Blog 2: The Secret of the Cheese

Food Truck Avenue is the result of years of hard work, reliability, and dedication to the craft. At one point we were one truck, and that truck was Mac ‘N Noodles.

The year was 2015, and the idea was set; a Mac ‘N Cheese food truck was happening. However, there was still one tiny problem. My standard meal consisted of microwave burritos. How could I cook? How does one make cheese sauce? Ever heard of rue? The answer to all was…. no.

No worries, I was not easily deterred. Like any millennial I searched the first place that came to mind: Google. I spent the next few days browsing each cheese sauce recipe I could find. I sought to understand the ingredients. What was unique in the different recipes? What did they have in common? Would I bake my Mac? How about pan fried? There was some serious debate. After contemplating the secret of the ooze, I finally decided on what would become Mac ‘N Noodles.

Over the next 5 months, I experimented with different styles and quantities of cheese. A kitchen in Westminster, CO. became my laboratory. I turned into a regular at the grocery store. Each night, I played mad scientist as I tested the sauce’s flavor with differing cheese combinations and varying amounts of flour, butter, salt and spices. I had my roommates taste test all my different concoctions. Throughout my experiments they tried the good, the bad, and lumpy.

As summer turned to fall, and then fall turned to winter, I finally began to settle on the perfect recipe. It took nearly five months, but I had finally developed a product I was proud of. Now though, as Christmas was nearing, it was time to put it to the test on my family. Unfortunately, this didn’t go as planned. Without my scale and trusted measuring cups, I was unable to reproduce the good stuff. When I asked my father for his opinion he told me, “Son, it’s 2015, you might want to think about salads.” I then asked an uncle who said simply, “I don’t see it.”

It was difficult to hear, but it brought me back to high school days running cross country when I was relatively new to the sport. After struggling through a summer of training one year, I was not in shape to run a 5k personal best time within the first three meets of the season. This was important because those who did earned a team award. My coach even told me to slow down and reassess my goal going into the third race. He stated that if I started slower, I would not blow up in the second and third miles. Determined and stubborn though, I didn’t listen. I ran hard, pushed myself, and sure enough, I set a personal best. After the race, Coach Hartman would say, “David, I’m going to tell you what you can’t do. Then you’re going to go out and prove me wrong.”

Coach Hartman was right then, and he was right again. Now 6 years later, Mac ‘N Noodles is still in business. Things haven’t ever been perfect, but through the ups and downs we’re still truckin. Since our humble beginning, we have been fortunate to achieve a lot. We are proud of where we came from and excited for where the roads will take our trucks. From wedding catering to corporate catering, graduation parties, school events and everything in between we are excited to keep things going forward. We look forward to serving you at any of our amazing concepts and thank you for your support.