Artisanal Pasta ESO’s Cinderella run in Season 15 of Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race” is over, but the future is dawning for three aspiring young chefs from Morristown who are ready to launch their signature products across the country.
Operating a food truck for the first time, ESO Artisanal lasted six episodes before being eliminated on Sunday night, finishing third in a field of nine teams. Next week’s finale will feature Señoreatas, which specializes in modern plant-based Cuban cuisine, and Maybe Cheese Born With It, known in Toledo as “Ohio’s only drag queen food truck.”
“Obviously it’s hard to know we were going home,” ESO’s AJ Sankofa said in an interview Monday. “But every single member of this team left everything on the field. There is nothing more than I can ask.”
They missed out on the $50,000 grand prize, but came home from California with new confidence, fans from coast to coast and various opportunities, including a job offer from host Tyler Florence.
“I want the world to know here and now this is some of the best Italian food I’ve ever tasted,” Florence said after delivering the bad news on Sunday. “I think you’re some of the brightest young culinary talent in America right now. And if you want to come to San Francisco and work for me, I’ll hire you tomorrow.”
“Set it up,” said Sankofa, beaming. “Sounds good.”
Back home Monday, Sankofa said staff are busy at her Elm Street retail store fulfilling orders to sign fresh, high-end pasta and sauce orders that have come in from new followers across the country. They are also starting a new venture – cooking for private parties – and pursuing a longer-term goal of opening their own restaurant.
“We have one [private dinner] planned in 10 days, so that’s a short turnaround,” Sankofa said. “Just cooking in people’s homes or having a venue where people can come to us is the next way to show people where we’re from, cooking-wise, beyond the retail aspect.”
Despite their TV fame as food truck operators, they will only consider a mobile option after establishing a traditional restaurant, said Sankofa, who noted that the process is best done in a kitchen. which is labor intensive to make pasta. “You saw on the show that didn’t work, because it took too long,” he said.
Sankofa, 24, opened the ESO store in 2020, only to close the following year due to a legal dispute with his partners. He reopened in late 2021 with girlfriend Kristina Gambarian, who competed with him on the show. The firm launched its comeback with the help of a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $20,000 and a $10,000 Black-owned grant from the New York Jets Foundation.
Sankofa’s lifelong friend Matt McFadden completed the team in January and was part of the three-chef team on “The Great Food Truck Race.”
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Sankofa and Gambarian, 26, are trained chefs. McFadden, 25, was cooking at Whole Foods in Morristown when he came on board. Stories in the media about the revival of ESO caught the attention of the show’s producers, who invited them to California for the competition.
With a customized food truck at their disposal, they spent about five weeks between March and April taking on surprising challenges while trying to sell in different parts of Southern California.
They came home unable to share any details of their life-changing journey – until their elimination was revealed on Sunday night.
“It was difficult, but we didn’t tell anyone,” Sankofa said.
ESO won an early challenge on Sunday’s show in Long Beach to create its own take on fast food, according to Florence host and Sonic Drive-In Executive Brand Chef Scott Uehlein, who loved the team’s bacon-wrapped hot dogs with cream cheese and “everything. bagel” topping. The win earned them the first hour of daily sales.
The Ballymore crew took in $1,563 for the weekend, finishing behind Señoreatas, who skilfully used social media to attract customers, and Maybe Cheese Born With It, who ran into an LGBT pride parade that the support team for a large number of customer support.
“Where you were hovering in the middle, one city after another, you found your pace here in Long Beach,” Florence said as he bid them farewell. “And you let everyone else know that you’re here to play.”
Maybe Cheese Born With It expressed his appreciation for ESO on his Facebook page on Monday, calling ESO “a team full of the most talented, genuine, kindest people you could ever hope for.”
“Their food is so good it’s criminal!” the post has been added.
ESO fans also took to social media to express their admiration and dismay.
“Your crew was a highlight in a sad and misunderstood season of GFTR,” Chris Johnson posted in one admirer post. “From day one, you have all demonstrated your commitment to providing quality, well-prepared food and have conducted yourselves as true culinary professionals.”
“I’m so disappointed,” posted another fan with the handle Ebony Watts. “I guess I’ll have to make a trip to New Jersey so I can try it out.”
McFadden summed up the trip on the air by saying, “I can’t help but be proud of us. You win or you learn, and this whole experience has been a learning experience, and we’re grateful for that.”
“And now with the momentum that this competition will give us, we are ready to take it to the moon,” said Sankofa.
“What’s next for ESO Artisanal Pasta?” McFadden asked. “An untapped resource that we are ready to bring to all of America, and I hope they are ready for it.”
Whenever that happens, Sankofa said, it will happen in his hometown of Morristown.
“That is very important to us,” he said. “A lot of us plan to do things out of town or even out of state. But I don’t think that fits who we are or what we stand for.”
