Owners of Wichita food business are competing on network reality show
The owners of a Wichita business are in the process of filming for a national televised reality competition.
Carolina Brandan and Chad Freeman — the husband-and-wife owners of Argentina’s Empanadas — are in Texas now competing on the show, which they aren’t allowed to name.
It’s apparent, though, that they’re competing on Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race” hosted by celebrity chef Tyler Florence. On his social media accounts, Florence has been sharing the same fliers inviting fans out to patronize the food trucks that Argentina’s Empanadas owners are sharing on their own social media accounts, and Florence isn’t being at all shy about saying that the trucks are part of Season 17 of “The Great Food Race.”
The show, which has been airing since 2010, pits between six and nine teams of food truckers against each other and sends them out on the road to compete while selling their food and completing challenges. Each week, the food truck that brings in the least profit is sent packing. The truckers that make it to the end in the past have won $50,000, and in some cases, their own food trucks.
At the moment, Argentina’s Empanadas doesn’t have its own food truck, though the couple has purchased a camper they plan to transform into one and open later this year.
Brandan and Freeman started their business at home at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, selling Argentinian empanadas stuffed with fillings like beef, chicken, caramelized onions, smoked ham and more. Brandan is an Argentina native and dreamed of operating her own restaurant.
They quickly learned they needed a commercial kitchen to legally operate and moved their operations to the kitchen of Reverie Coffee Roasters. Then, in the spring of 2022, they started selling empanadas from the Anchor Meat Market at 1113 E. Douglas — a setup they knew was temporary.
That arrangement ended in July, and since then, the couple has been putting on occasional pop ups around town while they continued their search for a more permanent way to sell their empanadas. They bought the camper from the neighbor, and they hope to have it out on the streets of Wichita by late spring or early summer, Freeman said. They’re also still looking for a brick-and-mortar spot.
I’ll let you know when more information about the show is available.
This story was originally published January 22, 2024 at 1:47 PM.
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