Episode 4 of The Great Food Truck Race brought 3 contestants closer to their dream of owning their very own food truck, unfortunately, that means that one of the teams was sent home packing…who could it have been?

SPOILER ALERT AHEAD!!!

The show started with the trucks traveling from Oklahoma City, OK to St. Louis, MO with hopes of making it through the weekend.

The remaining 4 teams to take part of episode four of The Great Food Truck Race season 5 teams are (with Twitter accounts):

Beach Cruiser (Venice, CA)
Let There Be Bacon (Cleveland, OH)
Lone Star Chuck Wagon (Houston, TX)
Middle Feast (Los Angeles, CA)

As the food truck teams approached St. Louis the folks in Middle Feast discussed wanting to keep the momentum. Let There Be Bacon showed that they were thrilled to be back in the Midwest because of our love of bacon and Lone Star Chuck Wagon hatched a plan to increase their prices to attempt to keep them out of the bottom spot.

Tyler Florence met the teams to explain that this week will center around food quality and taste. In a change from other episodes, the trucks would start without any seed money, which led to them starting Day 1 with a SPEED BUMP! Each team would work with a local restaurant to recreate their famous toasted ravioli. Each truck would be provided with the same ravioli, but not prevented from giving them their own spin.

DAY 1

The teams head to the restaurant to get their supplies and a quick lesson in preparing them. Beach Cruiser came right out and asked what the restaurant sells them for to understand the local price point. Middle Feast asks how they can put a Middle Eastern twist on it but the owners certainly didn’t look happy at the idea, so they determine they will sell it as shown.

As the teams head into the city Middle Feast does something that very few trucks have done over the years of this show…they actually reached out to work with a local food truck to find a good spot. Beach Cruiser ended up getting lost which leads to a slow start.

Once everyone was parked lines started forming at all of the trucks except Beach Cruiser. Lone Star follows through with their high priced plan and sells their ravioli for $20. Beach Cruiser is marks theirs for  $5 but also gives the customers a ticket to get a coffee next door for $2. Middle Feast sold all of their ravioli 30 minutes, which provides them with over $300 in seed money to get to the store and buy their products. When the totals come in for the ravioli test Lone Star sold 32 raviolis which gave them a whopping $640 in seed money.

After stocking up the teams head back to the streets. Lone Star continued with their high priced dishes. The lines at all of the trucks were long so who knows who will end up at the top. In a surprise move, Middle Feast began selling tacos which ticked off the crew at Beach Cruiser.

Tyler Florence made a surprise visit to each of the trucks to evaluate each of their menus. Let There Be  Bacon is first but because they were way behind, he jumped on the line to help them out for 30 minutes. He liked their food and gives them some pointers. Middle Feast was told to go back to their roots and be more authentic with the food they serve. Lone Star’s dish was called amateurish and way too high priced for what they were serving. Beach Cruiser was Chef Florence’s favorite, but he still had some tips for them to make it even better.

DAY 2

When Day 2 arrives, Chef Florence met with the teams and basically read them the riot act. He stated that if they were in actual business selling what he tasted yesterday, none of them would be open for longer than 30 days. He announces that today there would be a cooking challenge. The winner would get a huge prize.

After shopping the teams setup and began serving food, including their new dish for the day.

The contestants meet with Tyler again and he gives them another tongue lashing before he lets them go to cook him a sample of their new dish. The dishes were judged on creativity, presentation and taste. The best dish would be given the prize of having that truck’s weekend earnings doubled.

THE TASTING

Let There Be Bacon – Chef Florence wanted to see their bacon play a more visible role in the plating of the dish however he did state it tasted great.

Lone Star – Chef said it was delicious and gave him an emotional connection to the team’s story.

Beach Cruiser – With wide eyes, he said the food was great and his mind was taken directly to Southern California.

Middle Feast – Chef Florence said their dish was delicious and showed passion.

TRUCK STOP RESULTS:

  • Winner ($500) – Lone Star

With the teams lined up to get the results from Tyler Florence he announces their totals. With a whopping $24,000 in totals:

  • Lone Star Chuck Wagon: $10,418
  • Let There Be Bacon: $5,056
  • Middle Feast: $???

With the results in, and with less than $160 separating Middle Feast it means that Beach Cruisers had the lowest amount this week and thus were eliminated from the race!

Next week’s stop? Mobile, AL

So what did you think of the third episode of The Great Food Truck Race? You can share your thoughts in the comment section below or share with us on Twitter or Facebook.

Join us next week on #FoodTruckChat as we live tweet during the show.