Syracuse,
NY – April 2016 / Newsmaker Alert / The Great
New York State Fair encourages owners of mobile food stands from across
New York State to enter the Fair’s annual Taste NY Food Truck Competition.
The competition, which debuted successfully last year, features New York-grown
and made products and provides large-scale exposure to the fast-growing
and popular mobile food truck business.
|
 As
many as 20 food trucks and mobile food vendors will ring Chevy
Court on Sunday, September 4 for the day-long competition. The vendors
will prepare their very best snack, entrée, or dessert, using New
York State ingredients. A group of food experts, which included top regional
chefs last year, will sample each offering and choose the Judge’s Choice
winner. Vendors will also sell samples of their food entry to fairgoers
for $2 each. Fairgoers will also have the chance to cast votes for the
People’s Choice winner. Entries
will be accepted until May 2.
“We are growing New York’s
economy in many ways, and this competition is an important part of growing
jobs at the grass roots level. These vendors receive valuable exposure,
which helps them grow their business and hire more people, while they support
New York farms and food businesses with their locally-sourced purchases.
I encourage mobile food operators across the state to join with the State
Fair, grow their businesses, and improve our state’s economy,” said Troy
Waffner, Acting Fair Director.
Smokin’ Pete’s BBQ of Rochester
won last year’s People’s Choice award and has since grown his start-up
food truck business. Owner Peter Chapman’s lifelong interest in barbecue
became his business last year. He decorated his truck only days before
the competition and had hired his first employee – his fiancée –
just the week before. Sample-sized portions of his entrée – pulled
pork piled on tater tots – won the votes and taste buds of fairgoers. He
estimated Smokin Pete’s sold 1,500 samples.
“The competition was amazing.
That was our first time doing anything that big,” Chapman said recently.
“We were very excited to win. Winning changed things. We’ve done big things
since then.” Smokin’ Pete’s spent the winter at large public events in
Florida. This year, Smokin’ Pete’s will be back at the Fair for all 12
days as a regular vendor. He plans to hire another full-time employee and
will need 10 or 11 part-time helpers to pull off the job of cooking great
barbecue around the clock and feeding some of the nearly one million people
who come to the Fair each year. The competition, he said, “is where you
want to be” if you’re a mobile food vending operator.
The Judges’ Choice winner,
PB&J Food Truck of Syracuse, has also credited the competition with
helping earn invitations to take part in other public events.
Vendors applying for the
competition provide the Fair with a list of all the ingredients in their
entry and the source of each ingredient. The rules require them to use
foods primarily grown and produced in New York State. The Fair promotes
the use of New York products as part of Governor Cuomo’s Taste NY initiative,
which highlights the best foods and beverages produced in the state. Taste
NY has helped New York State farmers and producers increase their visibility
and sales. Taste NY tripled gross sales of participating vendors from 2014
to 2015, and aims to double sales this year.
“When you buy and eat food
grown and made in New York, there’s no competition – everyone wins. This
competition highlights not just the creativity of some hard-working chefs,
but also the amazing quality of New York’s agriculture. I hope New Yorkers
will make time to come to the competition, and also to visit the Taste
NY tent for free samples of other great products,” said Richard A. Ball,
Commissioner of Agriculture.
Vendors interested in applying
for the competition can find rules and an application
here. Winners receive a $750 gift card to Maines Food and Party Warehouse.
The runner-up in the People’s Choice competition receives a portable 3500
watt generator.
About the Great New York
State Fair
The New
York State Fair, operated by the New
York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, runs from August
25 to September 5, 2016. The Fair’s mission, reflected in its theme, “Summer’s
Best In Show!,” is to showcase the best of New York agriculture while providing
top-quality entertainment.
In addition to the annual
New York State Fair, the Fairgrounds host dozens of agricultural events
throughout the year, including some of the Northeast’s most prestigious
horse and livestock shows.
The home of the Great New
York State Fair is a 375-acre exhibit and entertainment complex that operates
all year. A year-round schedule
of events is available on the Fair’s
website. Find The Great New York State Fair on Facebook,
follow @NYSFair on Twitter, and
enjoy photos from the Fair at Flickr.com/photos/nysfair.
Also, New Yorkers are invited to send their ideas for the Great New York
State Fair at statefairideas@agriculture.ny.gov.
Media Contacts:
Jola
Szubielski
Public Information Officer
NYS Department of Agriculture
& Markets
518-457-0752
Dave
Bullard
Public Relations
New York State Fair
315-487-7711 x 1377 |
