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I gave Kangaroo Joe his nickname because all I could find when I looked him up was that he'd won a kangaroo cooking challenge at one of those bars that specializes in cooking exotic meats," Nia chirped.
"Kangaroos are the deer of Australia," said Kangaroo Joe.
"Okay." I glanced over at Potbelly and Loafers. "And Vanilla Joe?
"His signature recipe on his food truck involves a vanilla sauce on a hot dog," Nia said.
"It's an artisan sausage, not a hot dog," said Vanilla Joe. "And the sauce is technically an aioli."
"Okay, Vanilla Joe," Kel said. Their lips twitched, and I suspected the reasoning behind his nickname had nothing to do with the vanilla sauce on his food truck.
"It's the season of the Joes," Nia said. "Oh! I think I just heard the door open."
Over the next couple of hours, I ate my weight in cheese and met four of the other five contestants. There was Ernesto, a serious-looking guy in his thirties who cooked Tex-Mex, heavy on the Mex. Oliver, who cooked California cuisine. Mercedes, who cooked modern Filipino food. Megan, a solidly built woman with a buzz cut who cooked what she called "eclectic food" with a Chinese twist.
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