Daniel Shemtob Reveals His Favorite Part Of The Great Food Truck Race - Exclusive
Daniel Shemtob's favorite part of "The Great Food Truck Race: All-Stars" wasn't winning. Winning probably didn't ruin his day, of course. During an exclusive interview with Mashed, Shemtob admitted that he was expecting to "definitely be in the final two if not final three." Don't take him for smug. After all, Shemtob won Season 2 of "The Great Food Truck Race" and knows how irresistible his Born From The Lime Truck Cal-Mex tacos are. If you don't, there's hope for you still. Shemtob's franchising, and if you're lucky, a Born From The Lime Truck might show up in a city near you, soon.
Shooting the "The Great Food Truck Race: All-Stars" during COVID also gave Shemtob an unexpected gift. "It was so fun to see the last day ... in San Francisco where it's a ghost town to get 70, 80 people in line," Shemtob gushed. "People were dressed up, they were dancing, deejaying ... And it was probably the coolest vibe I saw." In other words, it was the opposite of the muted, scared, avert-your-eyes atmosphere that permeated the restaurant industry during the pandemic. "It was such a beaming, exciting, peak of the whole show ... having a chance to actually do the hospitality the way you love it." However, the most amazing part of filming was something much more personal for Shemtob.
Daniel Shemtob shares the most memorable part of "The Great Food Truck Race: All-Stars"
Was the competition cutthroat? Sure, in the sense that Daniel Shemtob says that it took "110% to get to that finish line," which means, in plainer words, 12-hour days in which "you wouldn't take one second off." But, behind the scenes and away from the show's cameras, there was also camaraderie. Shemtob and his Born From The Lime Truck team, for example, watched the season finale with fellow competitors Waffle Love from Utah.
Watching back, Daniel Shemtob's favorite part of "The Great Food Truck Race: All-Stars" was that his mother — who died in December of 2020 of cancer — made an appearance. "It was emotional," Shemtob said. "My mom was in it and my mom passed away shortly after that filming. So to have her on the show was probably the coolest thing out of the whole show, for me to watch and see. It's like this amazing ... I'll always be able to reference that point, which I thought was really cool."
Shemtob has been open about how difficult losing his mother is for him, both to honor her legacy and to "build a real community where we can be transparent and vulnerable as professionals," he posted on Instagram. "I'm taking all the lessons I learned from my mom and putting them into action this year, to make this a year that truly honors her."
If you spot Daniel Shemtob and a Born From the Lime food truck in your city, you'd be wise to give his "The Great Food Truck Race All-Stars" winning tacos a try.