The Great Food Truck Race season 18 continued on Aug. 17 as the competition moved from Charleston to Myrtle Beach. Last week, we saw Burger Walla sent packing in yet another close leg of the race, while Nishaan once again claimed the top spot with a commanding lead over their competitors.
Entering the third leg of the race, it’s clear that while Nishaan might be new to the food truck industry, the team knows what it takes to succeed in the competition. Fate has been on their side so far, but could someone finally dethrone them and take the No. 1 spot in Myrtle Beach? Or will their target continue to grow?
Kicking off the teams’ time in Myrtle Beach, Tyler announces that the first challenge of the round is that the teams must innovate and elevate a popular boardwalk dish. As the winners of the last leg of the race, Nishaan not only gets to select their dish for the challenge first, but they also get to select the order in which the other teams will be picking their dish.
Nishaan selects loaded fries for their dish. The rest of the teams then select the following dishes in the following order from first to last: Good Fortune selects skewers, Fat Kid Food Co. chooses corn dogs, Stop Drop N Roll selects street corn, and G’s Cheesesteaks end up with onion rings.
Tyler then announces that there will be three challenges the teams will be competing to win with their elevated street food dishes. The team with the most marketable dish will earn $100 for their till; the team with the most innovative dish will win $200 for their till; and the team with the most delicious dish will win $300 for their till. With $600 on the line, the teams will need to bring their A-game, and it’s possible that one team could end up winning all three challenges if they play their cards right.
One team races past the rest in the Myrtle Beach street food challenge
For their dish, Nishaan serves up some loaded fries with a price point of $17. Tyler drops in to try them, and it’s clear he’s a little unsure about the price, and while he loves the taste, he’s not sold on them being innovative. Next, he drops by G’s to try their loaded onion rings. Tyler loves the price point, but he feels like it could use a little more salt and something fresh.
From there, it’s on to Good Fortune, which has landed on fried chicken skewers with a Korean fried chicken batter. Tyler likes their $7 price point, but feels the dish is lacking something. He helps walk them through adding a secondary sauce and a bit of cilantro, which helps elevate the flavor, but he’s not sure about the marketability or innovation of their dish.
Stop Drop N Roll lands on a street corn spring roll with cilantro sauce. Tyler is really impressed with the dish, but suggests that they make the sauce a little spicier to bring the heat. He then checks out Fat Kid Food Co., who lands on making a deep-fried umami hot dog. He likes the price, and really loves the marketability of the dish.
Finally, he drops by Cooking with Que to try their chicken skin nachos. Tyler loves the innovation of the dish, as well as the delicious flavor.
After trying each team’s dish, Tyler announces the winners of the three-part challenge! Winning the marketability portion of the challenge and the $100 for their till is Fat Kid Food Co., who also wins the innovation challenge and the $200 that comes with it. Tyler then reveals who has won the taste portion of the challenge, hinting that Nishaan has won, before revealing that Fat Kid Food Co. has won the taste challenge as well and the $300 that comes with it. That means Fat Kid Food Co. swept the challenge and won the $600 for their till
Day 2 challenges the team with making a savory funnel cake
Shortly after revealing Fat Kid Food Co. had won all three Day 1 challenges, sales ended, and we moved ahead to Day 2 of Myrtle Beach.
For the second challenge of the leg, each team is challenged with making a savory funnel cake dish that will leave customers saying WTF: What the funnel cake! Whoever manages to sell the most funnel cake dishes will not win money for their till; instead, they will get the chance to shut down one rival truck for an hour. During that hour, the team selected will be unable to do any selling, prep, or cooking, losing a full hour of sales, which could be the difference between staying in the competition and going home.
Before sales begin, Tyler also drops an unexpected update on the team in order to light a fire under them. He reveals that Stop Drop N Roll and Cooking with Que are at the top of the leaderboard heading into Day 2, while Good Fortune and G’s Cheesesteaks are currently at the bottom of the leaderboard.
Day 2 is honestly a bit uneventful, and the results of the challenge come in faster than expected, with Fat Kid Food Co. getting the win. Surprisingly, they chose to close down Cooking with Que in large part because they were parking at the same location as them and were in the Top 2 after the first day of sales. The decision does not sit well with Que, and sales stop shortly after.
Who went home on The Great Food Truck Race in episode 3?
After 2 days of sales, it’s time for the teams to face the music, with one team being sent home. Following the challenges, we know that Fat Kid Food Co. has made at least $1,320 for their till between the $600 they earned in the challenges on Day 1 and the $720 they made to win the funnel cake challenge. But was this enough to push them to the top of the leaderboard?
Despite being one of the bottom after Day 1, Good Fortune ended up claiming the top spot with $5,978 over the course of the two days. It marks the first time that Good Fortune claimed the top spot, while previous leader Nishaan fell all the way to the bottom of the leaderboard and almost went home. Fortunately, they made $34 more than G's Cheesesteaks, who were eliminated from the competition. Here’s a complete breakdown of the leaderboard for the episode:
- Good Fortune - $5,978
- Fat Kid Food C. - $5,513
- Stop Drop N Roll - $4,866
- Cooking with Que - $4,821
- Nishaan - $2,055
- G's Cheesesteaks - $2,021 - Eliminated
This was our closest elimination of the season, and the week goes to show that one week can really make or break. You had two top teams fall to the bottom of the pack, with G's going home and Nishaan just narrowly making it through to the next round.
The Great Food Truck Race airs Sundays at 9/8c on Food Network.