Three Long Islanders become a family on Food Network’s ‘The Great Food Truck Race’
By Nancy Vallarella
Season 13 of “The Great Food Truck Race” is looking to be a lucky one for Long Island’s team, Breakfast For Dinner.
Long Island natives Kate Wurtzel and Harry Poole, both of Smithtown, and April Nothdurft, of Islip, have taken first place in the weekly episodes 1, 2 and 3, which started March 7. Their journey can still be followed through the bone-chilling wonderland of Alaska, on the Food Network channel, Sundays at 10 p.m.
In January 2020, the program’s host, Chef Tyler Florence, posted a casting call on Instagram. Mom and spice-blend entrepreneur Wurtzel responded and then scrambled for culinary talent to compose a team.
Harry Poole, a never-met-before neighbor and chef/owner of two family-owned restaurants — Jackson’s in Commack and Morrison’s in Plainview — joined Wurtzel and Poole’s longtime co-worker Nothdurft. A day later, the trio interviewed with the Food Network via Skype.
The team had a concept. Poole’s wife Shelby designed a logo, and team Breakfast For Dinner was set to film at the end of March last year.
Then COVID-19 struck, closing down not only their businesses but also their Food Network dream. The months passed.
“It felt as though the opportunity was lost,” Poole said.
While the members of team BFD were acclimating to the “new normal” in the fall, Food Network reached out to the trio, and the race was back on. With renewed spirit Wurtzel, Poole, and Nothdurft gave the opportunity their all. They became fast friends, fierce competitors and a family.
Team BFD can only speak about the episodes that have aired. Competing in the frigid and icy conditions of Alaska was a daily obstacle. Slipping, sliding, falling, on-the-fly snow-chain installation and driving trucks with 110 pounds of propane on board up and down snowy mountains became part of the daily routine.
Fortitude, teamwork, positive attitudes and culinary skill have all played in the success team Breakfast For Dinner has achieved.
In episode 1, contestants met on a snow-covered mountain top in Anchorage, where they had to break through a block of ice to release the keys to their food trucks and begin the competition. The fun continued in episode 2 in the city of Palmer, with an outdoor cookout requiring a fire started with flint for an old-fashioned cook-off in blustery conditions. Onto Homer for episode 3, where the competitors found themselves at sea catching salmon before traveling to a location to prep the day’s menu and begin selling from their food trucks.
Today, Wurtzel is growing her spice-blend company Keep It Spicy!; Poole continues to use Wurtzel’s spices in his food served at Jackson’s and Morrison’s; and Nothdurft is a mixologist at The Brixton in Babylon.
Three competition episodes remain. Tune in to see if Long Island’s team makes its way to winning $50K.
