By Gail Pennington  |  St. Louis Post Dispatch
of “The Great Food Truck Race,” which aired Sunday, Sept. 27.
Sunday night’s two-hour season finale of “The Great Food Truck Race” stopped briefly in St. Louis before declaring its winner in Chicago.
The stop, on the riverfront, was a good plug for Gateway Arch Riverboat Cruises, which served as a backdrop, and also for Adam’s Smokehouse, whose owner and pit master helped out on the challenge.
Host Tyler Florence, who called Adam’s his favorite St. Louis barbecue stop, told the two remaining teams (Waffle Love and Pho Nominal Dumplings) that St. Louis was known for a range of foods including pizza, toasted ravioli and gooey butter cake, but especially for barbecue. (A previous season’s stop in St. Louis introduced the baffled teams to toasted ravioli, and what to do with it.)
The teams had to cook three meats in a St. Louis style: pork steak, chicken and ground beef.
Judging the head-to-head competition were Adam’s pit master Alex Cupp and owner Frank Vinciguerra. “We like our sauce sweet and our meat smoky,” Cupp told the competitors in the segment, shot in June.
After a winner was declared, the teams were sent off to Springfield, Ill., and then Chicago for the finale.
The continuity here was bizarre. The trucks were shown heading across the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial bridge, then shopping at Fields Foods in Soulard/Lafayette Square, then on the highway again. Then, between commercials, they were seen selling in two locations in St. Louis, a task that hadn’t previously been mentioned. The next segment picked up on the highway again.
To find out the winner of the season, with a $50,000 prize, go to the Food Network’s website.
