Who won the Great Food Truck Race?

[Joanie]

I'd barely watched but turned it on to see the finale, only to be annoyed by the Hodge Podge dude always kind of yelling his comments (and reminding me of some Hell's Kitchen bozo from a couple seasons ago), so I turned it off. But curious who won with all the wrenches Tyler seemed to be ready to throw into the mix. Thanks.

[John E.]

I think the lime truck should have lost just because of the watch that one of them was wearing.

[inaplasticcup]

I thought you were gonna say pants. If you'd said pants, I might have agreed. :)

[John E.]

I didn't notice the pants. I did notice that their headbands seemed to be pulled down too low.

[Njchicaa]

I liked The Lime Truck and Hodge Podge the best out of all of the competitors. That being said, I really wanted to see Hodge win as the chef just had so much heart. I was happy to see that they were very classy when they realized they lost, though. I hate poor sports.

[LurkerDan]

It's funny, I seem to be the only person who found the Hodgepodge guy annoying and obnoxious and as cocky as anyone on the show. He can cook, and I don't think the Lime guys were any better, but it's kind of funny reading all these posts about how he was so much cooler. Almost makes me wonder if we're watching the same show.

[Joanie]

That was the reason I didn't bother watching the whole ep. It wasn't so much what he said as how he said it, he sounded loud and kind of stupid IMO. i actually liked the Lime guys better in the first 15 min.

[rockandroller1]

You know what else I was thinking? What if someone had gotten into a horrible accident and injured or killed someone (or themselves) busting ass to try to get to the stupid beach. how is this a good measure of a cook or a truck at all?

[paulj]

I wonder if this show was produced by the same people who did Chefs v City? That too had a racing finish.
_______________________
Different people. CvC is Pietown; GFTR is Relativity

Other Relatively shows are:
Carson Nation (OWN)
Coming Home (Lifetime Network)
Confronting (OWN)
Gigolos (Showtime)
Great Food Truck Race (Food Network)
Life on a Wire (Discovery)
Miss Advised (Bravo)
My Extreme Animal Phobia (Animal Planet)
Picker Sisters (Lifetime) Police Women (TLC)

[John E.]

I actually enjoy American Pickers when I happen to catch it. I watched one full episode of the Picker Sisters and would rather be tied up, be covered in honey, and placed upon a nest of Amazonian fire ants than be forced to watch another.

[applehome]

My wife and I were completely dissatisfied with the ending. But come to think of it, the entire series had multiple flaws, and the ending just went along with the rest of the show. Why was the ending about a car/foot race, and not about cooking great food? And I'm not sure about the 5 minutes thing - that was all editing. Who knows what the real sequence of events was.

Why was the show about overcoming silly, nonsensical "roadblocks" that had little to do with the real skills (cooking, marketing) involved in running a food truck? And would anyone really have payed $35 for a trio of desserts?

[LurkerDan]

Yeah, the $35 dessert trio seemed bizarre. Heck, even $10 for a dessert (as they also said they might charge) seemed bizarre. I would rarely pay $10 for a dessert at a restaurant, I can't imagine paying that at a food truck.

This is far from my favorite show, though I did semi-enjoy watching it.

[John E.]

I think the five minutes came about because Chris Hodgeson asked one of the lime guys how long they had been there and the reply was 5 minutes. It appears the biggest factor in deciding the winner at the end was how far away from the finish line they started their mad dash after reaching $15k. We really do not know the actual timing or sequence because of the editing.

I was rooting for Hodge Podge to win because I think the owner Chris is much more likeable than any of the lime truck guys. He did not appear to ever talk trash about the other competitors, just how hard he had to work.

They did the truck stops and speed bumps to keep it interesting, especially to the non-foodie types watching.

I was wondering about $35 for a trio of desserts that included puppy chow made with cereal, peanut butter and chocolate. It's good, but for $35 you could make more than you could eat in a month.

[pine time]

Yes, I thought the $35 dessert trio was way over the top in terms of price, especially in this economy. Plus, these were food distribution workers, not some uptown lawyers, so I found it suspicious they'd pay that much. That said, kinda sad Hodge didn't win--the chef seemed nice, very talented, and less trash-talking than the Lime guys.

[inaplasticcup]

Agreed. That was about as anticlimactic as finales get.

And the roadblocks were ridiculous. I think it could have been compelling just to see how the trucks dealt with social/food culture/social networking culture differences as well as changing regulatory issues as they went from region to region.

But for all of Lime Truck's trash talking in confessionals, I think they played the game fairly, and I'm glad they won.

[paulj]

Wouldn't it be easier (and faster) to read about networking and regulatory issues, than to see them discussed on the show? You might be interested in that background information, but the producers probably rightly guessed that most viewers would not. Most want drama, not a documentary. The same applies to the cooking details. A fraction of the viewers, especially ones who spend their day reading about food on the internet, want the cooking secrets; the rest are there for the entertainment.

[inaplasticcup]

To the extent that this is a reality show (and I think it's a little bit of a hybrid - all out reality show to me - which is to say not reality at all - is something more akin to Real Housewives), much of the drama that people are looking for is usually taken care of in the casting process. Competition brings out drama, period.

IMO, the human drama that often compels people to stay tuned to this type of thing shows itself through the personalities and natures of the participants. That is to say that a competition that focused on the teams' abilities to adapt to and navigate new environments with the end goal of making the most money would still have produced drama, even without some of those ridiculous roadblocks.

I'm not so naive as to think I'm going to watch something as thought provoking as a good documentary on Food Network, for gawd's sake...

[paulj]

I suspect that the show production team took care of the regulatory issues. For example if local ordinances require that the trucks be cleaned and serviced at an established commissary (Los Angeles?), then that was arranged ahead of time. At most we see the teams arranging with some pub or market organizers for a place to operate. That is shown as part of their initiative and marketing skill. Likewise their choice of suppliers. But we aren't shown the mundane details of where they bought gas, or slept for the night.

[rockandroller1]

Completely agree with you and with John E below - how far away you were from the finishing point is the winner? Just completely stupid, had nothing to do with cooking or even making money the fastest. Driving, traffic, speeding, location, etc. I think the team who received the money first that took them to the $15K should have been pronounced the winner on the spot. This dumb driving to Tyler on the beach, running down the sidewalk, it was just stupid. I really hated so much of this show and the dumb "roadblocks" I am never watching it again. I only watched it as I was interested in the Hodge Podge truck, but that was just grueling and annoying to watch.

[Shrinkrap]

I wasn't comfortable with the role that begging and pleading with potential customers played.

[scubadoo97]

I knew there was a reason I found this series a bore. Just couldn't get into it. Too much FN BS this time. They're good at taking a good concept and messing it up. I know I'm not their target audience

[smartie]

Lime Truck won it by about 5 minutes, the first to reach takings of $15000 had to hightail it to a location to find Tyler.