Vegan Chef Competes on New Season of Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race

On June 9, Food Network will air the first episode of the 10th season of The Great Food Truck Race, this time featuring vegan competitor Sol Food Collective. The vegan truck is operated by Los Angeles-based chef and wellness coach Jacquelyn Jones who adopted a plant-based diet to improve her symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis—a form of arthritis that heavily affects spinal mobility. “I want to show people that you’re not always eating nuts and grains and grass. That it can be really yummy, tasty food that you love, like nachos and things like that,” Jones said. The competition—which involves chefs battling in cooking challenges throughout different cities—kicks off in Myrtle Beach, SC before moving on through Florida, ending in Key West for the finale on July 28. “Because we are down in the Southeast there’s a lot of meat and a lot of animal fat, so I wanted to take all of those delicious foods and do a vegan take on it and the response we were getting was, ‘This is amazing. I would never know this was vegan.’ And that was my goal,” Jones said. Jones will compete against non-vegan truck Baby Got Mac for a chance to win $50,000.