I started paying attention to the food truck scene in Toronto in late 2011. Since then the number of trucks on our streets have grown along with the variety of food that’s available. At last year’s AwesTruck there were fifty – yes fifty, trucks set up in a very water logged field at Fort York, all serving up different fare. One of the newer trucks at that event was The Frankie Fettuccine Food Truck, Canada’s first pasta-themed gourmet food truck.
Like many chefs, co-owner, Frank Mazzonetto (FM) entered the food industry by washing dishes at Cafe Galleria in downtown Oakville when he was 14 years old. After finishing high school he enrolled in the Culinary Management program at George Brown College. His first job was at Ten Restaurant in Mississauga working under Master Chef Olaf Mertens. The birth of his son caused him to walk away from the restaurant and enter the construction industry as a way to provide for his new family.
Frank worked construction for a few years but his passion was always cooking and eventually he opened up a small catering company with longtime friend Anthony Maniccia (AM).
Anthony started cooking about ten years ago and being the son of a restaurant owner meant he knew what was required to run a successful business. He started out in his father’s restaurant before moving on to work under Chef Michael Killip at Twisted Fork in Oakville. Just like Frank, Anthony left the kitchen to go into construction but came back when the duo opened up their catering business.
What do you think of chefs who own a brick and mortar restaurant and then decide to open a food truck?
FM: I think that some chefs use it as a way to escape the stuffiness or pretentiousness that is associated with some high end restaurants. There are a lot of great chefs that want to go back to basics and serve good comfort food that a lot of people enjoy. It’s not a downgrade, by any means, it’s just a different venue through which they deliver their food. We operate our truck as a restaurant, all of our food is classically prepared but we deliver it to our customer through a window instead of a server bringing it to your table.
AM: A truck is just another avenue for a restaurant owner or chef to bring their food to the public. In my opinion, if you have a restaurant, having a truck is just a smart marketing campaign. Having a restaurant is also very handy when it comes to having a place to prep for the truck or for catering jobs.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to open a food truck?
FM: Do your homework! You can’t be a cowboy. Eat Street gives people a wrong impression about food trucks. I’m not knocking Eat Street, we’re going to be featured on it and we’re very happy about that. The exposure is going to boost our business, but the filming day is a perfect example. We filmed for twelve hours to get seven minutes of footage. That seven minutes has been tweaked so much so that everyone looks so happy with big smiles and huge lineups at the truck but sometimes its not like that at all. There’s lots and lots of work that goes into working on a food truck.
AM: I agree, there’s a lot more than just getting into a truck and slapping in a deep fryer and having fun and cooking or looking out the window and having a lineup of a hundred people. That can come, but there’s a lot of things that has to come before that. It’s not just cooking for people, it’s running a business.
What do you think about the way Toronto is dealing with food trucks?
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FM: As much as I love Toronto, they always seem to drop the ball on new and upcoming ideas that the public is really behind. They dangle these solutions in front of people’s eyes, tease them with it, then pull it back. Up until September of 2013 we were only restricted to private property within the city. The municipal government of Toronto and the Ontario Food Trucks Association then came up with the Food Truck Pilot project which, I would say, was a success. It gave us the opportunity to go to public spaces to expose our brand, expose our truck and most importantly expose our food. This was only in place for a short time but it was later extended through to the spring of this year. I think the only reason they extended it was to seem like they’re supporting the trucks but they knew food truck activity basically stops during the winter. If New York City, one of the most congested places that I’ve been to can have trucks vending curbside, then there’s absolutely no reason why Toronto can’t. Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal has curbside vending, why can’t we? Hopefully the city can see what people want and make the right decisions in order for food truck owners and operators to provide good food to the people of Toronto who love to eat.
Do you see the rise in food truck popularity continuing?
FM: Absolutely! Food trucks aren’t a fad, they’re not going anywhere, they’ll be around for a very long time. When we started there was twenty of us. At AwesTruck, in 2012 there was a dozen trucks, in 2013 there were over fifty of us. In one food truck season over forty trucks were opened, not a year, in one season! A food truck season is about seven months, because no one opens a truck in the winter, so forty trucks in seven months is a lot of trucks.
Food trucks vs. restaurants, what are your thoughts?
FM: First of all it’s the responsibility of the food truck owner and operator to not be incompetent and ignorant and park in front of someone’s establishment. I wouldn’t put myself and my truck in a situation where I can get into an altercation with a restaurant owner because I’m thirty feet from his front door. But on the other hand, if we’re a hundred feet from a restaurant’s door I don’t think that that’s imposing. In downtown Toronto I know of places where there are ten restaurants within a hundred feet all serving similar food, so restauranteurs shouldn’t only be complaining about how we’re stealing customers, they should also be complaining about their new neighbours. Also, restaurants have liquor licenses, food trucks will never get that, it will never happen. We can’t generate the kind of revenue that a restaurant with a liquor license can so they have to see what’s fair and there’s no reason we can’t work together.
AM: There’s enough hungry people in the city for both of us.
Why do you think your truck has become so popular in such a short period of time?
AM: Our passion to cook and the passion for our food is what we love and what we grew up on. We spent all this time working in the restaurant industry and we took everything we’ve both learned and all of out talents and put it into one venture and we create some delicious food. You can do so many things with pasta and we change our menu up so people have different options. We have our staples but we also introduce new items all the time.
FM: Our food is also different, there’s no pulled pork, no tacos and no grilled cheese, we serve fresh made pasta including some with lobster and truffles. There’s only one more Italian food truck in the GTA and that’s Rome’n Chariot. His food is amazing but he doesn’t do the fresh pasta. There are taco trucks, barbecue trucks and grilled cheese trucks but there was no pasta truck so we’re very proud to say that Frankie Fettuccine is Canada’s first pasta-themed food truck.
What’s the most popular item on your menu?
AM: Our signature dish which is our osso buco and gnocchi poutine. It’s a play on traditional Canadian poutine with an Italian twist. Instead of the traditional french fries we have fried gnocchi and cheese curds and topped with our ten hour braised osso buco with the natural jus and gravy. On top of that we have a gremolata topping which is made from parsley and citrus. A lot of people rant and rave about it and that makes us really proud.
Who has been the biggest influences on you thus far?
FM: My mom and my nonna are the big cooks in my family. My nonna has a pasta room in her basement that has her semolina, a big marble table and a pasta machine that’s permanently mounted. There are pictures of me covered in flour with fresh spaghetti on my head, so for as long as I can remember I’ve been making pasta. Outside of them it has to be Chef Olaf Mertens who I did my apprenticeship with. He taught me how to cook, the love and the passion was instilled through my family, but he taught me technique, discipline, how to cost a menu, how to make proper chicken stock and even the most basic of skills like how to sharpen a knife.
AM: It’s the same with me, my family influenced me. My dad owned a couple of sports bars and a couple of high end Mediterranean and Italian restaurants so I was always in there. I remember when I was growing up I always wanted to have my own place.
Frank, you once described yourself as a single dad and former drug addict, what happened during that period of your life?
FM There’s the limelight side to the restaurant industry and there’s also a very dark side to it. A lot of people who cook in restaurants are an addict of some sort. There’s a lot of booze, a lot of cocaine and a lot of pot floating around. Working in a high stress place like a restaurant means that you’re spending a lot of time with your peers and don’t really associate with anyone else because you spend your 18 hour days at work, you go home, sleep and come back the next day to the same people. Sometimes what one person is doing rubs off on another and that rubs off on someone else. I had my period where I made some unhealthy decisions and it lasted way too long. The birth of my son made me realize that life suddenly got serious and I did what was needed to be done in order to prevail. He’s now five, he’s healthy, he’s happy, I’m a single dad, own a thriving business, I have a great partner and very supportive family so now everything I do I do for my son.
Any last words for my readers?
FM: One of our proudest moments came at AwesTruck 2013 when Frankie Fettuccine won the Best New Truck award and we were humbled that our peers chose us for that. We have to also thank Suresh Doss who has helped us out since day one, it would be pretty tough to do our business without him. Thanks to all our Mississauga supporters like Michelle Raqueño who we love just as much as she loves us. Look out for us to be even bigger this year with a new dishes. We’re gonna blow people’s minds,
Contact Information:
Website: http://www.frankiefett.com/
Twitter: @FrankieFett13
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FrankieFett
Email: info@frankiefett.com
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