Misti Buard

My love story with food trucks began in 2013. I was leaving a Memorial Day weekend party when I met the owner of Bobby Que’s food truck. He was sampling an amazing sauce that he’d created to compliment his fried shrimp—and the shrimp and sauce were absolutely delicious! I chased Bobby Que around all summer and gained 15 lbs while doing so. At that time, I was still working as a Marketing Manager in corporate America, but I knew that I wanted to be more involved in the food truck community. Eventually, I quit my job and began working with Billy Flannagan, former owner of D’Lish Curbside food truck. Over the next few years, I learned all that I could about food trucks by interviewing them, assisting with their marketing strategy, planning community food truck festivals, entering food trucks into competitions and scheduling media interviews for owners. Since then, I’ve won $50,000 on Food Network - The Great Food Truck Race (Season 14); worked with food trucks to feed the homeless, spoken at conferences about how food trucks can boost local economies.