The Great Food Truck Race season 18 is nearly complete, with just two more legs of the race standing between the final teams and the $50,000 grand prize!
This week, the action moved to Newport News, Virginia, and the leg opened with a surprise change to the normal format. Rather than laying out a challenge for the teams before Day 1 sales began, following an introduction from Tyler Florence, the teams got right into selling… little did they know that the first challenge of the leg was secretly underway.
For the first challenge of episode 7, the teams began prepping for the day and getting sales going. They were waiting for Tyler to call and let them know the details of the challenge, but what they didn’t know was that Tyler was watching each team in their trucks via live feeds of the trucks and would be judging them in the first challenge based on their efficiency.
After watching the teams for about an hour, Tyler identified a clear winner in Good Fortune. Tyler was wowed by the team’s prep work and efficiency as a team, and awarded them with $300 for their till as the winners of the challenge.
While Nishaan had some flaws and landed in the middle of the pack, Cooking with Que proved to be quite a hot mess and lost the challenge. Not only did they lose the challenge, but Tyler shut them down for an hour and gave them some tough love in working with them to make them more efficient with some coaching.
Aarti Sequeira helps judge the Day 2 challenge
For Day 2, the teams must find their own locations to sell. While the weather is not the best and threatens to wash them out, the crowds still show up in droves to try the trucks’ menus. Everyone seems to be getting good sales despite the rain and the locals aren’t the only ones stopping by the trucks this week.
Joining Tyler to help judge the second challenge of the leg is Food Network Chef Aarti Sequeira. With $300 on the line, the teams are tasked with dressing up a Chesapeake oyster by putting their own spin on the local classic, which elevates the dish while celebrating the oyster.
Up first was Nishaan, whose dish wowed Aarti, but she worried that the oyster took a back seat to the dish’s other, more prominent flavors. Next was Cooking with Que, whose dish left Aarti speechless with no notes. Finally, we ended with Good Fortune, whose dish fell flat with both Tyler and Aarti finding pieces of shell in the dish.
After tasting each dish, it was Cooking with Que who won the challenge and $300 for their till in the process. With that, Day 2 came to a close and we moved on to the elimination.
Who went home on The Great Food Truck Race this week?
At elimination, Tyler revealed that the time in Newport News, Virginia, brought about a historic moment for The Great Food Truck Race with all-time records in sales for a 2-day leg in the race. In fact, the teams pulled in nearly $35,000 in sales between the three teams!
Taking first place and setting a new 2-day sales record was Good Fortune with a whopping $12,290 in sales at Newport News. This secured their place in the finale, but who would be joining them? That would be Nishaan, who earned $11,080 over the course of the 2-day leg and secured their place in the finale. This meant we said goodbye to Cooking with Que, who came in last place with $10,822.
Next week, the season comes to a close in Norfolk, Virginia, as Good Fortune and Nishaan battle it out for the $50,000 grand prize and title of The Great Food Truck Race champion!