Do you run a food truck business and you want to enter The Great Food Truck Race? If YES, here is a 4-step guide on how to enter The Great Food Truck Race successfully.
What is The Great Food Truck Race?
The Great Food Truck Race is a game that makes teams overcome unpredictable challenges each week to earn points and advance. After everything, only one food truck team wins the grand prize. Each week, you will see the mistakes that cost some teams their dreams as well as the smart decisions the winners make in order to succeed.
How The Great Food Truck Race Game is Played
All participants start out in California and move across the United States to the east coast, making stops in a different city each week to serve their best creations to a new crowd of hungry locals. In this game, the weekly goal is simple: have the most money in the cash box before elimination time.
Along the way, the teams face challenges—Truck Stops and Speed Bumps—that either penalize or propel a food truck in the overall standing. Note that during these Truck Stops, the teams compete in mini challenges put together to test their ingenuity, decision-making, and creativity.
What are Truck Stops in the Great Food Truck Race?
Past Truck Stops include selling a meal inspired by the local cuisine in Manhattan, KS for five dollars or less, creating a five – course meal using only supplies and utensils from the frontier era, and making a dish using prickly pear cactus as a main ingredient.
The winner of each Truck Stop challenge receives a bonus that protects them in the main elimination round, such as extra money in the team’s chest, access to a prime selling location, or additional time to do business.
What are Speed Bumps?
Speed Bumps are random penalties that serve as challenges to all the teams, making it tougher for them to prepare their signature dishes or to meet their sales goals. Have it in mind that these penalties measure how efficiently each truck handles adversity and makes the best of an unexpected situation.
These penalties have included rules that all trucks could only serve vegan food for the week, the teams had to make the supplies they had on their trucks last all day long without restocking, or that everything on the menu had to be sold for less than two dollars.
In The Great Good Truck Race, teams come from all over the country to compete, ushering plenty of culinary creativity along with them. From grilled cheese to Australian barbecue to gourmet waffles, the food truck teams prove that when it is done right, no delicious dish is too specific to deserve its own truck.
Nonetheless, while the quality and creativity of the food and the ingenuity demonstrated during tough challenges are what wins the race, it is the teams’ stories that keep fans watching each week. It is important to note that viewers connect with these aspiring entrepreneurs who are doing whatever it takes to pursue their dreams.
Win or lose, each truck owner has a great shot at making it in the real world because they’ll have already made thousands of fans across the country.
How to Enter the Great Food Truck Race in 4 Steps
To apply, you will have to send an email with your name, age, phone number, photo, proposed teammates (and their photos), description of your culinary background, casting tape, and the idea for your food truck! Moreover, with advances in technology, making a casting tape is actually fairly easy.
It is also relatively easy to get very good results even if you’re using standard equipment. The key is to sell yourself so that the casting director knows exactly what you can offer and why they should consider you for their program. The following steps will help anyone put together a casting tape for submission.
1. Prep Work
Note that just like any food truck has to do at the start of every business day, the most important thing is to prepare everything.
- Character Acting: According to experts, casting departments from this video will see how engaging and watchable you are. But note they are also looking for “characters”: people with a great story, who audiences can root for – or against. Basically, you will want to project an extreme version of yourself.
- Your Goal: You might be asked by the show’s casting instructions ask you to tell them why you want to be on the show. Think of the first 5 reasons you want to try out for this show – and forget about them. Your reason should be unique, personal, and tied to your character.
- The Studio: Ensure you have all of your material ready so that you can do your audition in front of the camera properly. Note that it is very crucial that you record your video somewhere that’s quiet and that you won’t get disturbed. Make sure that it is as quiet as possible. Computers, TV’s and refrigerators all create noise. You should make your recording room as quiet as possible.
- Camera Setup: Take your time to carefully set up the camera by putting it on a tripod and aiming it exactly where you are going to sit or stand. Also, you should ideally stand in front of a white or blue wall. Consider removing anything that is on the wall which could be a distraction.
To avoid shadows, try standing at least 2 feet away from the wall. You can mark where to stand by sticking some tape on the floor. Also make sure that the lighting is enough. Then record yourself for a few minutes. Then, play it back to check the lighting and the composition of the scene.
2. Recording
After you must have made all the above preparations, it is now time to start recording your video. Start by giving your name, age, experience and name. Always ensure that you speak in your natural voice and are calm. Keep your energy and charm on high, and speak directly to the camera. A great way to show you’re not nervous is to make eye contact with the camera and smile.
- Additional Scenes: Remember you need to tape the scenes that you have prepared for your video auditions. Normally, this can be done in your kitchen showing some of your cooking prowess. We suggest you use at least one separate cut in scene of the team members.
3. Editing
After making your video, you have to load all of the files onto your computer and edit them. There will be lots of bits that need to be cut out of the videos to make the audition video as professional as possible. Immediately the video is edited, it can then be compiled and burnt onto a DVD or saved as a computer file.
This makes it possible to send it easily to casting directors. When you’re done, remember to check your video. It doesn’t have to be high art, but you must be visible and the sound must be clear.
4. Submitting Your Casting Tape
The final step in the casting tape process is to send it by visiting FoodTruckRaceCasting@criticalshows.com.html or through the designated season email.
Make sure your submission is sent in prior to the deadline. The easiest way for casting directors to eliminate competition is to hold firm to their submission deadlines and not even bother to click play on the video you spent so much time putting together.
Conclusion
The Great Food Truck Race casts talented chef/cooks with huge personalities and a competitive spirit to embark on a journey of a lifetime. Those cast to compete on the show will go on a coast to coast culinary road trip. The teams will compete to prove who does have the best food truck in America.
Along the way you will build relationships and your brand by out cooking the competition. If after submitting your casting tape the producers like what they see, you will be contacted for a face to face audition, while this process may seem like a lot of work and jumping through hoops, that’s just the casting process.