Things got heated this week as The Great Food Truck Race arrived in Memphis, the home of Southern Barbecue. Of course, the first challenge involved creating a homemade barbecue sauce … oh, yeah, and butchering a 100 lb pig to put the sauce on. The Seabirds girls are probably thanking their lucky stars that they were eliminated last week. All of the teams did surprisingly well with the butchering, but a three hour prep and cook time did the pork no favors. In the end, Roxy won, got an additional $500 in seed money (they all got $500 to start) and a two hour head start on selling.
The other three teams had to stay behind and break down all of the leftover pig and take the meat to a food kitchen as a donation. Even with that obstacle, they all still beat Roxy in opening their trucks because of the extended amount of time it took the Roxy guys to prep. Just as everyone got into their selling groove, that evil Tyler Florence called with a Speed Bump — everyone had to go vegetarian. Now, couldn’t they have been told this before they did all their shopping? Seems like an incredible waste of food to me, so hopefully whatever they couldn’t sell also got donated.
The hiccup didn’t faze Roxy, who just took the meat off of their grilled cheese sandwiches and continued as normal. The others had some menu modifications, but poor Hodge Podge had to shut down completely and go shopping again because the only veggies on their truck were french fries and “cold slaw” (as chef Chris Hodge called it). Korilla was totally thrown for a loop and decided to go with tofu tacos, but the people of Memphis just weren’t buying it.
Day two brought bad weather, no lines (except for Roxy), and a new twist — a local blogger, The Chubby Vegetarian, was going to try something from each truck and do a post about the best one to help drum up business. The winner also got immunity for this leg but no one knew who won until the elimination. The Chubby Vegetarian was not impressed with Korilla’s food (at least not in the TV edit … check out his blog to see how he really felt about the food), liked Roxy’s $9.00 grilled cheese sandwich (with caramelized onions and truffles), and wasn’t happy about Hodge’s mustard-based Carolina-style barbecue sauce, but chose Lime Truck as the winner. During the rest of the selling day, teams moved around town to try to find better locations, but not even a free concert in a local park helped sales.
When all was said and done, elimination day came and Tyler was acting very strangely. Everyone sensed something was off that day, but Tyler got down to business and told Lime Truck they were safe (and they actually came in second with $5377). The other three teams had to deal with some shocking news — one of the teams had cheated by adding $2700 of their own money to the till! Each team knows they have to keep their accounting straight and their totals have to match their receipts. The one team who had the worst, they thought, sales tried to bump up their total so they could stay in the game, but for pulling this little stunt, Korilla was disqualified and sent home. The irony of the matter is that they would have been in third place with $5258 and Hodge Podge would have been eliminated with sales of only $4961.
Worst of all, one of the Korilla guys said as they were skulking back to their vehicles, “He just made us look really bad out there.” Really?!? Tyler made you guys look bad by calling you out for cheating? You couldn’t even be bothered to offer the other teams an apology for damaging the integrity of the competition by trying to inflate your own total? And Tyler made you look bad?!?! I don’t know how their regular customers back in New York are going to take this outcome, but I don’t think I’d bother to patronize their business any more. Sorry guys, but you made yourselves look like total asses on national TV.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Sep 11, 2011 @ 23:51 EST5EDT
I suspect their regular customers aren’t going to give a damn. It’s reality TV…not Mr. Rogers Goes on the Road.
I eat at Korilla for lunch twice a week. I’m glad they are off the show so I don’t have to watch it anymore. Korilla’s food is awesome.
*POST AUTHOR*
I’m sure Korilla has great food and loyal customers … but, really, no one has a problem with cheating? It’s not like it was $100 extra they put in, it was $2700! And then they blamed the show for making them look bad. Personally, I have a problem with a lack of integrity.
I thought that when the two Korilla guys were walking back to their car they were talking about the third member on their crew, the one with the glasses. They weren’t all in on the cheating, just that guy, so they said that he made them look really bad, not Tyler.
*POST AUTHOR*
I don’t know. Could be, but two of us watching thought they were referring to being called out by Tyler. Either way, they cheated, got caught and made themselves look bad.
At first I thought you were right that they might be referring to their friend with the glassees, then after the show I tried to look up news on the net about this scandal, and Korilla’s web site came up at the top of the page. And on the front page is all 3 of them pictured… If I were one of the other 2 guys I’d be so pissed off I would have kicked him off the crew for giving the rest of the group/company a bad name on a national scale… Regardless of a 6 month gag order… I just won’t talk about it for 6 months but I also wouldn’t work with a guy that just screwed the group…
I’m trying to figure out why people keep calling out Korilla for not defending themselves. Food Network has complete control over the editing of the show. You have no idea if they really apologized, defended themselves, or fought back in any way. You’re a moron if you think they showed the entire story on tv. Christ, this planet is dumb.
I agree with you that Food Network has complete control over the editing. If you look on the Korilla twitter feed, they don’t make any statement (really) on the cheating. But then again, It could be because of the contract they signed with Food Network. I’m sure the real story will come out sooner or later.
*POST AUTHOR*
I am well aware of how reality TV editing works. I just find it hard to believe that they completely editing out the Korilla guys saying anything at all (but maybe they were looking into the future and seeing how the editor and producers were going to make them look bad by cutting out their apology). If anything, it would have been good TV to see them either (a)apologize or (b)confront the other guy (but could only one of them have done something like that without the other two knowing?). So, yeah, they may be the victims of a bad edit (and sorry, I’m not Korean so I don’t get Korean subtext), yes, Food Network contractually forbids contestants from discussing a show until it’s aired (or longer … Survivor contestants are bound by contract for a year after the show airs to not discuss specifics) … but in the end, I’m not the moron who cheated and got caught. It’s funny how everyone here is defending Korilla for possibly having a bad edit at the end, but no one is bothered in the least that they cheated. I guess your summation is correct.
Yes thank you this planet is dumb. And I’m not saying this because I am mad but because people are so ignorant and stupid. People should realized that a realitly t.v shows arent really “real” it’s all edited and plotted out like wrestling. Also in most entertaiment contracts it mostly states that the company is allowed to do what ever with their brand name… So people on this planet are ignormate to what the t.v shows them
The 2 guys walking back were definitely talking about the 3rd member of their team. They didn’t know and you can see it on their faces. And if you understand Korean you get the subtext. And I’m 99% sure they are contractually obligated to keep quiet for a while.
If it were the 3 guy who they were talking about and cheated then why is he still on their home page?
They might be under contract not to talk about the show but I doubt the contract says they have to work with each other under bad blood because I would have bought him out, fired him or whatever to distance myself from someone that just destroy a possibly great reputation (because there’s no denying it’s tainted now no matter how much you like them)…
Cheating is cheating if they cheat a national tv what will they do to the public when times get tough
*POST AUTHOR*
Thank you! Finally a sensible comment on the situation.
As soon as I heard CHEAT, I know what team was going home. Way to go Korilla. Awesome way to rep New York, Asians, Koreans…to get kicked off for cheating on 9-11. I’m sure they’re not losing any sleep…they’re already claiming innocence on twitter. I was disgusted with their comments at the end. I don’t think the Korilla guys have any integrity. I bet they drop tortillas on the floor all the time and serve them. I’ll never eat there. I hate liars and cheaters.
*POST AUTHOR*
I actually thought it might have been Hodge Podge or Lime Truck at first. Keep in mind, the show was taped months ago, so it just happened to air on 9/11
I don’t know how they could claim innocence though. I’m sure everyone involved with the show’s accounting went over the numbers more than once. A $2700 discrepancy is a little difficult to chalk up as an accounting mistake when you’re dealing with those kinds of totals.
I think claiming innocence is a K-thang, you wouldn’t know.
Straight up liars.
*POST AUTHOR*
No need to turn this into a racial issue.
Now ur just being racist and it also makes u look stupid
It didn’t surprise me it was them….they’re known for being clever..I never really liked them anyway
I know a good amount of chefs, and from what they’ve told me, integrity is huge in the industry. Your reputation is incredibly important because everyone knows everyone in “the biz,” and if you’re known for cheating or stealing… people remember that. Sure, it’s a TV show competition, but that’s pretty damn shady and people don’t want to be involved with shady business owners.
The Korilla guys seem like smart people. I find it hard to believe that they actually thought they could get away with just dumping an extra $2700 in the till. I can’t wait to hear their side of the story.
I had a feeling it was Korilla that cheated when I saw the previews. I’ll be interested in hearing their side of the story once their nondisclosure agreement with Food Network expires next spring, but I really don’t think that they’re going to do anything except try to justify what they did.
I find it hard to believe that those guys would be that stupid. They knew that their totals had to equal their receipts, and that being branded as cheaters would be worse than losing. They seemed too smart for that. Reality shows are always trying to create something shocking to get attention. I’m not going to judge until I hear their side of the story. It’s not like reality television is known for being honest. I had a feeling something fishy was going on, so I stopped watching after they were eliminated.