Driving through the flavour zone

We’ve all been there: tapping our toes at a food truck, mulling over the menu and hoping the line will speed up.

Next time you find yourself in this situation, take your eyes off the prize for a minute and appreciate the vehicle behind the business.

Whether your flavour match is a burger, fish and chips, wood-fired pizza or dumplings, it’s time to enjoy some awesome Aussie food trucks.

Taking gourmet on the go

The way that mobile food makes the rounds is forever changing.

Hand-pushed food carts—with a bain marie for hot food—were the original go-to solution. This progressed through to trailers hooked onto cars and other passenger vehicles and then onto bespoke builds with fully integrated kitchens.

It’s a given that almost anyone who grew up in Australia fondly remembers an encounter with an ice cream van on a scorching summer’s day!

Trucks are now making their mark on the mobile food industry and are growing more popular with mobile food vendors for a variety of reasons.

With a higher gross vehicle mass (GVM) than 4WDs, utes, and vans, trucks offer unrivalled space for larger integrated kitchens and extra room for staff to work in, with many still being able to be driven on a standard car licence (with a GVM of 4,500 kg or under).

Thanks to generous payloads, trucks also have no trouble towing carts or trailers with extra equipment like chalkboards, tables and chairs, in addition to onboard kitchens.

Let’s take a look at some local legends who have taken their wares on the road.

Dumpling masters

Based out of Geelong, The Li'l Dumpling Van (now a dumpling truck!) is famous for its delicious morsels of delight, traditionally known as ‘dim sum’, not to be confused with ‘dim sim’.

Their handmade dumplings are available in beef, chicken, pork, and vegan varieties and use fresh seasonal produce.

Originally selling from their home in Melbourne, Emma and husband Herris, the chef of the operation, wanted to take the business on the road to offer pan-fried dumplings to punters on the go.

In the past, their setup was a mobile kitchen on a trailer, hooked onto their passenger ute. Emma and Herr were keen to upgrade their mode of transport for increased pulling power and a larger kitchen to meet the high demand for their delicious dumplings.

The duo moved on to a medium-duty truck with a customised kitchen, which allowed them to store and serve more dumplings on event day with plenty of room for staff.

“With the heavy build and the appliances in the kitchen, we knew we needed a strong, high-quality truck if we wanted to keep it going for at least 10 years,” Chef Herris explains. 

“We wanted to do ‘little,’ but slowly, it just happened to evolve into the biggest dumpling truck in the market!” Emma adds with a laugh.

Pizza aficionados

Mark and Paula Beeby moved from Queenstown in New Zealand to Melbourne in the early 2000s to fire up their mobile pizza catering business Pizza Party Hire. 

Finding a niche with their authentic woodfired pizzas, the popularity of the menu led to Mark needing a larger oven and an upgrade to their transport, which at the time was a passenger van that towed a trailer.

With the first truck performing well and proving a smart choice for their business, Mark and Paula purchased a second truck with a larger 1,200 kg oven that could handle a whopping nine pizzas at a time. 

Coming up to 12 years behind the paddle, Mark is still enjoying the hustle and bustle of public events and is looking to evolve the business to focus on catering for private and corporate bookings.

“A huge advantage with our current business model is that we're going to where the people want us, instead of us waiting for the people to walk into a shopfront.

“I was very specific about needing the 800 kg oven onboard the truck. I worked with my dealership and body builder to get a truly bespoke build, which came out even better than I anticipated,” Mark says.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

Flavours of summer

In celebration of all things food and trucking-related, we’ve compiled a list of where to find information on food trucks and festivals across the country:

• Visit the Urban List for upcoming food festivals in Melbourne and Victoria
• Check out this list of Brisbane and Southeast Queensland food trucks, or check Brisbane City's Food Truck Guide for ones near you
• Explore Sydney's food truck and outdoor dining options here
• Check out this list of Perth's food trucks and food festivals
• Tasmania is well prepared for the summer with a list of food festivals here
• To get a taste of Adelaide's food festivals, check out this link

Many local governments and shires will list farmers’ markets, food markets, and community events on their websites; simply search online, make the most of the summer weather and enjoy a meal in the great outdoors!

Need to make the most of the daylight hours this summer? Check out this blog on maximising uptime for your truck.