The team behind Bao Bei, a Taiwanese ghost kitchen in North Bethesda, is set to gain national attention when their participation in the Food Network show premieres Sunday. The Great Food Truck Race.
“It's basically a cooking contest, but it's also a bit of a business contest,” Bao Bei employee Zakary Keres, who works at the takeout restaurant at 11910 Parklawn Drive, told MoCo360 on Wednesday. “You're in charge of parking the food trucks, and at the end of the day, the team with the least sales goes home.”
17 peopleNumber seasonal The Great Food Truck RaceThe show, titled “Games on the Gulf,” will premiere on the cable network at 8 p.m. Sunday. The first episode takes place in Houston, with subsequent episodes set in various locations along the Gulf Coast.
According to Food Network, the TV show will pit nine “first-time food truck drivers” against each other in a knockout format for a chance to win $50,000.
“The whole premise of the show was basically taking a bunch of people who'd never worked in a food truck but who were in the food industry and ran food businesses and basically said, 'We've got food trucks, let's compete,'” Kelles said. “Part of the fun of the whole show was figuring out how to adapt and run a food truck with a team that had never run a food truck before.”
Keres works for Kevin Hsieh, a friend from Gaithersburg who is founder, owner and chef of Bao Bei, which opened a restaurant in 2022 in a licensed shared kitchen. Bao Bei's website describes the restaurant as a “venture in the restaurant industry dedicated to preserving traditions and serving authentic Taiwanese flavors.” The restaurant's menu features hand-made bao, as well as a variety of bowl and side dish options.
“Bao Bei is a nickname in my native language that describes people and things I hold dear,” Hsieh writes on the website. “It's a tribute to the family who taught me the traditions and recipes I cherish. Through Bao Bei, I hope to share an important aspect of my culture with the world, one dish at a time.”
According to Kelles, a Food Network representative approached them after seeing their videos on social media and thinking their personalities would be a good fit for the show. Food Network asked them to submit an audition tape if they were interested, which they did.
To round out their three-person food truck team for the competition, Kelles and Shay said they recruited a mutual friend, Cody Hoover, a sous chef from Pennsylvania.
“It was so much fun,” Keres says. “We had to close in January to film, so it was a big decision for us to think, 'Is this worth it?' But we felt like it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to be on the Food Network.”
Keres said the challenges of operating a food truck meant the Bao Bei team had to adapt its menu for the show, and the team wasn't allowed to discuss details about the food truck or who would win the race before the show aired.
“There's a lot of stuff on the show that you haven't seen at Bao Bei yet,” he said, “so it'll be exciting to see what dishes from the show may make it onto our menu in the future and, if there's demand, maybe even make it onto our menu.”
In addition to Bao Bei, this season of the show will feature Baltimore restaurant Fishnet as well as seven other eateries from Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas and New York.
Kelles said the Bao Bei team may consider adding a food truck in the future, but stressed that it's not a top priority.
“I want to open a brick-and-mortar store first before I start a food truck business,” he said. “Especially after watching the show and seeing how much work it takes to start a food truck, it's definitely a big challenge to jump in.”
