Fox River Grove team vows to be back after elimination on 'The Great Food Truck Race'
A Fox River Grove team made an early exit from “The Great Food Truck Race,” but the group vows to be back.
Girl's Got Balls, an arancini-themed food truck conceived by Shauna Fetterman, was eliminated after the first episode of the Food Network show's 15th season Sunday night. But Fetterman still has her eyes on the prize.
“I am determined to go back and win it next time,” Fetterman said. “Now that we know what we need to do, we're just focusing on every little detail. So that when we go back, it's going to be second nature.”
The show, hosted by Tyler Florence, takes place this season in Southern California and features nine teams of aspiring food truck owners from around the country. The competitors, whose specialties range from fresh pasta to plant-based Cuban dishes, must cook great food and show their marketing prowess and selling skills in challenges to make more money than their rivals and stay in the race.
In their unfamiliar truck, the Girl's Got Balls team encountered technical difficulties on the first day when the generators couldn't handle their commercial rice cookers in combination with all the other electrical demands of the truck. The slowdown hurt sales on day one, and the team couldn't make up the difference on day two and was eliminated.
“My whole idea going into this was that we absolutely wanted to win. But win or lose, we're going to win either way, just because we're getting this exposure,” Fetterman said. “I'm getting my company out there, and that was the goal.”
The notoriety from the show is already paying dividends.
“We've been getting so many requests,” Fetterman said. “A ridiculous number of people have been emailing and calling and texting us for bookings.”
They recently got booked for the RISE Up McHenry Splash Into Country fest with Brad Paisley.
And on Monday afternoon, she and teammate Carrie Jones got recognized for the first time because of their Sunday TV appearance.
“Literally 15 minutes ago, Carrie and I were in Sam's Club, and this man walks up to us and says, 'I can't believe you guys got kicked off. You guys should have won. Your food looks so amazing.' And then he asked for a picture with us,” Fetterman said.
Jones had even joked last week after they appeared on WGN that people would start recognizing them, and she didn't want the attention.
“And then that happened, and I'm like, 'Never mind, I like this,'” Jones said.
You can find where the Girl's Got Balls team will be next on their Facebook page and eatatggb.com. They will be at Duke's Blues N BBQ Fest this weekend in East Dundee.