Is ‘The Nice Meals Truck Race’ About to Get a Second Vegan Winner?

Final summer season, Meals Community’s The Nice Meals Truck Race topped its first plant-based winner, formally cementing Señoreata, a Los Angeles-based Cuban pop-up, into the community’s historical past. 

The competitors present’s latest season is nicely underway, and there’s a vegan competitor that would observe within the footsteps of Señoreata. Throughout a collection of challenges designed to check culinary abilities and enterprise acumen, The Simple Vegan—a plant-based pop-up based mostly in Denver, CO—has persistently ranked within the prime three. 

Helmed by founders Taylor Herbert and Alexi Mandolini, The Simple Vegan was born from the pandemic. After Mandolini was laid off, she launched The Simple Vegan with Herbert, her companion in each enterprise and life. For The Nice Meals Truck Race, the couple recruited pal and Denver-based chef Matt Heikkila to spherical out their staff.

Meals Community

Season 16, formally titled “David vs Goliath,” pits seasoned business professionals with established meals vans towards proficient, up-and-coming rookies new to the meals truck enterprise. The Simple Vegan faces off towards fellow rookies and meals truck first-timers 2 Ladies Jamaican Tacos; 4 Hens Creole Kitchen; Khana, which churns out Pakistani fusion dishes; and The Block, an eatery serving up burgers, sandwiches, and seafood dishes. 

Lisa’s Creperie; Da Bald Man, a Hawaiian mainstay serving up the island’s delicacies; Puerto Rican meals truck D’Pura Cepa; and Italian truck Paisani spherical out the season’s rivals, every competing as business professionals. 

“This season’s distinctive twist actually delivers and when you might imagine the meals truck professionals have the benefit, the vitality and expertise of the up-and-coming rookies make for a stage enjoying subject—it’s anybody’s race,” Betsy Ayala, Head of Content material, Meals, Warner Bros. Discovery stated in a press release. 

“Los Angeles is the proper backdrop this season, there’s no metropolis extra aggressive for meals vans and solely the strongest will survive,” Ayala stated. 

The 9 groups face off on this eight-episode season for an opportunity to win the $50,000 grand prize, and with simply 4 groups remaining, The Simple Vegan is nicely on its approach to victory. 

The Simple Vegan on ‘The Nice Meals Truck Race’

The Simple Vegan is right here to win, and it’s evident within the meals truck’s efficiency. The trio set the tone in episode one, nabbing second place after incomes $2,350 in meals gross sales. 

Episode two, because the Paisani staff succinctly put it, solidified that The Simple Vegan was a “critical competitor” and regarded them a staff to observe. The episode introduced the groups to a bit league ballpark, the place the problem was to impress 150 friends and promote essentially the most meals. The winners would obtain immunity from elimination and a whopping $15,000, the most important problem prize within the collection’ historical past, as famous by host Tyler Florence. 

Meals Community

With everybody vying for the prize, it was The Simple Vegan who in the end proved victorious. “We nonetheless get emotional rewatching that episode,” Herbert tells VegNews. “When [Tyler] introduced the problem, we didn’t suppose we stood an opportunity towards the opposite groups in a ballpark meals problem—, sizzling canines, hamburgers, youngsters, however we instantly dropped the destructive considering.”

“We didn’t lead with the phrase ‘vegan,’ as a result of they’re youngsters they usually don’t care,” Herbert continues. “It was an amazing alternative to remind viewers that issues like french fries and deep fried Oreos are vegan.” 

One other stand-out hit? The Simple Vegan’s lemonade. Youngsters flocked to the meals truck for a sip of the ice chilly beverage, serving to the staff beat out their competitors. 

Episode three noticed The Simple Vegan within the prime two as soon as extra, however episode 4 served as a wake-up name. With the professional groups incomes first, second, and third place, The Simple Vegan fell to fourth, narrowly escaping elimination.

“Our largest competitors [at this point] was everybody,” Mandolini tells VegNews. “The rostrum had shuffled. D’Pura Cepa rose to second place. We have been trying round, [thinking], ‘Properly, everyone seems to be right here to play—Lisa’s Creperie, D’Pura Cepa, Da Bald Man.”

“Da Bald Man has an enormous following in Los Angeles,” Mandolini says. “They have been such an enormous competitor, and we had been eager about them because the first episode, however at this level, we form of began trying round at everybody. We have been simply so impressed.”

The Simple Vegan takes first place

Extra just lately, episode 5 noticed The Simple Vegan win back-to-back challenges. First, they impressed movie star chef and restaurateur Jet Tila throughout the style problem. The groups have been tasked with recreating their “origin story dishes,” the meals that ignited their goals of working within the meals business.

The Simple Vegan selected to recreate ramen, because the dish helped Mandolini understand how artistic one might be when cooking. The staff’s creamy shoyu ramen with koji and shiitake mushrooms was chosen by Tila because the winner, incomes The Simple Vegan a further $300 of their until.  

Meals Community

The episode’s gross sales problem introduced the groups to a brewery, the place their purpose was to outsell their rivals. The Simple Vegan’s mushroom dumplings served on a mattress of miso alongside Japanese candy potatoes and tempura greens have been a success; coming in second solely to Khana. 

Nevertheless, when complete earnings have been calculated, The Simple Vegan’s earlier win gave them the enhance they wanted to formally win their first leg of the race with complete earnings of $2,179.

Regardless of the struggles of competing in Los Angeles—the place foot site visitors is sparse, a actuality the staff wasn’t anticipating—The Simple Vegan trio relied on one another and their group.

“We felt like our [Denver community] was there with us your complete time we have been attending to know the vegan scene in Los Angeles,” Herbert shares. “Individuals in Denver who have been following our journey would ship their [people].” 

“I might get so emotional as a result of someone would stroll as much as the truck, introduce themselves, and say, ‘Hey, I’ve six levels of separation from this individual in Denver,’” Herbert says. “We simply had so many individuals rallying for us.”

The ultimate three episodes of the Meals Truck Race, titled “Household Meals” (a plant-based problem led by Señoreata founder Evanice Holz); “Want for Pace” (a style and velocity problem); and “Closing Showdown” (the place $50,000 will likely be awarded to the successful truck), will air on July 16, 23, and 30, respectively.  

What’s subsequent for The Simple Vegan? Mandolini and Herbert are at the moment engaged on opening a plant-based restaurant below a brand new identify later this 12 months. Within the meantime, they’re nonetheless popping up at farmers’ markets.