Wichita team on ‘Great Food Truck Race’ suffers a come apart during second episode
.jpg "Wichita’s Chad Freeman comforts his wife and food truck teammate Carolina Brandan on Sunday night’s episode of “The Great Food Truck Race’ on Food Network.")
Sunday night’s episode of “The Great Food Truck Race: Games on the Gulf” was filled with dough drama — and the team at the center of it was Wichita’s.
Though Argentina’s Empanadas made it through to the next round of competition, finishing fifth among the eight remaining trucks, it came with tears, panic and a couple of meltdowns by head empanada maker Carolina Brandan.
On Sunday’s episode of the Tyler Florence-hosted Food Network show, teams were sent to Galveston to compete, and that’s where they did the majority of their cooking. But when Argentina’s Empanadas started racing to prepare their Empanada Sampler, they ran into a big problem.
The humidity somehow affected their empanada dough, and Brandan was not able to make it hold together. On the first day of sales by the coast, she became so frustrated that she had to walk off the truck to compose herself. The team, which also includes Brandan’s husband, Chad Freeman, and friend Paola Mentis, decided to scrap empanadas for the day and to instead sell their fillings piled on top of fries.
But when the dough was also disagreeable on the second day of sales, Brandan really lost it.
She began to cry and vented to her teammates.
“I can’t go on in this competition just not making empanadas,” she said. “I just can’t anymore. I’d just rather quit and go home.”
But after a hug from Mentis and a minute to collect herself, Brandan went from desperate to determined. She started experimenting with other dough recipes until she came up with one that worked. The team was able to start serving empanadas again.
Freeman lovingly pulled his wife’s hair back off her neck and rubbed her shoulders during the episodes.
“You’re the best when you just focus,” he told her. “When you just focus and do you, things are great.”
As the group finished day two of sales and met with Florence to see who would be eliminated, the Wichita team members were nervous. They were sure their dough fiasco affected their sales, and the team who makes the least money at each stop is eliminated.
But they were safe, finishing in fifth place for the second week in a row.
After the episode aired on Sunday night, Brandan and Freeman took “a walk around the block after after all the drama” and took questions on Facebook Live. In the video, the couple explained a little more about what they went through during the filming of the episode and gave some behind-the-scenes scoop.
The rest of Sunday’s episode included several offbeat challenges. In the first, teams had to each prepare their own spin on a classic ballpark dish, which would be judged by Florence and All-Star third baseman Justin Turner, who was a guest on the episode.
The teams first had to serve their dishes to a group of little league players, and only the first four to serve four kids would get to move on and have their food tasted by the judges. Argentina’s Empanadas sneaked in at fourth place.
Their dish, al pastor tacos topped with guacamole salsa, was a hit with Turner and Florence, but when presenting the dish, Freeman accidentally let it slip that the team was using pre-seasoned pork.
“I wish I hadn’t said that,” a regretful Freeman told the camera after the challenge.
“Me too,” Mentis chimed in.
“Not my best moment,” he concluded.
The team didn’t win that challenge, but it did finish the episode with $2,948 in sales, keeping it safe in the middle of the pack.
The team that was eliminated was Cooks with Passion from Atlanta.
Next week, the remaining seven teams will move on to Lake Charles, Louisiana, where they’ll apparently encounter some truck-plundering pirates.
The show airs every Sunday at 7 p.m. on Food Network.
This story was originally published July 8, 2024 at 1:52 PM.
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