We spoke about food truck culture and its rise in recent years, James’s experience on Eat St, and his new food truck cookbook, “Eat St: Recipes from the Tastiest, Messiest, and Most Irresistible Food Trucks.”

Have you seen the mobile street food scene develop and change over the course of filming Eat St?

Absolutely. We started the show a couple years ago, and we just finished up season 4 recently, which was actually a double season.

We’ve seen a lot of changes over the years.

What really struck me has been that most of the trucks we’ve featured in season 4 didn’t even exist in season 1 and 2.

A lot of the food truck owners told us that the reason that they started operating a food truck was because they saw our show, which I thought was pretty cool.

Has this upsurge been consistent across all the cities you’ve been to?

Yes, this whole street food thing has just been exploding everywhere!

We actually did some research to trace it back, and we found that the whole rise of the food truck movement started around 2008 or so. When the economy took a down turn, a lot of high-end chefs found themselves out of work. So what do you do when you’re a highly skilled chef and you’re out of work? You open your own restaurant, or you get a couple thousands dollars together and buy or lease a food truck. In LA, the food truck industry is a little different than with other cities, and you can lease a food truck for a couple grand.

This west coast model started to influence other major metropolitan areas across North America, and suddenly all these really creative chefs were behind the wheels of street food trucks.

What was once a fry truck, chip truck, or a burger truck, is now a Korean fusion truck, or a gourmet taco truck.

Trucks like Bulgogi Beef Burgers started to pop up, and all this awesome creative street food started to appear.

And then what happened to really add fuel to the fire was the rise of social media. Previously these food truck businesses has to rely on people stumbling upon them or pedestrian traffic, but then with Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp, trucks started to be able to communicate directly with their fans and potential clients through social media.

In Boston, New York, or especially LA, which is a very spread out city, food trucks would plan and tweet out their routes, and many trucks were finding that they’d pull up and already have lines forming waiting for them. It completely changed the industry.

So really, you had this explosion of creativity from all these really high-end chefs, combined with the rise of social media, resulting in this whole new food truck phenomenon.

I’m not going to use the word trend, because they are here to stay.

That’s another question I was going to ask you – do you see this rise in food truck popularity becoming a long-term movement?

The thing is, it’s all so brand new –as I said, a great deal of the trucks we shot in season 4 weren’t even around in season 1 or 2.

A lot of people think running a food truck is easy, or easier than running a restaurant.  In fact, it’s a bit harder. The people who aren’t really dedicated and just thinks it’s an easy, fun way to make money are going to be weeded out. I’ve yet to meet a food truck owner who doesn’t put in 50, 60 hours a week. It’s all the stress of a restaurant, but on wheels – it’s tough.

Everywhere I go now, I hear people saying, “Oh my brother wants to start a food truck,” or “we want to do a food truck”. It’s really important that people considering open a food truck buckle down and do their research, because about 50% of restaurants fail, and we’re going to see that with food trucks as well, so you do need to be careful. The good ones will definitely last though.

Some people will start to see food trucks failing and say, “Oh, the food truck trend is over,” but no, that’s really not true. There will always be the hardcore folks doing it properly, and they will be the ones that carry through.

But again, you have to understand, everyone talks about the food truck trend, but it’s not a trend really – it’s a new thing we’ve never seen before, and there is going to be some leveling out obviously, some thinning of the herd. There are good food trucks, just like there are good restaurants, and there are bad trucks, just like there are bad restaurants.

What are the best food truck cities?

Well, weather ends up playing a big factor. Areas with warmer climates on the west coast and in the south, places like LA or Austin, can be open year around, so they’re really spoiled in that sense. The vast majority of trucks on the eastern seaboard and in Canada, on the other hand, are very seasonal. I’ve noticed that in NYC, the number of trucks you see in the summer is double and triple what you find in the winter. It tends to be a pseudo-seasonal business for a lot of these truck operators. But they’re coming out in force now, and people just couldn’t be happier. I think it’s going to be a good summer across the board for a lot of food truck operators.

Cities have different personalities too – Portland and Austin tend to be non-transient, since their food trucks tend to work in pods. The way it works there is that you get your license, you have a food truck, but most trucks don’t move around so much – they stay parked most of the time in little areas. Whereas in LA, NYC, and Boston with more transient food truck industries, some food trucks do 4 different stops a day.

By sheer numbers, Portland is probably the food truck mecca, and then Austin. But every city really has great food trucks. It’s difficult to compare Boston with Miami or NYC with Austin, since they have completely different approaches. Any major city now – Detroit, Washington DC, they all have a good food truck presence.

What do you think of the relationship between food trucks and brick and mortar restaurants?

People talk about the “war” between restaurants and food trucks, but there’s no war. Really food trucks and brick and mortar restaurants are two sides of the exact same industry.

On our show, we see a lot of really great food trucks that are spinning off into restaurants, and a lot of really smart restaurants spinning off into food trucks.

For example, there is a great guy in Vancouver – Vikram Vij. He is well known throughout the country as one of the top Indian chefs in North America.

This guy is just unbelievable. He launched a food truck last year, and we were talking about his decision to do that, and he explained to me, “I have a restaurant, and I have no need to do a food truck, but I saw the food truck as a really great way to educate my future clients. People who don’t even know that they love Indian food yet – that’s who I want to bring my food to.”

There’s also a great Steakhouse in Calgary, Alberta called “Charcut Roast House” – it’s a 5 star steakhouse. And this story is fascinating. These guys are doing extremely well – very profitable, great restaurant. One of the chefs was a finalist on Top Chef Canada, and it’s a destination place.

So, one day one of the chefs was in the kitchen and said, “Hey, we have this triple A Alberta beef in here, with the leftover steak pieces cut off from what was served. You know what, instead of throwing this out, I’ll make chuck out of it.” Then he’d get on Twitter and say “Hey guys, I’m serving some ground chuck burgers in the back door of the alley, come on down”. The first night 12 people showed up. Then he thinks, OK, I’ll sell them for $5 bucks a piece and keep this thing going, why not? Then the next night, 24 people showed up, then after a week, they had a line going out the back. So they said you know what, let’s do a food truck. And that’s what they did! They’ve been one of the most successful food trucks we’ve ever seen, called “Alley Burger.”

As I was saying before, the food truck phenomenon is not a trend – it’s a whole new thing, so get ready. It’s not going away anytime soon, and the people who are doing it well will last. If you look at Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas, food trucks are now major parts of their tourism industry. People are now planning their vacations around food trucks! Sometimes I think I should be getting a check from the Austin Board of Tourism because I’ve told so many people to head down to Austin just for a great vacation.

Are you coming back to Boston? We’ve love to have you back!

Yeah, we visited Boston in season 1, when we met with Clover Food Lab – they were amazing. And I think we also did Silk Road BBQ. [ME: Actually, I’m not sure they’re around any longer] Oh, no, really? He was more of a cart. I remember people were like zombies, coming out from the offices and saying, “where’s that BBQ smell coming from?” That guy was awesome. That’s a shame he’s not around anymore.

It’s been too long though, and we’d love to come back to Boston. I really love Boston – it’s such a great, brilliant city. Except for the driving – it’s on par with Greece when it comes to driving.

We just finished season 4, it’s on the air right now, but we haven’t been renewed yet for season 5. We’re still waiting with our fingers crossed. So, if you can encourage folks to get on the Food Network and the Cooking Channel site and say “hey, we want more Eat St,” we’d love to come back to Boston, since we haven’t been there since season one.

We definitely hope to come back to Boston – if we get renewed, we’ll definitely be there for sure.

[ OK guys, you heard James, let’s make season 5 happen so we can get Eat St. back to Boston and show off our awesome food truck scene! Tweet at Food Network and Cooking Channel: ]

<Click to Tweet> “I want a 5th season of Eat St so the show can visit Boston food trucks! http://bit.ly/17FrtfV @CookingChannel @FoodNetworkCA @bosfoodtruck”

What makes a food truck successful?

When we look for food trucks to feature on the show, we have a great research team, and they start online. So our research team goes out, and food blogs like yours are usually our first contacts. That way we can see which food trucks are hot and what the vibe of the city is. We start there, then we go to each individual truck and say, OK, why are these trucks getting buzz? What are they doing differently? How are they unique? We look at the owners and their stories.

When we first started, there were a handful of food trucks to choose from, but now it’s crazy – there are thousands of food truck we sift through.

We are looking for trucks that are really good at what they do – people who are passionate. The one underlying common denominator that stands out across all the seasons of our show is having food truck owners saying “I just want to make people happy – I love seeing people happy and enjoying my food.”  That’s one of the biggest keys to success in the food truck business – passion. Running a food truck is a hard job. It’s a business, and I think to do it well, you need to have passion. A great love of food, and a great love of people.

It’s also great to have a really cool or unique concept. Successfully marketing is another huge factor. The most successful trucks are the ones that manage their Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp accounts. It’s a pretty multi-faceted business. It’s all the stress of running a restaurant but on wheels.

The people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the last couple of years have been awe-inspiring – really great folks that love what they are doing.

What inspired the Eat St food truck cookbook?

The fans of the show would email us, comment on Facebook, or Tweet and ask for recipe help.

You see, on the show we do shots of the chefs preparing their dishes in the kitchen, but we don’t show amounts or temperatures. We didn’t really plan that segment as a recipe segment, but people were trying to recreate the recipes by slowing down their DVRs, and would say “Hey, this isn’t working!”

We said OK, people really want to prepare this stuff at home, let’s try to make that happen. We sent out an email blast thanking the trucks who have been on the show, and asking them if they wanted to contribute to a recipe book.

Immediately we were inundated with amazing recipes. We were really impressed because trucks were sending in their signature, best dishes. They want people to enjoy these meals at home, and if they’re ever in the area, stop by and try them in person.

That’s how the cookbook was born. I wrote the introduction and the intros for each recipe, and I’m really pleased with how it all came out. Apparently we’re a best seller, which is just great.

What’s your favorite recipe from the cookbook?

It’s so impossible! People always ask me questions like that, and ask what my favorite food truck is. How can you choose really? There are desert trucks, Korean fusion trucks, BBQ trucks, breakfast truck. There are so many different flavors and styles of food trucks.

If they are on the show, they are an amazing truck. I know it’s middle of the road for me to say that, but I really love all those trucks. Let me put it this way - I’ve yet to find a truck I didn’t like.

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Thanks for the interview James!

Learn about James Cunningham and Eat St, and be sure to check out the new food truck cookbook, “Eat St: Recipes from the Tastiest, Messiest, and Most Irresistible Food Trucks.”

And don’t forget to tweet @cookingchannel and @foodnetwork so we can get another season of Eat St and a visit to Boston!

Beginning its food truck touring around Boston suburbs such as Natick, Needham, and Wellesley, the Cod Squad has since found devoted fans in the city streets of central Boston with its variety of fresh, in-season seafood.

And boy is there a variety - Captain Marden’s Seafood truck offers chowders with cornbread, lobster rolls, crab cakes, fried oysters, scallops, clams, salmon, and more! Chatting with Terri Beal, who is partnered with Keith Marden in running the Cod Squad, was a ball – Terri is great at making her customers feel welcomed.

The Captain Marden food truck has a mix of affordable dishes along with higher-priced meals you’d expect to find with quality seafood.

During my visit I had the delicious jambalaya – a heaping cup was $4 and it was very filling. Just the right amount of Louisiana shrimp, andouille sausage, rice, and spice!

With Go Fish food truck out of the picture, it’s up to the Cod Squad to fill in the empty seafood shoes. Grab a bite at Captain Marden’s Cod Squad truck next time you see them around Boston and are hankering for something from the sea – you won’t be disappointed!

Well get ready, because the Food Truck Throwdown 2013 is coming to Boston on May 4, 2013.

The Fast Facts

Where: The Greenway, Boston – Between State & India Sts.

When: Saturday May 4, 2013
11am – 9pm

Who: All kinds of top-notch trucks! The list below…

 For more info check out the Boston Food Truck Throwdown official website.

Sadly I’ll be out of town for this one, so let me know how it goes!

This spring Boston is lucky enough to have more food trucks than ever roaming our messy collection of one-way city streets. To celebrate I’ve created this infographic which takes a look at the past, present, and future of food trucks in the city of Boston.

Where do you see the future of Boston food trucks heading? Do you think the city of Boston is doing enough to help food truck culture thrive? Your opinions and thoughts are always welcome and anticipated in the comments!

]]> http://bostonfoodtruck.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/past-present-future-of-boston-food-trucks-infographic/feed/ 2 Megs Boston Food Trucks http://bostonfoodtruck.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/new-food-trucks-in-boston-for-spring-of-2013/ http://bostonfoodtruck.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/new-food-trucks-in-boston-for-spring-of-2013/#comments Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:16:18 +0000 meggo4all http://bostonfoodtruck.wordpress.com/?p=955 ]]> 56 food trucks coming to Boston? What is the world coming to? (Hint: something delicious)

Earlier in January the food truck lottery took place, where mobile food vendors held their breath as they waited to see who would nab the best food truck locations in Boston.

As the fog clears from the tumultuous excitement surrounding the lottery, the new locations for spring are announced. Starting April 2013, Boston will feature more food truck cluster locations (where multiple food trucks can park), 18 food truck spots, AND more food trucks than ever before!

Here are some of the new rookie food trucks to keep your eyes out for. Be sure to give them a big “howdy!”

New Food Trucks in Boston 2013

• Area Four -Bakery and Pizza
• Biryani Park – Vegan Sri Lankan food.
• Fugu Foods – Pan-Asian
• Jimmy’s Ice Cream – Ice cream! (Now you scream!)
• Mother Juice – Originating as a Kickstarter, they’ve got organic smoothies and snacks.
• Pasta Pot – Pasta
• Sweet Tomatoes – Pizza
• Taco Party Truck – Tacos veggo style

New 2013 Food Truck Locations

• East Boston – Maverick Square at Summer Street
• Charlestown – at the Training Field on Adams Street
• Dudley Square at Dudley Street

These trucks had locations outside of Boston last year, but now they’ll be right in the thick of it.

New Food Trucks to Downtown Boston

• Baja Taco Truck
• Compliments
• Cupcake City
• Jerusalem Falafel
• Kefi’s Kitchen
• Shuckin’ Truck

What truck are you guys most excited about visiting?

Today I’ll be giving a play-by-play of my experiment cooking up Mei Mei’s Magical Kale Salad. You can find the recipe in fabulous haiku form on Mei Mei’s site and try it yourselves!

The Magic Begins: Kale Salad Creation

Here is my kale, all chopped and washed with my fancy new salad spinner. I was making a salad for a (honorary) family of five, so I used two piles of fresh organic kale.

Next I mixed together my lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil. Mei Mei’s says you can use one part rice wine, vinegar, or lemon juice, combined with three parts olive oil. I chose lemon juice because I’m nuts about it. For my quantity of kale, I used 1/4 lemon juice mixed with 3/4 olive oil.

The combination is poured onto the kale, massaging it as you go along, getting it nice and coated. Apparently massaging kale is really the way to go – I hear if you spend a good chunk of time massaging kale, a lot of the bitterness comes out. I forgot this piece of wisdom so I didn’t spend much time relieving the kale’s excruciating back pain, but if you can, massage that kale and let me know if you taste a difference!

As the Mei Mei gang notes, don’t use so much that it pools at the bottom – just enough so that all of the kale is properly coated.

Add kosher salt and mix it all in with your oily hands. Keep going and taste now and then. As Mei Mei’s notes, it’s ready “when it tastes so delicious/ you don’t want to stop.”

The next step is to heat up some canola oil on the stovetop and add a couple chunks of garlic. I grabbed my garlic from my lower cabinet and look what I found! Monster mutant garlic! Gah! It looks like what I’d imagine to be an armadillo or gopher paw with nasty long toe nails. Thankfully I just cut off those bad boys and the garlic was fine….or was it!?

Next is breadcrumbs time! Measure out around a cup of panko (OK, I cheated and used normal breadcrumbs).

Breadcrumbs get all nice and mixed up with the canola oil and garlic in the pan. I accidentally poured waaay too much canola so I had to add more and more breadcrumbs….I wasn’t too beat up about it. I tossed it about until it was nice, brown, and crispy.

Final product time! The breadcrumbs were sprinkled and mixed in with the kale. Then I added a poached egg, feta cheese, and pecorino cheese. Mei Mei’s suggests a wide assortment of toppings: pine nuts, cranberries, bacon, chicken chips, whatevs! “This is your salad now” they say. I think they are putting a little too much faith in me.

The Results

I’m not much of a chef, so I was worried how this would turn out. It was a big hit and got completely devoured. My result definitely wasn’t as good at the original cooked up by the Street Kitchen gang, but still incredibly drool worthy. I made a lot and was hoping I’d have some left over to take home, but NO WAY!

The fact that the folks at Mei Mei are nice enough to share their recipe with the hungry masses is proof of just how superbly awesome they are. Thanks for filling empty, kale-less bellies everywhere.

Will you try your shot at preparing the most magical of salads? If you do, comment and share your results!

Did you like this post? Want to see me attempt to cook up another food truck specialty? Let me know!

Welcome to the latest interview in a series we are conducting on how to open a food truck business. As food trucks become increasingly popular, we know that more and more savvy and adventure-seeking entrepreneurs are toying with the idea of opening a food truck.

But there’s so much to learn! Where do you start? By asking the experts of course!

The Mei Mei Truck

Boston Food Truck Blog is interviewing the knowledgeable sages of Boston’s food truck scene to get advice from those who know the business best – our favorite Boston food trucks!

This week we’re chatting with Mei Mei Street Kitchen –  one of my very favorite food trucks around!

Sibling musketeers Andy, Irene, and Margaret Li (aka Mei) provide awesomely creative Chinese-American cuisine, with an emphasis on sustainability.

Mei Mei is currently up for Mobile Cuisine’s Food Truck Rookie of the Year Award, so be sure to cast a vote for them before Jan 18, when the contest ends.

1. Tell us a bit about Mei Mei Street Kitchen - what are you guys all about?

Chubby Chickpea lacks some of the glamor you’ll see at other food trucks, but it still stands out with its mustard shading.

UPDATE:
During my first visit to Chubby Chickpea back in March of 2012, I was a bit disappointment w/ our buddy Chubs.

They were out of a lot of food, including essentials like tabouli, and I wasn’t in love with the falafel. Despite my negative first review, I continued to hear good things about Chubby Chickpea, so decided to give them another shot.

This blog post is my new and updated review of Chubby Chickpea food truck.

Chubby Chickpea’s Falafel Plate

I tried the Chubby Chickpea’s most popular dish on the menu, the falafel plate. The falafel plate comes with hummus, pita bread, and Israeli salad, which is a mix of diced cucumbers and tomatoes.

This time around, the falafel was much improved from my last visit – a nice, crumbly outer layer with a moist, warm inside.

The serving sizes at Chubby Chickpea are very generous – heaps of tabouli & hummus, and plenty of falafel. Chubby Chickpea is a really great value – at $5-6 a sandwich and only a dollar more for a plate, it’s remarkably cheap for such huge servings.

For me, the star of the Chubby Chickpea meal has to be the tabouli – absolutely delicious with a unique taste. I asked Chubby Chickpea food truck manager Avi and he let me in on the secret ingredient – mint! I’ve never heard of mint in tabouli, but wow, it is GREAT!

Chubby Chickpea Review: 4 out of 5 forks

With giant portions of grub at a great value, Chubby Chickpea is an excellent choice for those in the mood for Mediterranean.

Avi explained to me that back in March, they were still getting a hang of the food truck biz, and have greatly improved since then. I absolutely agree! Check out Chubby Chickpea food truck next time you are in their area.

I’m asking Boston food carts around the city about what advice they’d offer to existing restaurants and entrepreneurs who want to know how to start up a mobile food business in Boston, or anywhere!

How to Open a Food Truck Interview: Paris Creperie

Today I’ll be interviewing Paris Creperie and asking them about their Boston crepe truck, La Tour Eiffel.

Paris Creperie has a brick and mortar location at Coolidge Corner, and in April 2012 added a mobile food truck to their arsenal.

I’m a big fan of their tasty crepes, and couldn’t wait to hear about what food truck advice they’d offer.

1. Tell us a bit about Paris Creperie’s La Tour Eiffel – what are you guys all about?

When we properly executed our first catering job from the truck and it was a rousing success.

6. Any final piece of advice you’d like to offer aspiring food truck vendors?

Do your research, and do it well. Find out everything you can from all the existing trucks on the road, including the on street program with Boston, the lottery involved with it, and which spots work and don’t work.

Realize that your designs must be meticulously thought out, because you don’t have a second chance once your truck is built.

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Thanks so much for the interview and advice guys! If you haven’t visited Paris Creperie’s La Tour Eiffel crepe truck yet, be sure to catch them at one of their regular spots.

I’m always looking for more food trucks to talk with, so if you’re interested in having your truck interviewed, feel free to contact me at bostonfoodtruckblog at gmail dot com.

In this series, I’ll be asking popular Boston mobile food trucks about what advice they would offer to those wondering how to start a mobile food business in Boston, or anywhere!

With so many people looking to start a mobile food cart business these days, I decided to gather together the best food truck start up advice for the foodie greenhorns. Who better to ask than our own resident food truck experts in Boston?

Starting a Food Truck: Expert Advice from Staff Meal

Our first interview is with the Boston mobile food truck Staff Meal.

1. Tell us a bit about Staff Meal – what are you guys all about?

We are all about cooking whatever we feel like eating at any given time. Just like staff meal at any restaurant, we cook what we want with ingredients that we have access to.

We change our concept every now and again. So far we’ve done sandwiches, soups, the Escoffier menu from the Titanic (1912 as street food), tacos and burritos and we’re changing up to serve Cantonese food within the next couple of weeks. 

2. What are some of the struggles you faced when starting your food truck?

Sooooo many struggles. Patrick and I aren’t very smart, so most of our struggles derive from that fact. Besides that, we find ourselves solving daily, if not minute-by-minute problems related to the street food industry in Boston.

We operate out of a shared kitchen in JP which frequently becomes tricky from a spacial standpoint, both parking and prep-wise in the kitchen. When the kitchen gets busy during the busy season, we find ourselves having to prep at all hours of the night in order to be able to serve food.

Also we frequently run into mechanical problems with our old truck and generator. And then there is the issue of parking in Boston, which everyone knows is difficult. Despite the “parking for food trucks only” signs that the city has put up in our rented spots, dumdums still seem to end up parked in our spots during vending hours. 

3. What is your favorite street location and why?

We love the Stuart st location behind the Hancock, in Back Bay. There are a ton of awesome regulars we serve there, who are tired of all the corporate chain eateries that plague downtown Boston.

We also love the government center spot, despite the fact that the city has decided to put plowed snow there for the winter.  

4. What is your most popular menu item?

 Tough to say since we change our menu so often. Once a menu item becomes really popular, we tend to get bored with it pretty quickly.

People have been going crazy for our Peking pig’s head burrito and taco. We knew people would be into that? We did, duh.

5. Any final piece of advice you’d like to offer aspiring food truck vendors?

Be prepared to work your ass off, with very little return. The same could be said about any type of food service business, but food trucking in Boston is particularly difficult due to the fact that we haven’t had street food here for very long.

And be aware that this business is very seasonal. The discrepancy in revenue between the warm months and cold months is drastic. That said, be prepared to have a shitload of fun. I mean, how seriously can you take yourself knowing that you serve food out of the side of a truck?

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Well, that concludes our first food truck expert interview!

Staff Meal was the first truck to take up my offer on the interview, and I’m so glad they did – Adam is absolutely hilarious. Thanks for the awesome interview and fantastic advice for those new to the food truck biz. And if you haven’t tried Staff Meal, obviously you will now. I mean right now. Go on, get going!

Be sure to check back – we will be posting more interviews with food truck experts soon!

Did you find this blog post interview interesting? Do you want to see more? Your opinion as a reader counts, so please let me know what you think of this new format!