Imagine being one of those people who dreams up reality television ideas somewhere in a conference room, take-out cartons lined up like stalled traffic along a landscape of iPhones and notepads. A roadside stream of spilled coffee. Plastic spoons like stop signs. Okay, so what if we crossed The Amazing Race with Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, maybe with a little Deadliest Catch, a bit of Top Chef and, I don't know, a YouTube video of the 1975 song “Convoy.” We of course have no way of knowing the genesis of the Food Network's new series, The Great Food Truck Race, but it's fun to think about. Perhaps instead of take-out, that Food Network lunch was catered by a food truck.

The Great Food Truck Race is an elimination competition show, hosted by Tyler Florence and premiering August 15th, in which seven food trucks travel the country and compete in various challenges for a $50,000 grand prize. Of the seven trucks competing, six are from California, and four of those six are based in Los Angeles. Thus your convoy includes: Nom Nom Truck (L.A.), Nana Queen's (L.A.), Grill 'Em All (L.A.), Ragin Cajun (L.A.), Crepes Bonaparte (Fullerton), Spencer on the Go (San Francisco), and Austin Daily Press (Austin, Texas). If you had any doubt that Los Angeles is the hub of the neo food truck road map, I guess this counts as the Food Network imprimatur.

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