The Great Food Truck Race - General Discussion

[Starry-Eyed]

55 minutes ago, bluepiano said:

Worst season ever. Since there's no shopping or strategic pricing involved, most episodes are the contestants getting in the face of people and pleading with them to eat their food. Which in the real food truck world never happens.

I mean, no one has lost a body part, so that's something at least

[Lurk]

On 7/26/2023 at 7:50 AM, seacliffsal said:

The 'fun' of this show just isn't here.  Producers' favoritism seems to be the determining factor for a lot of the challenges.  Especially as to who gets to use their inate 'advantages.'  Who gets to use social media versus who gets to consistently park in front of a coffee shop that represents their food options.  Whose mess of a dish wins the flavor challenge over another mess of a dish (some of these dishes just look like the teams piled everything they had in their truck) of a recipe they already had.  Where is the 'use this ingredient in a new dish' which has the opportunity to challenge all (or most) of them.

Use this ingredient or the make a dish and only charge $xx. 

 

I think pricing of dishes has gotten out of hand along with some of the "recipes" or dishes they make. 

[MartyQui]

I can’t believe the prices they charge…the customers must pay those overinflated prices with the hope of getting on TV.

[Salacious Kitty]

10 minutes ago, MartyQui said:

I can’t believe the prices they charge…the customers must pay those overinflated prices with the hope of getting on TV.

What the market will bear...

[Colorado David]

13 hours ago, MartyQui said:

I can’t believe the prices they charge…the customers must pay those overinflated prices with the hope of getting on TV.

I get the feeling the meals are comped for the customers even if we see them pay.  Whoever makes a 'good' customer gets the tv time on camera.

[chessiegal]

21 minutes ago, Colorado David said:

I get the feeling the meals are comped for the customers even if we see them pay.  Whoever makes a 'good' customer gets the tv time on camera.

The cynic in me agrees. I was filmed at work once for a documentary, and I had to sign a document agreeing they could use the film of me. So - want to be on the show? Sign here. And here's money to spend,

[Colorado David]

exactly. i know it's california but man their prices seem exorbitant for the amount of food you get. this is not gourmet food, despite the truck owners spouting the contrary. for those prices i want a nice sit down in a reasonably nice dining area, and i expect an attentive wait staff (grumpy old eater here.) 

[Leeds]

On 7/27/2023 at 11:40 AM, bluepiano said:

 

Since the entire season has taken place in LA, they shouldn't let Khana keep parking at the same coffee shop. Everything about Khana screams "cheat." They should've never been allowed to fire one of their team and then replace him. 

 

They may not be the most likeable team, but it's not cheating if production allows, condones, or even suggests something.

[Salacious Kitty]

15 minutes ago, Leeds said:

They may not be the most likeable team, but it's not cheating if production allows, condones, or even suggests something.

Under the production radar, but Easy Vegan apparently also had a relationship with a local vegan coffee shop. They made very quick mention of it in the last episode, very easily missed. 

[LexieLily]

I'm so glad Khana lost. All they did every week was go to that exact same Pakistani coffee shop where the owner got customers for them. 

They need to make this show a cross-country race again. 

Edited July 31, 2023 by LexieLily

[Gramto6]

Yay for an Easy Vegan win!!!  Yaaaayyy!!! I would have really been disappointed if Khana had won.  And yes, they definitely need to make it a cross country show again. Or at least a multi state show. 

Edited July 31, 2023 by Gramto6

[LexieLily]

Also, making a croquette is a technique?

[Salacious Kitty]

20 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

I'm so glad Khana lost. All they did every week was go to that exact same Pakistani coffee shop where the owner got customers for them. 

They need to make this show a cross-country race again. 

Last week, Easy Vegan admitted that they had a similar quid pro quo with a vegan coffee shop. I hate Khana, but they weren't the only ones playing that game, when they weren't forced to park somewhere with all the other trucks. 

[tinkerbell]

Tyler was amused but also a little embarrassed talking about "pink tacos." I loved that it was that dish that gave the vegans the win.

I liked that this season really focused on the trucks making delicious food, and so avoiding dome of the cheap tricks of past seasons. I'm recalling teams getting cheap items in order to reduce costs, and outrageously inflated prices. 

That said, I'd still like to know more about the rules, and how those ingredients magically appeared. Lamb chops aren't available in large quantities just because you want them. And the vegans had decided on fried shiso leaves, suddenly fresh ones are right there. Were staff members assigned to run to the stores? Was there a budget?  Who set the prices the teams could charge?

So happy vegans won.

[GeorgiaRai]

That was surprising...yet satisfying!

[seacliffsal]

I, too, am glad that the vegans won.  However, I think Tyler really liked the lead of the Khana truck.  At one point his hand kept resting on her shoulder and at another time when he greeted her he did the two-handed hand grasp/shake, yet he never touched any member of the vegan truck (or any other member of Khana).  I also didn't like that Khana lost their butter chicken dish to the vegans during the 'steal a dish' challenge yet magically could offer butter chicken in another form/dish.  Yes, if the producers allow it, it isn't cheating.  But, I think Khana was allowed or encouraged to find a way around the restrictions.  I still can't get over the fact they could 'fire' an original member and 'hire' one from a previously eliminated truck.

This season was very frustrating for me.  But, at least Khana didn't win...

[Mondrianyone]

Maybe it's just me, but I've been thinking that $50 grand is kind of a chintzy prize for all that work. I mean, if you're good at Jeopardy!, you can make that much in two short games. This was, what, eight weeks (or TV weeks anyway) of hard, hot cramped-kitchen toil, long days, being away from home--and then theoretically you split the cash three ways. I hope the exposure is worth it, because I'm not sure I would sign up for that money. If I were FN, I'd double the purse. I think they can afford it.

At least Khana ended up doing it all for nothing. Yay.

[GiandujaPie]

I'm really glad Easy Vegan won. They consistently put out really good food that happened to be vegan and I liked that they didn't rely on processed, pre-made meat substitutes. They had a carrot walnut meat substittue they said they used in the pink tacos but it looked like something they made themselves, not a big batch of Beyond or Impossible product. One of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco is a vegetarian/vegan restaurant that has really good food that just happens to be  vegetarian/vegan. 

One aspect of the show I really dislike though is how the 2 teams at the end open a briefcase and one is empty and one is filled with cash. I feel like it's kind of mean to force one of the teams to open an empty case and see the crestfallen look on their faces. However, it couldn't have happened to a better team. It was pretty funny to see Khanna's faces when they realized they didn't win. 

[Salacious Kitty]

It was a blowout, too. Easy Vegan won by a margin of ~$1300. 

[Starry-Eyed]

SOOO glad Khana lost! I was infuriated with their smug, catty talking points long before the episode ended. It made me roll my eyes when they patted themselves on the back for being a woman-owned truck with a nonbinary member (I was honestly surprised by that. Al doesn't present super feminine but had they described themself as nonbinary before that?) when their competitors are also a woman-led business and also members of the LGBT community.

While I was happy with the outcome, this was still a really frustating, not-fun season, and this episode felt really manufactured as well. Food Network needs to seriously revamp how they approach this show or it won't last

[LexieLily]

32 minutes ago, Starry-Eyed said:

While I was happy with the outcome, this was still a really frustrating, not-fun season, and this episode felt really manufactured as well. Food Network needs to seriously revamp how they approach this show or it won't last.

Khana were complaining that they sold out of everything and had no product left on their second day and needed to either shut down or go shopping but then in the next scene they found a prepped tray of chicken they somehow forgot they had, and found bread?

I don't remember them ever making anything with lamb chops, but they had a good amount of them on their truck in time for the challenge?

I wish the show would show the teams budgeting and going shopping again. 

(Wasn't the point of the first challenge that the dish the other truck "stole" wasn't allowed to be sold on the first truck? Easy Vegan stole Khana's butter chicken whatever-it-was, so Khana turned Easy Vegan's kimchi grilled cheese into a butter chicken sandwich?)

[Gramto6]

7 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

 Snip

(Wasn't the point of the first challenge that the dish the other truck "stole" wasn't allowed to be sold on the first truck? Easy Vegan stole Khana's butter chicken whatever-it-was, so Khana turned Easy Vegan's kimchi grilled cheese into a butter chicken sandwich?)

Yeah, that didn't seem right to me either.  Khana should have been called out on that IMO.

[potatoradio]

7 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

But, I think Khana was allowed or encouraged to find a way around the restrictions.

I am also highly suspicious of producer "help" for the Khana truck. However, that makes the EV win even more satisfying. Even with the "help," Khana lost. Even with Gretchen Wieners   Al "turning her personality up to 100" or whatever she said to woo customers...they lost. Even with low rent Regina George  lead Khana woman pacing the streets of LA outside "their" coffee shop, wringing her hands and whining about there being no peeeeeeeeoplllllllllle....whah whah this is haaaaaaaard....they lost. 

Whew.

A tiny bit of hope for humanity remains in my heart. 

Also, really want to try walnut and carrot "meat." 

Still. You have work to do, show. Fix things. Please.

[Colorado David]

i wonder if the prods created a villain out of khana, to encourage us to watch and despise them? kinda like survivor and evil russell, you tuned in to see what mischief he'd cause. because without khana was this a very watchable season? (no slam on the vegans, i am so happy they won. but they were't terribly exciting. i did like the overall look tho, that was fun and made me smile seeing them.)

[Madding crowd]

There were way too many challenges this season and it seemed like the bulk of their money was from one of the three challenges they were assigned. Between that and the endless supplies of random food it just didn’t seem like the same food truck show. I also found it suspicious that all of those people just magically appeared to help out the Vegans since they didn’t win all of the challenges. I’m glad they won but just didn’t enjoy this season. 

[Salacious Kitty]

27 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:

There were way too many challenges this season and it seemed like the bulk of their money was from one of the three challenges they were assigned. Between that and the endless supplies of random food it just didn’t seem like the same food truck show. I also found it suspicious that all of those people just magically appeared to help out the Vegans since they didn’t win all of the challenges. I’m glad they won but just didn’t enjoy this season. 

The Vegans had already been to that location, so no surprise that they went back when they had a "free" day to sell wherever they pleased. It sure worked out for them. 

[Starry-Eyed]

3 minutes ago, Salacious Kitty said:

The Vegans had already been to that location, so no surprise that they went back when they had a "free" day to sell wherever they pleased. It sure worked out for them. 

I also wouldn't be shocked if the Pura Cepa had "regulars" who went over to support the Vegans, given how close the teams were/are (Pura Cepa apparently showed up to Easy Vegans' watch party to celebrate with them)

[Salacious Kitty]

Just watched part of EV's watch party. Didn't realize until last night that Taylor and Lexi were a couple. 

[jcbrown]

3 hours ago, Salacious Kitty said:

Just watched part of EV's watch party. Didn't realize until last night that Taylor and Lexi were a couple. 

Where did you see the watch party?

[Salacious Kitty]

Just now, jcbrown said:

Where did you see the watch party?

On their Instagram. 

[bluepiano]

7 hours ago, Starry-Eyed said:

SOOO glad Khana lost! I was infuriated with their smug, catty talking points long before the episode ended. It made me roll my eyes when they patted themselves on the back for being a woman-owned truck with a nonbinary member (I was honestly surprised by that. Al doesn't present super feminine but had they described themself as nonbinary before that?) when their competitors are also a woman-led business and also members of the LGBT community.

I believe that the Khana leader patted herself on the back for being a person-of-color, not for it being a woman-owned truck. Though it may have been both. Yet another reason not to like Khana. Playing some kind of race/gender card to make themselves seem more deserving of the win. The Vegans never claimed some special privilege for being a married gay couple.

The magical appearance of lamb chops on the Khana truck was just more evidence that everything we've seen this season was scripted and prearranged. Also, way too many challenges, which allow the producers to help their chosen favorites win even if they're struggling with sales.

I had to laugh when Tyler stated the rookies had beaten the food truck pros. Since nothing on this show has anything to do with the actual business of running a food truck, the experience the pros had was irrelevant.

I feel like this show is on its last legs. If there's another season I probably won't watch unless they go back to having a different location each week, which for me was a big part of what made the show entertaining. And I also want to see them go back to showing the teams shopping and having to strategize about budget and pricing. Without that, it's all just fake drama.

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by bluepiano

[dmeets]

If the show keeps going yet continues to refuse to leave LA then I’d almost rather they reboot it entirely. Change the name to Food Truck Challenge since there’s no longer a racing element, nor would I consider the show to be great anymore. And if they’re going to stay in the same city, rather than see the same teams camp out in front of the same business every week while getting increasingly obnoxious and smug, might as well just do what the other Food Network game shows do and have each episode be a one-off with three new trucks facing off. Maybe all the teams each episode can be a similar theme like all vegan teams, all burger teams, all Hawaiian, etc. to do away with built-in advantages like the coconut wireless.

Edited August 1, 2023 by dmeets

[Ellee]

Anyone that follows these trucks — just curious — did Khana rehire the member they fired?  Keep his replacement? Or?

[Salacious Kitty]

There's no indication either way on their Instagram. They're having a pop up this weekend. Any takers? *crickets* 😂 😢

Edited August 1, 2023 by Salacious Kitty
Can't delete the wrong emoticon

[mlp]

22 hours ago, bluepiano said:

I feel like this show is on its last legs. If there's another season I probably won't watch unless they go back to having a different location each week, which for me was a big part of what made the show entertaining. And I also want to see them go back to showing the teams shopping and having to strategize about budget and pricing. Without that, it's all just fake drama.

Agreed.  I always got a kick out of yelling "Food Truck Road Trip" along with the announcer at the beginning.  :)  I can't even do that any more.

[Pietr]

On 7/28/2023 at 11:35 AM, Colorado David said:

exactly. i know it's california but man their prices seem exorbitant for the amount of food you get. this is not gourmet food, despite the truck owners spouting the contrary. for those prices i want a nice sit down in a reasonably nice dining area, and i expect an attentive wait staff (grumpy old eater here.) 

For the record I live in the SF Bay Area and prices here are on par with LA for comparison and NO WAY the prices they were charging would fly here.  We have a local truck gathering every week and the average price for an entrée is in the $14-18 range.   There is one truck connected to a local established restaurant that last week had a special Prime Rib with Mashed Potatoes & Vegetables $22

Serious producer hijinks if they sold over 100 $32 Pink Tacos

Edited August 2, 2023 by Pietr

[meep.meep]

On 7/31/2023 at 6:13 PM, bluepiano said:

I believe that the Khana leader patted herself on the back for being a person-of-color, not for it being a woman-owned truck. Though it may have been both. Yet another reason not to like Khana. Playing some kind of race/gender card to make themselves seem more deserving of the win. The Vegans never claimed some special privilege for being a married gay couple.

 

Right after she said that, they had a quick cut to the new guy driving the truck, the guy who is black.  She didn't include him in her diversity rundown.

I must admit that the Vegans won wearing the most ugly costumes possible.  Whoever picked out green overalls?

[bluepiano]

On 7/31/2023 at 12:18 PM, Gramto6 said:

Yeah, that didn't seem right to me either.  Khana should have been called out on that IMO.

They should have been, but I was not surprised they weren't. Khana was Tyler and the producer's pet team all season, and seemed to be above the rules. They could fire and replace a team member, something we've never seen before.

 

On 7/31/2023 at 12:59 PM, Colorado David said:

i wonder if the prods created a villain out of Khana, to encourage us to watch and despise them? 

We know that these shows like to create a villain, but you can't do it unless you have the material. I have no doubt that the snarkiness, smugness, and general unpleasantness of the Khana leader was her true personality. Especially as some people who live in Detroit have posted here that she does not have a good reputation in the community.

[Colorado David]

5 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Right after she said that, they had a quick cut to the new guy driving the truck, the guy who is black.  She didn't include him in her diversity rundown.

I must admit that the Vegans won wearing the most ugly costumes possible.  Whoever picked out green overalls?

awww man i liked the overalls....down home simple not flashy i gotta impress you or flash my body curves to get your attention. mind you i grew up in pretty conservative southern country :) 

[meep.meep]

Sorry.  I didn't want to show my age, but they remind me of Mr. Greenjeans on Captain Kangaroo.

[Colorado David]

•  

38 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

Sorry.  I didn't want to show my age, but they remind me of Mr. Greenjeans on Captain Kangaroo.

 

sorry delete this

Edited August 2, 2023 by Colorado David
out of context

[Gramto6]

2 hours ago, meep.meep said:

Sorry.  I didn't want to show my age, but they remind me of Mr. Greenjeans on Captain Kangaroo.

LOL! I was going to say the same thing. But I thought the guy was Mr. Bluejeans on Capt. Kangaroo?? Green/Blue more useless info I don't store in my old brain.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Gramto6

[Leeds]

5 hours ago, Colorado David said:

awww man i liked the overalls....down home simple not flashy i gotta impress you or flash my body curves to get your attention. mind you i grew up in pretty conservative southern country :) 

I didn't mind the overalls themselves, but the colour was just sad.  I mean, thank god they weren't like those awful ones from last season, but maybe an understated blue, or a dark green rather than cow pat khaki?

[Lurk]

Too many people to quote, I forgot to click them all:

Did all y'all hear me screaming Sunday night? I am so happy that EV won, even if I think their outfits reminded me of the Minions.

 

I hope they go back to having the trucks move from town to town and show some more of the shopping/budgeting issues that come up in some of the smaller towns they went to.

 

Also, cut out some of the challenges because a lot of the taste ones can be subjective (to producer shenanigans on who wins).

 

I don't know if Khana kept their replacement cook or not. They didn't have a food truck to begin with, I thought they just did some sort of pop-up kitchen deal?

[Lamb18]

11 hours ago, Gramto6 said:

LOL! I was going to say the same thing. But I thought the guy was Mr. Bluejeans on Capt. Kangaroo?? Green/Blue more useless info I don't store in my old brain.

He was Mr. Greenjeans.

[Gramto6]

Thanks!  I never watched the show and I guess my kids were either too young or too old when it was on so they never watched it either.

[HyeChaps]

I wonder if Tyler realized at the time that Khana would be perceived as villains by the viewers

[chessiegal]

5 minutes ago, HyeChaps said:

I wonder if Tyler realized at the time that Khana would be perceived as villains by the viewers

More importantly, did the producers? Tyler is just delivering the script he's handed, I think. Is he listed as a producer in the credits?

[meep.meep]

I'm pretty sure he is a producer also.  I think it's time for this show to roll off into the sunset.

 

[HyeChaps]

Are the foods so wonderful now that the contestants don’t need good advice about buying ingredients, efficient preparation, and pricing?