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The Art Institute of Austin Organizes High School Food Truck Battle

Recently, The Art Institute of Austin, a branch of The Art Institute of Houston, organized a High School Food Truck Battle at Round Rock’s Chalk Walk event.

The planning started with a meeting of Austin-based mobile catering company Snappy Snacks, Round Rock Arts, and The Art Institute of Austin to create something new and exciting to showcase and support local culinary talent.

Four local high schools agreed to participate and to follow the competition rules including:

1. No deep fryers
2. Each team is allowed up to 10 students and 1-2 instructors
3. Each team must prepare 250 appetizer-sized portions
4. Each team will be randomly assigned a protein. Possible options were beef brisket, beef sirloin, pork butt, pork loin, and chicken thighs.

As the event planning progressed, Snappy Snacks secured King’s Hawaiian as a sponsor. All dishes had to be served on King’s Hawaiian products that were donated to the event.

There were two categories of awards for this competition. First, the People’s Choice award was determined by votes placed by attendees of the event. Second, the “Judge’s Pick” awards selected first, second, and third place teams. The winning team of the Judge’s Pick award received the travelling trophy, bragging rights, and a $1000 tuition scholarship to The Art Institute of Austin (for each of the students on the team). No team walked away empty-handed though. Each team received awards and prizes, and event proceeds were directed back to the participating schools.

Burnet High School took home both the first place Judge’s Pick and People’s Choice awards with their King’s Hawaiian Jalapeno Popper Stuffed Meatball Slider with Smoky Bacon Barbecue Sauce.