Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY— "The Great Food Truck Race" and host Tyler Florence are back for the show’s seventh season of food, sweat and tears, this time welcoming three of Utah’s own Lei-Away Leidies.
Carey Ofahengaue, Summer Prescott and Autumn Prescott, Hawaii natives turned Provo residents, are competing in this season of "The Great Food Truck Race" in a family face-off, in which the show will only feature family teams.
Lei-Away Leidies will be serving authentic “Polynesian Fusion,” as they called it in an interview with KSL.com.
Some of the Lei-Away Ledies’ signature items on the show will include poke bowls, or raw fish over rice, teriyaki chicken bowls and their signature dessert, the Maui Wowie, a fried Portuguese donut rolled in sugar and topped with coconut and guava glaze.
Lei-Away Leidies are one of six family groups competing for a grand prize of $50,000, traveling from Los Angeles through the Southern California Sun Belt, leading up to the finale in Catalina Island on Sunday, Sept. 25 at 9 p.m. PST/EST, according to Food Network.
Each week, the families will receive different cooking challenges and will do their best to sell the most food they can in different cities throughout California.
The families will compete against each other to see who can make the most profit in each location. The least successful team will be sent home each week.
Contestants on "The Great Food Truck Race" are given multiple challenges throughout the competition, including tight budgets that seem low even for a family of four, let alone the crowds of downtown LA or any other city the contestants take on.
Ofahengaue said she and her sister were fully equipped to work with the budget challenges.
“You can’t mess with moms that have a lot of kids,” Ofahengaue said. “We know how to budget, and we can feed the multitudes with one fish and bread.”
Summer Prescott said Lei-Away Leidies had a slight advantage over the other teams because they had worked close together previously within their flower lei business, Lei Away, headquartered in Lehi.
“The fact that we have experience working under stress together, I think, gave us a bit of an edge, an edge that we needed because we’re not professional chefs, we’re not restaurant owners; we’re moms,” Summer Prescott said.
Ofahengaue and the other Lei-Away Leidies had been entertaining the idea of opening a food truck, and when the opportunity was presented to them to participate in the show, they couldn’t say no.
“The restaurant business is one that’s pretty difficult, and with a food truck, it allows you to be a little more part time,” Ofahengaue said. “It allows us to have our Hawaiian hours and work when we feel like it.”
Autumn Prescott said she loved watching people all over the country enjoying the food they were serving them.
“We were serving them teriyaki chicken, but really, we were serving them our Aloha, and showing them what it is to be part of the Polynesian culture,” she said.
Although the Lei-Away Leidies had a great time filming the show, they had their fair share of challenges and uphill battles, starting with driving the food truck.
“The most stressful thing was trying to maneuver that truck through LA,” Autumn Prescott said.
Ofahengaue said trying to draw crowds in cities they have never lived in was particularly stressful.
“You’re in a new location where you don’t have any idea how to get places, and then trying to find crowds when you’re not from a town and only have literally minutes to hours to locate places to sell, it’s very difficult,” Ofahengaue said.
The ladies have fond memories of bonding with other families, specifically with Carretto Siciliano, which included reality star Vinny Guadagnino from MTV’s Jersey Shore.
“We made a lot of friends, but it was a competition, and at the end of the day, we were there to win,” Summer Prescott said.
Ofahengaue said viewers would particularly enjoy watching Lei-Away Leidies on the show because they are authentic, relatable and funny.
“I think it’s going to be fun to watch us,” Ofahengaue said. “A lot of moms can relate. It’s the hustle.”
The crew and other competitors on the show described the Lei-Away Leidies as “killers on vacation,” and praised their positive attitudes and personalities.
“Us just being able to be there, it was like we already won,” Summer Prescott said.
This season of "The Great Food Truck Race" will premier Sunday, Aug. 28 at 9 p.m. PST/EST on Food Network.
