This week’s celebrities – founders of Campus Food Trucks, Eric Edelmen ‘13, Steve Borukhin ’14 and Isaac Brower ’13 – are bringing a late night alternative to Supersnacks to Bowdoin’s Campus. Read about their love of food and hopes for their truck – and get excited for the CFT!
HerCampus: When did you first realize you were a foodie?
Steve Borukhin: My parents took me to Paris in elementary school and opened my eyes to foods such as foie gras, fresh shucked oysters on the half shell, and chateaubriand, cooked rare obviously. Fell in love with food, never looked back.
Eric Edelman: Didn’t realize it at the time, but the first time that my foodie identity emerged was definitely when I made my first peanut butter and pickle sandwich in kindergarden. That was the beginning of a lifetime of experimenting with food in crazy ways. Coming to college was obviously eye opening. Before college, I obviously had an idea that not everyone’s family felt that fruit was a substitute for all forms of good-tasting, but unhealthy food, but I had no idea how different my preferences were from everyone else’s until, I started eating three meals a day with non-family members.
HC: Favorite restaurant?
SB: Marras Deli in Roseland, NJ. Your mom and pop Italian deli done right. Fresh mozzarella, baked bread, chicken and veal cutlets, its what I miss most when I’m here.
EE: My favorite food item in the entire wide world is golden barbecue chicken pizza from Baldies Pizza in my hometown, Lakeville MA. The pizza place is a little of a dive. It doesn’t even have its own space. It’s in the back of a convenience store. But they have the best pizza I’ve had anywhere in the world, including all the famous places like Antonio’s in Amherst and Chicago deep dish. The pizza is cooked just right so that the golden barbecue sauce is gooey instead of runny, and the chicken is just perfectly embedded in the sauce. Dipping that pizza in blue cheese is straight heaven. I don’t even like blue cheese and it’s just that good.
HC: What would be your dream dish to serve at the food truck? ?
SB: Good sandwiches.
EE: That’s the beauty of owning the truck. Dreams can come true. Have you heard of the CFT? Who wouldn’t want that? (CFT = chicken tendies and bacon in a grilled cheese)
HC: Best meal you’ve ever eaten / prepared?
SB: Eel and foie gras terrine from L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Manhattan is the best dish I’ve ever eaten. I can prepare a mean osso bucco.
EE: See above for eaten. I really stand by that golden barbecue chicken pizza. Best meal I ever prepared was when I put ice cream on waffle fries. The salt from the fries and the ice cream mixed perfectly
HC: What are your hopes for the truck in the next year you’re at Bowdoin? Any aspirations for a career in the restaurant business?
SB: Within the next year, I would really like to see the truck embedded in campus life, and really become an institution. For that to happen requires our presence at all the big events, like Ivies, as well as reliably serving food late-night weekend after weekend. Delivery is something that we won’t have when we open, but we have a lot of creative ideas about. Bicycle messengers in one piece speed suits have not been ruled out as far as I’m concerned. Outside of CampusFoodTrucks, I couldn’t imagine myself getting involved in the restaurant business, until later in life. If I was successful enough, maybe in retirement I’d own a restaurant. The business side of things is really where my career ambitions lie. We need a few more companies in the world being successful without selling their souls.
EE: Get the truck up and running successfully at a profit would be the ideal hope for the next year. As well as establish ourselves on campus as a late night option for all students and the town of Brunswick. In terms of a permanent career, my ideal profession would be to own a restaurant group.
HC: What aspect of your truck should Bowdoin students be most excited about?
SB: Look out for weekly specials, the CFT of course, and if you have an event, contact us, we are happy to cater.
EE: Bowdoin students should be most excited about the combination of choice, convenience, and quality that the truck offers. Realistically, Supersnacks gives you a lot of choice, but the quality of your options isn’t great. It’s a lot of leftovers or generic foods like crackers. The pub, on the other hand, isn’t open late enough and it’s inside a building. There’s a pretty high convenience factor for being able to walk up to a truck at 2:00 AM and order delicious food.
So the big takeaway should be that this is going to be great food. Food that you love. Food that’s got some flair. Food that you get to order for yourself, instead of having someone choose for you. Food that’s there when you want it, which just might be at 2:37 on Saturday night.
Photo-cred: http://www.good.is/post/this-is-why-youre-fat/