The Lei Away Leidies of Lehi, Utah, made their way to the top three teams of the reality competition “The Great Food Truck Race” on the Food Network. The team’s run came to an end after the fourth episode, but their desire to grow in the food industry continues.
Each competing team on this season of “The Great Food Truck Race” was made up of family members who had never before operated a food truck. The Lei Away Leidies are sisters Carey Ofahengaue and Summer Prescott, and Prescott’s daughter Autumn. The three created dishes inspired and influenced by native Hawaiian cuisine.
The seventh season of the show premiered on Aug. 28, and involved six teams competing for $50,000.
Ofahengaue said the family had done previous reality TV tapings, which caught the attention of the Food Network.
Aside from cooking for their families at home, they had no previous professional-level experience, Ofahengaue said.
However it was experience cooking for their families that ultimately led to some of their greatest dishes. Summer believes learning how to improvise unique meals for her children helped when it came to creating original dishes for the competition.
“We have to make it taste as best as it can,” Summer said. “Having to improvise and having to change things up is not really new for a mother of seven plus.”
Autumn admitted her favorite dish they sold during their time on the show was the Maui Wowie, which is a dish based on the Hawaiian malasadas with a coconut and guava sauce.
“Everybody’s calling me,” Autumn said. “People are asking us to cater just for the Maui Wowies.”
Although the Lei Away Leidies only had a food truck while they were competing on the show, the popularity of their dishes has made them consider investing in a truck of their own.
“We are actively looking for a truck right now,” Summer said. “We also have a trailer that we had existing before.”
Long-time viewer of the show and BYU alumna Sarah Amundson said she would be excited if the Lei Away Leidies decided to invest in a full-time food truck. She cited the success of Waffle Love, which competed on the show during a previous season, as an example for the type of outcome the Lei Away Leidies could expect.
“If Lei Away Leidies had a food truck, next time we were in Utah County, we would probably make a special stop because we saw them on the show,” Amundson said.
