Fresh from the delicious success of last year's series, Battle of the Food Trucks returns with a brand new batch of hopefuls in a bid to find the best food truck chef in Ireland. Last year saw Kwanghi Chan, owner of 'Bites of Kwanghi’, crowned the winner for his Asian food truck that combines Asian and Irish produce and flavours, inspired by Hong Kong street food.
Now on the hunt to find the next winner of the title, host James Patrice returns with six of the country’s top food truck chefs who are set to battle it out with dishes attempting to wow the judges. Judging this year’s competition are two of Ireland’s leading authorities on all things food. Returning to the show is former head chef at Michelin-star recipient Chapter One, Eric Matthews, and a new face on Battle of the Food Trucks in Gráinne Mullins, an award-winning chef and the founder of Grá Chocolates.
In the first episode, we meet our fresh crop of chefs who are tasked with making their truck’s crowd-favourite signature dish in a bid to impress the judges. From Dublin, the lineup includes Scott’s Mexican ‘Los Chicanos’ and Richie’s Filipino-inspired ‘Bahay’ food truck, Christopher’s Indian ‘Spice Genie’ hails from Cork, Asian and south-American flavours come from Nathan’s ‘Ginger’s BBQ’ truck in Kildare, Louise from Limerick presents ‘Soul Rolls’ Sushi and Caomhán from Clare has an array of plant-based food on offer with ‘The Salt Project’.
The chefs will battle against the clock to get their signature dishes cooked to perfection ahead of the judges’ taste tests. Among the competition, we’re promised Louise’s mouth-watering tiger prawn sushi burrito roll that comes with seasoned sushi rice, nori, cucumber, avocado, spring onion, crispy onions and toasted sesame seeds. It was moving home to Ireland from London that prompted Louise’s food truck endeavours, as she missed the endless food options from abroad. Nowadays, she juggles her food truck with a full-time job and family life as a mum of three.
The judges promise to be fair in their adjudication, looking for high-quality food, personality, finesse, flavour and strong attention to detail in these signature dishes. Caomhán hopes to nail the brief by serving up a tantalising veggie bowl with cauliflower rice, hibachi-grilled vegetables and Wicklow halloumi, topped with crispy spring onion.
In the truck next door, Richie will perfect Filipino inihaw na manok, lumpia and sinangag (grilled chicken skewers, pork spring rolls and garlic-fried rice), all of which was inspired by his Dad’s heritage. It was losing his job as a chef during the pandemic that led to him setting up Bahay food truck with his girlfriend, bringing Filipino flavours to the masses.
Inspired by his travels around Mexico, Scott will be cooking grilled Mexican street corn, which consists of a corn salad coated in corn crema with roast peppers and chorizo. Meanwhile, Christopher hopes to bring some heat with his chicken tikka with pulao rice, homemade naan and okra fries.
Japanese-style fried chicken karaage burger with Asian slaw and watermelon salad washed down with freshly-made carrot and pineapple juice are Dad-of-two Nathan’s offerings. He left 20 years of fast-paced kitchens behind to get a better work/life balance and opened his food truck, which he now hopes to bring to glory. But he’s not alone in that endeavour, as the other chefs promise to cultivate culinary perfection to get their trucks over the finish line.
The competition is shaping up to be fierce. There’s sure to be slip-ups along the way, as some chefs tempt fate by over-promising and under-delivering due to time constraints. Tune in to see the chefs stand by nervously as the judges deliberate over which food truck will be put in reverse and eliminated from the competition. Who goes home? Who progresses to the next round? Whose food truck runs out of electricity? You’ll have to tune in to Battle of the Food Trucks to find out.
7UP Free are proud partners of the Battle of the Food Trucks, inspiring the country with many delicious dishes from incredibly talented chefs -- exclusively on RTÉ Player. The ingredients to many a great moment are simply good friends and good food; made all the tastier with a 7UP Free.
Join James Patrice as things heat up in the battle to crown Ireland's best food truck. Watch it here now on RTÉ Player.
