The Golden Peach that wasn’t.
It’s a crucial week for our remaining competitors. It’s the week before the finale and each of them wants to among the two teams that will compete for the $100,000 prize. Before getting there though, they have to make it through a challenge, a bump, and location dilemmas in Hotlanta.
The competition begins, as it does every week, with the Truck Stop challenge. Tyler informs them that the winner of the challenge should pretty much be guaranteed a spot in the finals. Atlanta is known for two things, peaches and peanuts, and this week they will have one hour to create a dish incorporating the two. They will have to do so using one of three baskets filled with various ingredients after tracking down their own peaches and peanuts on foot. Roxy’s Grilled Cheese is the first one to get their peaches and peanuts, while the Lime Truck and Hodge Podge had a bit more difficulty.
They ended up getting peanuts without a problem, but, when it came to the peaches the Lime Truck had to settle for dried peaches and Hodge Podge ended up with a peach cobbler. Our guest judge, Atlanta restaurateur Kevin Rathbun, thought Roxy’s dish was good but missing some richness, and while he found the Lime Truck had too many flavors on their plate, Hodge Podge’s dish was deemed too sweet after Chris attempted to create a simpler dish to avoid criticism once again for creating a dish that was “too much.” I will give Chris from Hodge Podge kudos though for creating something from the peach cobbler, which was already a completed dish in and of itself. There can only be one winner though, and the winner of the golden peach in honor of Atlanta was Roxy’s Grilled Cheese. This is the second week in a row that they have won the Truck Stop challenge and for winning this week they got an extra $1,000 in their cash box.
Chris was not too happy to lose once again to a grilled cheese truck. I guess he feels that that isn’t real food in comparison to what he makes. I think he needs to expand his food palate and not be so much of a food snob. I have had some pretty amazing grilled cheeses in my day and sometimes the simplest of things can be the best of things.
On the first day of competition in Atlanta Hodge Podge secures themselves a spot at the outdoor mall Atlantic Station as the exclusive food truck. Meanwhile the Lime Truck heads to the Colony Square area and Roxy’s Grilled Cheese heads over to the Five Points district. I must say the food on all of the trucks looked amazing this week. Hodge Podge was the clear winner of the day having never experience a lull in their sales, their lines never slowed down. They even had a visit from the mayor. Unfortunately the Lime Truck and Roxy’s Grilled Cheese struggled throughout the day to maintain a steady flow of customers as both of their locations proved to be poor choices. The Lime Truck did attempt to head over to Atlantic Station but they are told that Hodge Podge is already there. They do garner themselves a spot for the following day though. At the end of the day Hodge Podge is elated by their success, while the Lime Truck and Roxy’s Grilled Cheese are left strategizing for the following day.
On day two as the trucks are getting into the swing of things at their locations, the Lime Truck at Atlantic Station and Roxy’s Grilled Cheese and Hodge Podge in the Virginia Highlands area, Tyler decides it’s time to throw in the monkey wrench of the Speed Bump. This week the Speed Bump has the main chefs on all of the trucks taking a day off and heading over to the High Museum of Art for some culture and relaxation. The Lime Truck had the best advantage in this situation since they actually have two trained chefs on their truck. Brothers, James and Mike, are left on Roxy’s Grilled Cheese and vowed to work together and not fight to make it through the day. Over on Hodge Podge things weren’t as calm when Chris informed Catie and Jacquelyn of the hiccup. Catie is completely numb and Jacquelyn has to become accustomed with the kitchen ASAP as it’s her first time working in there.
Chris simplifies the menu for them and they end up working as rock stars. That said I am getting a bit tired of Jacquelyn’s tactic of stealing customers from the other trucks. She did it again this week with Roxy’s Grilled Cheese offering two dollars off her menu for anyone who left Roxy’s line and headed over to Hodge Podge.
Also, I could have done without the snippets of Chris, Mark and Jason while they were at the museum. Did someone tell them to make those foolish comments or was that all on their own? The whole thing just seemed fake and overly staged. They returned to their respective trucks near the end of the selling day and try to get a final push for some extra sales.
The three trucks made over $24,000 in combined sales for their two days of hard work. Hodge Podge reigned victorious for the first time in this competition earning $8,937. Considering what happened last week with Korilla BBQ this win is even sweeter. The Lime Truck comes in second earning $8,447 and unfortunately the guys on Roxy’s Grilled Cheese come in last with $7,127. That’s with their $1,000 advantage so in actuality they only earned $6,127 this week. Tyler was visibly upset with them. They were the underdogs for a while in this competition and they came back with a vengeance only to end up blowing a $1,000 advantage. It proves that location is everything! In all honesty I would have preferred for the guys on the Lime Truck to be the one’s going home. I can do without their arrogance. The guys on Roxy’s proved to be so gracious at the end while they were driving away. I would have much rather seen them going up against Hodge Podge for the $100,000 prize next week.
Next week, in the season finale, the two remaining trucks head 660 miles southeast to Miami, Fl. How will they deal with their trucks being towed and did I hear Tyler correctly? Do they have to make $15,000 each?
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.