The Truth About Seoul Sausage From Great Food Truck Race: All Stars
Seoul Sausage had never operated a food truck before they competed in season three of "The Great Food Truck Race" on the Food Network, which was the point. The season was given over to rookie truckers, and the grand prize was $50,000 and the opportunity to keep the truck the network had provided for the competition. The playing field may have been steep, but the team ended up leveling the competition. The founders of Seoul Sausage — Chris Oh, Ted Kim, and Yong Kim — ended up winning six out of seven challenges on their way to winning the entire competition.
Seoul Sausage was able to translate Korean barbecue into a food truck-friendly menu that won the hearts of communities that had never even seen a Korean market before. Kim recalled an early round of the competition, held in Amarillo, Texas. "We couldn't get kimchi, but we made these flavors and these recipes — they got it, they loved it," he told CAPE. "That's when I was like, 'America's ready for Korean flavors.'" However, Seoul Sausage isn't up against rookies anymore. The Los Angeles food truck will face off against other winners from past seasons in "The Great Food Truck Race: All-Stars," which premieres Sunday, June 6 on the Food Network.
Seoul Sausage won "The Great Food Truck Race" without making sausages
Chef Oh told Halo Halo that Seoul Sausage was born from his desire to catch the Korean taco wave cresting in Los Angeles a decade ago. But the taco idea was already taken. "Everybody loves sausage, everybody loves Korean barbecue, so whey not put the two together?" he explained. "Literally, I was just pumping out sausages every night for weeks and weeks and weeks," he told CAPE. However, Seoul Sausage couldn't make any of its namesake dishes on season three of "The Great Food Truck Race" because the team didn't even have a sausage maker on the truck.
Instead, Seoul Sausage refashioned its sausage ingredients into hamburgers and fried balls. The kimchi fried rice balls were such a hit on the show, they wound up on Seoul Sausage's menu at its Los Angeles restaurant. The parents of the founders of Seoul Kitchen didn't picture their sons making sausages for a living, but have since come around to the idea. "When we knew we had a hit is when our parents tried it, and they actually were like, 'We can vouch for this,'" Kim told Trippy Food. Now the proud parents and all the other Seoul Kitchen fans can root for their favorite truck in "The Great Food Truck Race: All-Stars."