James Cunningham – Eat St.

Ever wonder what it would be like to travel across the country tasting food from every wacky and delicious food truck you came upon? James Cunningham, comedian, actor and host of Eat St. does and you can say he has, what most would consider, the best job on television. Last week we got a chance to speak with James about his experiences thus far in hosting the show.

Eat St. is a t.v. series that takes you to places all over North America to explore the “tastiest, messiest and most irresistible street food”, from trucks and carts alike.  Now going into its 5th season, this show has been following the food truck trend, essentially since its start.

Photo Cred: Eat St.
Photo Cred: Eat St.

Initially they would only make stops at the top and major cities, but have since begun visiting some out of the way places like Columbus,Ohio and Albuquerque, New Mexico.  In this expansion of stops James shared some interesting things he’s seen along the way such as, meeting the owner of a truck who had a 3ft tall pink mohawk, was running a breakfast, lunch and dinner service and whose truck also had a full DJ booth on the roof of it. In observation and reflection of  his time throughout the show Cunningham stated, “Now trucks are just getting bigger and badder and even have entire social marketing teams”, which have proved to be a major factor in the success of food trucks.

A few of Cunningham’s favorite items thus far have come from trucks who use the freshest ingredients in their dishes including, a mashed potato and crab salad and a green falafel sandwich, so good in fact that he just could not stop raving about it. In addition to fresh ingredients, a few trucks serving comfort foods James just can’t pass without stopping are, Gourdoughs Big. Fat. Donuts, serving out of a vintage Airstream Trailer and Biscuits and Groovy, both of which are based in Austin, Texas. In speaking about the variety of trucks existing and emerging into the market he expressed that every city has it’s own food personality and it looks like Austin is the perfect match for him.

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Though James travels across the country eating great food, cooking has never been his forte as in his words, “I’d probably burn water”, if it were up to him to fix a meal. When asked what kind of food truck he would start if presented with the opportunity he’d hands down serve Bannock, a traditional Canadian bread dish cooked in a pan or a stick. James would serve this not only because it is not yet in the food truck market, but also because of the crazy and unique combinations that can be done with it, as ideas of lobster, cranberry and bahn mi were tossed around.

Whether you love the bacon topped doughnuts in Austin or the hot n’ spicy sauce from the crazy pig shaped truck (Maximus Minimus) in Seattle you can follow James Cunningham by watching Eat St. right from your couch while he travels around North America sharing his delicious discoveries.The season 5 premiere of Eat St. is tonight at 8/7c on The Cooking Channel be sure to hop on board!

For more information on the show click here

-Roaming Hunger