Ms. Patty Melt Food Truck

The term “truck stop” has an entirely new meaning these days.

Rice pudding, exotic ice cream, cupcakes, flavored popcorn, French Fries, Korean tacos or hot soup and artisainal bread are just a few among the literally dozens of street foods offered and flourishing.

A proprietor of a small operation in a busy location can literally make a fortune providing healthy, hearty, homemade sandwiches for the lunch crowd.

Not So Hidden Costs

“Food trucks typically earn a profit equivalent to about 40% of sales,”reported The Globe and Mail. And this is after obtaining licenses and permits that are far from cheap. A new mobile catering permit from the San Francisco Police Department is $9,300.

A used hot dog style cart costs about $2,000, while refurbished trucks for driving and vending can run considerably more than $40,000, with some costing as much as an astronomical $100,000.

Occasionally an investor/partner may be willing to foot the bill for a start-up food truck, but the hope of getting a bank loan may spring pretty much eternal.

Food truck insurance is an additional not so hidden expense not only to protect against the fear of food borne illness, but also in recognition that the truck may be carrying one, or several propane tanks. The chef may be cooking over an open flame or using a hotter’n’hell pizza oven.

And, bad weather is a variable that is impossible to factor into a profit projection.

Sales are likely to plummet on national holidays except for the few, who may prefer to get a turkey taco from a truck rather than committing to a family gathering on Thanksgiving Day.

Permits

The permit permits the purchaser to park in a public place for up to five locations. Each parking spot must be at least two blocks or 300 feet away from a similar food vendor, either a brick-and-mortar business, or another mobile catering vehicle.

If a truck is parked too close to a regular brick and mortar restaurant, it can, and often does, raise an objection citing unfair business practice.

Parking on private property is strictly forbidden and laws are vigorously enforced.

Permits are non-transferable, and the waiting time to get one can extend not for months but years if the city council restricts the number of mobile vendors already allowed to operate.

Some municipalities allow the food to be prepared in a different (but licensed) facility, while others demand all the food preparation be done in the truck itself and properly refrigerated. (It can’t be sloshing about in a Styrofoam cooler.)

Safety First

In many cities, food truck vendors face Health Inspectors who vigorously enforce high sanitation standards.

Spreading the Word

Social media and food truck apps continues to play a large role in food truck success. For instance, more than 50% of Gorilla Cheese’s customers track its location through social media. They tag street locations like tagging friends on Facebook.

In the end, despite all the possible road blocks, owning a food truck could set some feet on the road to happiness.

When I ask my culinary and pastry arts students what they would like to do, the most popular answer is: travel — preferably to Italy. (I wonder if this is because they have grown up with families who love to eat.)

Fancy Food Show, NYC 6/27-6/29, 2010

I suggest instead that they explore NASFT, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade. It is an association of independent, innovative businesses committed to bringing great new foods to market; a diverse community of passionate and creative entrepreneurs, who fuel the innovation and authenticity found in food today.

Since 1954, NASFT has sponsored trade shows like the Fancy Food Show, the premier marketplace for reaching the specialty food trade. These shows attract from 19,000 to 32,000 attendees, who are owners of specialty food stores, and those working in wine, gift and departments stores; supermarket purchasing personnel; restaurant people; mail-order food and cookware, and other related businesses.

The expected 24,000 attendees of the upcoming New York Fancy Food Show (June 27-29) will come to buy from 180,000 products including: confections, cheese, coffee, snacks, spices, ethnic, natural, organic and more from 2,500 exhibitors representing 81 countries.

Many forget that the FMI Show, All Things Organic, United Produce Expo and Conference and U.S. Food Export Showcase joined the Fancy Food Show to make it five shows in one.

Many of the exhibitors are entrepreneurs who created their own recipes and started their own companies–after going culinary school or on a hunch.

Within this vast sector are many opportunities to network, to job connect, to find work with importers and exporters, buyers and sellers.

NASFT also is an organization that tries to nurture and support small and emerging food businesses by providing educational forums, business builder 1 to 1 networking opportunities, even the Sofi awards, which as one judge pointed out, are: “A great way to see what’s next.”

I say to my students, “check the website to find job listings.” Every new product needs help getting to market, from the start in the kitchen to the finish line presentation. Better yet, I tell the students to simply go experience this incredible marketplace of sights and smells, and get inspired.

Next Monday I’ll write about opportunities in eco- and culinary tourism. In coming weeks, I’ll suggest finding employment as a chef in a U.S. embassy or consulate,  as a teacher in a culinary schools in another country or as a food travel writer.

There is always a FOOD JOB to explore.

A student asked me about the risks of opening a specialty food shop and I was able to tell her about my friend Elaine.

Elaine Yannuzzi was one of the most successful specialty food store owners on the East Coast.  She founded Expression unltd. in Warren, New Jersey. At the time there was a wildly enthusiastic interest in what was quaintly known as “GOO’ER-MAY” food. It was fueled by Julia Child, who reigned supreme with The French Chef on public television.

The golden girls of The Silver Palate cookbook (and store) were gaining attention. Martha Stewart was looming on the horizon and dozens and dozens of small kitchen stores were popping up everywhere. Many offered cooking classes, French mustard, Italian olive oil, Belgian chocolates, freshly roasted coffee beans and imported cookies.

Expression unltd. was different.  What made it different is that it made heaps of money.  When the thriving business was sold, a few million dollars flowed into Elaine’s bank account. How did she achieve so much success? She had nerves of steel.

When she walked along the aisles of the Fancy Food Show in New York City, vendors prayed Elaine might stop at their booth.  When she did, she was utterly charming.  She tasted the vendor’s olive oil,  pronounced it excellent. She pulled out her own order form. “I’ll take 66 cases,” she’d say.  Fairly swooning with joy, the vendor beamed.“ He didn’t see the freight train coming.

Next she’d stop at the booth of a Stilton cheese wholesaler. “How much do you have in stock,” she’d ask sweetly. “We’re expecting a new shipment next week,” might be the answer.

“Then I guess you’ll be wanting to get rid of your old inventory?,” she’d muse. “Hmm,“ he’d be wondering where this conversation was going. Then she’d pounce. “As it is nearing its expiration date, I’ll take 78 wheels at a 60 percent discount.”

Stilton cheese lasts almost forever so the customer is more likely to expire before the cheese does.

The cheese seller would be unable to breathe for a moment. But after making a quick calculation and arriving at the conclusion it would be good to make a quick, modest profit, he’d swallow hard, and agree.

“Free freight.” She’d respond primly-Mary Poppins-like as she entered the order on her form. “Gulp!,” the vendor could be heard to gasp.

“And I’ll need a sampling allowance…and an advertising allowance…and 120 day billing!,” Elaine would finish before moving on. Thus she had bought a huge, HUGE quantity of cheese at a price that was, to put a good face on it, pretty close to grand larceny.

When the delivery truck disgorged all the mountains of Stilton, she’d put an ad in the local paper. (Because she was a regular advertiser, the ad was billed to her at a deeply discounted price.)

=STILTON CHEESE=
Regularly $30 a pound
Special Sale
Only $25.95

And the customers lined up to buy it — and all those 66 cases of olive oil that had been “negotiated” on similar terms.  If you’re good at arithmetic, you’ll be able to figure out the profit.

As the BNET Business Network reported, “Slowly, Elaine’s burgundy-and-gray, barn-shaped store in the middle of nowhere became a local and regional tourist attraction and an “in” shopping spot. Epicures from as far as 100 miles away would come to pick up mushroom brushes and elite cookbooks, along with salmon puff pastry, goat cheese, reindeer meat, and margarita-flavored jelly beans.”

Elaine would say, “Whereas the typical food store enjoys stable sales for most of the year, with a “blip” upward just before Christmas, Expression unltd. has stable sales for the first 10 months and then “wild sales for the last two.” That is because, she says, the store so successfully promotes the idea of “food as a gift, food as a special event, food as something that you entertain with at holiday time.”"

The moral of this little story is that to achieve success in the specialty food field, or indeed any other venture, you have to learn the ropes and understand how the system works from the inside. Otherwise, every mistake will be a costly one. And, good fortune results from the finer art of buying and selling more  than the ability to decorate the store nicely.