What’s a Waffadilla? Hampshire family to compete on Food Network’s ‘The Great Food Truck Race’

Two questions immediately come to mind when you see the Waffadilla food truck for the first time.

What is it and how do you pronounce it?

The Hampshire concept, pronounced waff-a-dill-a, will compete on season 19 of Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race,” which premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday, July 26.

The television show, hosted by Tyler Florence, features eight food truck teams competing to prove they can cook great food and demonstrate the marketing prowess and selling skills to make more money than their rivals and stay in the race.

This season, which airs and streams on Food Network and Discovery+, starts in Nashville, takes a route through the Great Smoky Mountains and wraps with the finale at Churchill Downs in Louisville on Sept. 6, where one team will be awarded the $50,000 grand prize.

Waffadilla is the creation of Madison Peterson, 30, who teams up with her husband, Shawn Peterson, and her brother, Gavin Mari, on the show.

Back to question one. Just what is a Waffadilla?

“Envision a quesadilla,” Madison Peterson said. “But we put cheese on the outside, and we press it in a waffle iron, so it's crispy on the outside, gooey in the center.

“The grease kind of just dissipates out,” she added. “So it's everything a quesadilla is missing, where you don't get that flimsiness. You get a little bit of that crunch.”

Unlike many food truck operators, Peterson, who grew up in St. Charles, doesn’t have any formal kitchen training.

“I have no chef culinary background to begin with,” she said. “I’m just a mom trying to make it happen day by day, moment by moment.”

Waffadilla is a product of that moment-by-moment ethos.

Shortly after moving into their new home in Hampshire five years ago, her then 7-year-old daughter wanted a quesadilla for lunch. Problem was, they hadn’t unpacked the kitchen yet.

But she found a waffle iron.

“I had the ingredients. So I just pressed it in the waffle iron, and she loved it,” Peterson said. “And it became a thing we did at home.”

It evolved with some experimentation.

“I’ve got to be extra, so I put the crispy cheese on the outside,” she said. “Years down the line, Waffadilla was born.”

While she had to use a truck provided by the network on the show, her Waffadilla food truck is actually a trailer, as opposed to the typical box truck you normally see.

She rolled out the distinctive white trailer with big windows on three sides and a marquee on top in March 2024.

Inside, they make the Waffadillas, which can be filled with chicken, in either a classic quesadilla shape, folded taco style or as “dilla dunkers,” a larger Waffadilla cut into strips.

All are served with house-made dipping sauces, with flavors that include garlic cream, zesty ranchero, sriracha honey, spinach artichoke, blueberry BBQ and maple chipotle.

And each order comes with a little affirmation card as a bonus. The little pick-me-up cards have sayings like “The truth is … Someone’s out there talking about how cool you are right now.” Each has a to/from space on the back to pay it forward.

“What we’re trying to build, it’s always been about bringing people together and building a connection and joy around food,” Peterson said.

Though Peterson says she and her husband watch and love “The Great Food Truck Race,” they never thought about competing on the show.

“It was never something we aspired to,” she said. “But once the opportunity came, we were like, ‘Let’s make this happen.’”

That opportunity came unsolicited. Producers for the show found them and urged them to apply after seeing posts from an influencer that had reviewed their food.

“I don’t know how that process works, but we were incredibly honored,” Peterson said. “For us to be sought out was truly incredible.”

Peterson said getting to know the other food truck competitors was the best part of the experience.

“For us to all kind of collaborate together, whether we were on screen or off screen, we all became a huge family,” she said.

Peterson said host Tyler Florence was “very friendly” off camera and extremely encouraging.

“He wanted to talk to us about business and growing our business, and you could tell that’s part of his passion,” she said. “He helped us out a lot.”

As for the future, Peterson said she wants Waffadilla to offer handheld concessions at various entertainment venue spaces. The food truck has been booked for every home game of the Kane County Cougars in Geneva this season.

“We want to be at ballparks,” she said. “We want to be the next stadium food, essentially.”

Peterson said being on the show and getting so much positive feedback was a very validating experience.

“It really was an eye-opener for me, (hearing) that Waffadilla is something special, even though the ingredients are simple,” she said. “We do really have something great and something different. It was nice to feel reassured.”