberry lady's name was Bonnie Spokesperson.  WTG, FN.

I spent a year in Oxnard so I was more interested in seeing if I recognized any locations than I was in the competition.

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Local food truck owners by me shop in Costco.

Strawberries and basil go well together. In a vinaigrette. Or in a martini. The Italian team didn't need to add tomatoes to it, they could have done a pesto. I think it's more home cooking than anything else.

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2 hours ago, hjmugillecuty said:

The Lei-Away Ladies are currently from Utah, so I should be rooting for them. But if I have to spend another season hearing about the "coconut wireless", I'm gonna scream. Aloha already did that.

So their "North Shore" roots are more further back in time than what was implied?

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Does anyone know what the rules are about pricing your food? One of the Lei-Away Ladies' "friend of a friend" contacts walked up to the truck and said, "Give me $100 worth of something..." which to me sounded like a straight-up donation rather than buying food. Did they just give him a strawberry and call it a $100 dessert? Or do they have to provide the food as they have priced it on the board? They seem to be able to change the prices on their board throughout the course of the day. 

It reminds me of the old sales challenges from the Apprentice, which always devolved into who had someone in their rolodex they could call and beg for a big donation. Lame. It seems like the Lei-Away Ladies could pick up the coconut wireless, ask an Auntie to give them a few hundred dollars at each stop, then pay them back (or not) after they get off the show. It has nothing to do with anyone's ability to make food or run a food truck anymore.

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20 hours ago, HawaiiTVGuy said:

So their "North Shore" roots are more further back in time than what was implied?

I'm basing my information on this article, http://www.ksl.com/?sid=41228027&nid=1205&title=utah-family-competes-on-season-7-of-the-great-food-truck-race which says they are residents of Provo, UT. I know that the husband of the blonde, Carey, is with the football program at BYU. My superfan source says he's a recruiter.

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1 hour ago, hjmugillecuty said:

I'm basing my information on this article, http://www.ksl.com/?sid=41228027&nid=1205&title=utah-family-competes-on-season-7-of-the-great-food-truck-race which says they are residents of Provo, UT. I know that the husband of the blonde, Carey, is with the football program at BYU. My superfan source says he's a recruiter.

Yeah I was wondering who her husband was, I thought it was someone at Hawaii, but yeah BYU does have a lot of local connection.  You are probably right in regards to them being currently from Provo, of course that doesn't sound as cool as saying you are from Hawaii and doesn't tie as neatly into their POV for the food truck.  I just realized my original comment sounded snippy regarding their "local" credentials, didn't mean it to sound that way.  The way they put it originally, thought they were straight from Hawaii.  But I guess even the other local food truck from a couple seasons back wasn't really direct from Hawaii either.

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1 hour ago, Texasmom1970 said:

Maybe I am too critical but if you don't know what savory means should you really be on a cooking competition show?!

Vinnie and family are not on a cooking competition show, they are on a "I'm a famewhore and would do anything to be on TV" show.

If this is not the last season of GFTR (which it looks like it will be, since they can't even eke out a full run this year) they should stop insulting the viewer's intelligence and just drop the fiction that the trucks have to drive around looking for spaces.  Anyone with half a brain knows all the possible selling locations have been scouted and permitted in advance.  So just make it part of the competition, pass some test (even eating funnel cakes) and you get to choose a premium spot where no one else can go from the few possible spots.

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I also think this may be the last season.  If so, I'll be disappointed because I've enjoyed the show for the most part every season and I like Tyler.

I liked the cheese guys on Chopped and I like them on this show but I think they'll be the next team out although I'd be happier to see Vinnie and company leave.  I hope I'm wrong.  I won't miss the SSS women because I was sick of their jumping up and down and shrieking.

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Having only eaten at a food truck on work sites - delicious by the way - I had no idea that these new food trucks use crap food for their offerings.  Packages of lunch meat?  Gross me out!  I have never purchased meat in a grocery store.  The products are crap and the prices are super high.  It's the butcher for me or nothing.

What a scam!

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I dislike the Sicilian truck more every week.  And I couldn't stand them to begin with. 

The cheese guys don't bug, but $10 for a grilled cheese wrapped in paper and handed out through a truck window?  We just paid $14 for a fresh Maine lobster roll from Cousins.

The Leidies at least put some thought into their product, and it's different.

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20 hours ago, jumper sage said:

Having only eaten at a food truck on work sites - delicious by the way - I had no idea that these new food trucks use crap food for their offerings.  Packages of lunch meat?  Gross me out!  I have never purchased meat in a grocery store.  The products are crap and the prices are super high.  It's the butcher for me or nothing.

What a scam!

Honestly I wouldnt take this show as what the food trucks actually do. I think established trucks would have deals with premium providers and more capital.

Edited by Skyfall
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I didn't realize that this show was  back on, so I've been catching up through on-demand. But the season's been a real snooze. No personalities or food that I'm in the least excited about. It seems that we get grilled cheese, soul food, and Italian every year.

The family angle doesn't feel new either, because in the past many (if not most) of the teams contained a couple of people who were related.

And I much prefer the seasons when the contestants are actual professional food truck operators and not wannabees. Much less interesting to see people making rookie mistakes because they've never been on a food truck before. And apparently some of these people don't have any professional food experience? So what are they doing on this show? Just more reality show fame whores.

It does seem like the last season, the way everything has been scaled back. (number of teams, distance travelled). Well, there were a couple of fun seasons in the past, anyway.

Edited by bluepiano
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On September 13, 2016 at 5:04 PM, bluepiano said:

back on, so I've been catching up through on-demand. But the season's been a real snooze. No personalities or food that I'm in the least excited about. It seems that we get grilled cheese, soul food, and Italian every year.

 

Food Network hasn't even bothered adding this episode to their app. They've put up the first one and the Eggs-ellent one but... 

Sounds like I didn't miss much. 

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On September 12, 2016 at 0:18 AM, jumper sage said:

Having only eaten at a food truck on work sites - delicious by the way - I had no idea that these new food trucks use crap food for their offerings.  Packages of lunch meat?  Gross me out!  I have never purchased meat in a grocery store.  The products are crap and the prices are super high.  It's the butcher for me or nothing.

What a scam!

That has been my gripe all season. How in the world could these guys, who claim to be grilled cheese experts, put out that crap? Burnt white bread every time, with a small amount of cheap brand cheese, and a single slice of Oscar Mayer packaged boiled ham. If I shelled out $10 for that garbage I would toss it back at them. Absolute crap on a plate.

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