RPE’s Tasteful Selections Sponsors Trucktoberfest

Attendees at Trucktoberfest, a food truck event that took place in Sacremento, Calif., this past weekend got a mouthful of RPE. A sponsor of the event through its specialty potato line, Tasteful Selections, had a booth and hosted the Tasteful Selections Trucktoberfest Showdown, in which six trucks competed to create the best recipe for baby potatoes. Local celebrity Kat Maudru, The Chairman Food Truck co-owner Kevin Kiwata and Development Director of Yolo Food Bank Linda Zablotny-Hurst judged the showdown. The grand prize of $1,000 went to Swabbies, who created a purple potato gnocchi dish with fresh marinara sauce. Attendees also got to get in on the judging using the hashtag #TastefulSelectMVP on Twitter to vote for the “Most Valuable Potato,” or by casting their vote at the Tasteful Selections booth during Trucktoberfest. This year’s MVP was Slightly Skewed, which featured a take on fried potatoes, garnished with a sour cream and siracha ketchup sauce. “Trucktoberfest is a fun way to reach out to our foodservice customers and consumers at the same time,” says Russell Wysocki, president and CEO of RPE, co-owner of Tasteful Selections. “We enjoyed working with these talented chefs and seeing them put the versatility of our baby potatoes to work in their mobile kitchens.” Tasteful Selections planned to donate a pound of potatoes to Yolo Food Bank for every pound of potatoes sold during Trucktober Fest. After learning more about Yolo County, where the event was held, which has a food insecurity level of 17%, Tasteful Selections decided to increase that donation to 20,000 pounds, which will be distributed to families in need, say company officials. The event has been organized and run the past two years by Sacramento Mobile Food (SactoMoFo), a group that arranges food truck events and promotes mobile kitchens in the area.