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The Family Days of Summer
66 A U G U S T 2 010 805LIVING .CO M
By Angela Pettera TasteoftheTown
All Aboard the Food Truck Craze
Riding on The Burger Bus and Cal-Fresco Food Truck.
Maybe it’s my memory of the neighborhood ice cream truck that has influenced my love of gourmet food trucks, but the concept of
delectable delights being passed through a window still appeals to the child in me. I’m also amused by the idea of restaurant chefs riding around in giant, bumpy, biodiesel-guzzling vehicles, so I climbed aboard a couple of local food trucks to sate my curiosity and my appetite for the unusual. The Cal-Fresco Food Truck, navigates windy Kanan Dume Road and Mulholland Highway up the Santa Monica Mountains to the Malibu Family Wines Tasting Room every weekend. “At first it was a little nerve-racking because I’d never driven anything like this,” admits chef and owner Chris Bocchino. “But I got used to it. People get out of your way,” he laughs. Along with his wife and partner, Kristine, Chris prepares much of the food in their commercial catering kitchen and then finishes
the more complicated dishes on the truck. Macaroni and cheese is made beforehand, then heated up and drizzled with truffle oil right before serving. It can also be scooped into balls and deep-fried in the truck’s small fryer. The on-board steam table keeps the precooked short ribs warm for assembling into tacos. The pico de gallo for the tacos can be made entirely on the truck at the small cutting board. assembled into sandwiches on demand. The panini are assembled and pressed as needed on the same flat grill space. Stockpots of chili can be heated up on board for drizzling over fresh fries. It’s astonishing the kinds of food that the Bocchinos get out of their truck. They can serve upwards of 1,000 people from their truck per event as long as they have help from Kristine’s mom and dad and chef friends for hire. Compared to a restaurant, “cooking on a truck is a whole different experience,” says Chris. But the chefs seem to have mastered it.
Meatloaf is brought into the refrigerated cabinets from the commercial kitchen, then sliced and grilled on-site and
