Article
Food truck expert finds his skills in demand in reality TV
As one of the best known food truck experts in Las Vegas, Edward Tallman is always on call for helping out in any number of ways with special events involving food trucks.
September 4, 2019 by Elliot Maras — Editor, Kiosk Marketplace & Vending Times
Part one in a two-part series.
Anyone who gets into the food truck business has to wear many different hats. But few wear as many as Edward Tallman.
In addition to running his own food truck in Las Vegas, Tallman serves as the food truck coordinator for Food Truck Network's "The Great Food Truck Race." And, as one of the best known food truck experts in Las Vegas, he's always on call for helping out in any number of ways with special events involving food trucks.
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| Ed Tallman has found his expertise in managing food trucks in high demand. |
With the next "The Great Food Truck Race" season coming up soon, Tallman may have to find additional help to manage his El Queso Guero Mexican food truck. In the meantime, he might get called to arrange food trucks for a Las Vegas special event. Anyone looking for help to arrange food trucks in Las Vegas is likely to be seeking him out.
And he's not complaining.
"It's freeing," is how he described the food truck business in an interview with Food Truck Operator. "You're bringing the food to the customers and not having to worry about the customers coming to you," he said.
The journey begins
Tallman, 35, found his vocational direction at age 13 when he took a job washing dishes at a pizza restaurant in his home town, Morrisville, New York. "That was where I first started to cook," he said.
After graduating high school, he attended the Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Pittsburgh, where he earned his chef certificate. He spent some time at Turning Stone Resort Casino and Vernon Downs Race Track, both in Vernon, New York, before moving to a sports bar in Canastota, New York, as manager and chef.
When he took a vacation to Las Vegas in 2012, he decided he liked the city and began applying for jobs there.
Shortly after returning from Las Vegas, Tallman got a call from chef Antonio Nunez, who was then working at the Border Grill at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. Tallman didn't hesitate when offered a position as a line chef, and relocated to Las Vegas.
An introduction to food trucks
It wasn't long before he became enamored with the Las Vegas food truck scene. Looking to expand his horizons, he took a second job as a chef for the Coast 2 Coast food truck three months after joining Border Grill. Two months later, Coast 2 Coast asked him to become the manager, and he accepted. Coast 2 Coast was his first full-time food truck position, and he hasn't looked back.
About a year later, Tallman received a call from David Hauser, an entrepreneur and investor who is best known as the co-founder of Grasshopper Group, a virtual telephone service. Hauser was investing in Las Vegas food trucks and wanted Tallman to manage two of his food trucks.
Tallman accepted the position, and credits Hauser with helping to strengthen his business management skills. "I'm not the office type," he said.
In 2013, Tallman joined a newly-formed company, Culinary Logic LLC, which operated four food trucks — Ben's BBQ and Smokehouse, Sin City Wings, Sin City Pizza and Slidin' Thru — and a 6,000-square-foot commissary in Henderson, Nevada, a Las Vegas suburb. They rented out commissary space to other food trucks.
Tallman was in charge of overseeing the commissary and scheduling the trucks. Clients included the Las Vegas Convention Center and the University of Nevada Las Vegas. The trucks participated in various festivals, including Burning Man, the Cochella Music Festival, the Life is Beautiful Music & Art Festival and the Fire Water and Ice Festival in Salt Lake City.
An introduction to television
Tallman's introduction to television came in 2013 when he got a call from "Late Night Chef Fight," an FYI reality TV series which featured Las Vegas chefs vying to prepare the best tasting dishes using ingredients left over in food trucks, co-hosted by boxer Laila Ali and restaurateur/chef Vic "Vega" Moea. "They used our food trucks in the competition," Tallman said.
Then, in 2016, he got a call from Critical Content, the company that produces "The Great Food Truck Race," seeking his help getting health permits for food trucks, finding commissaries and training the contestants for season seven, which began in Los Angeles. He was on the road with the film crew for six weeks. "That was my first on-the-road gig," he said.
The next year the company called him back for season eight, which kicked off in New Orleans. The food truck rules in New Orleans were more challenging than other states. For example, Tallman had to find out where to dump grey water, where to dump fresh water and where to access power.
In 2017, he got a call from The Vegas Rat Rods, a reality TV show on the Discovery Channel that focused on dilapidated vehicles getting souped up in a Las Vegas repair shop. The crew wanted to feature bio fuel for a fuel delivery truck and asked Tallman for oil from a chicken wing fryer.
Tallman gave them five gallons of oil he drained from the chicken wing truck. "It was amazing," he said. "It was a semi truck running on chicken wing fryer oil."
But despite his prominence as a food truck expert, Tallman nurtured a strong desire to launch his own food truck. Part two of this series will explore his first very own business venture.
Photos courtesy of Ed Tallman.
About Elliot Maras
Elliot Maras is the editor of Kiosk Marketplace and Vending Times. He brings three decades covering unattended retail and commercial foodservice.
