Home & Garden: Food truck faves, with a twist
Hayleigh Machado-Boys describes her menu as standard food truck fare with a twist. What else would you expect from a business called Lez Eats? Signature dishes include dill pickle poutine, Yorkshire pudding poutine and butter chicken tacos.
“I like to take normal food and give it a twist to make it a little more exciting,” said Machado-Boys. “I love pickles and wanted to try frying them.
And I love poutine so I smacked them all together at a festival and it was a hit.”
She and her wife describe their home in Creemore as a “legitibiqua” household (for LGBT). She is not overly concerned with labels, but laughs, “Do I look straight?”
Machado-Boys has been operating her home-based catering business since 2016, and added the food truck four years ago. She said she has never really considered going the bricks-and -mortar route.
“There is a lot more overhead and a lot less freedom,” She said. “I started out working in restaurants and there was no creative freedom. Now that I’m running my own business, I can do crazy food combinations. It’s a safe space and I’m proud to be a woman-run business.”
She has done festivals large and small, ranging from Boots and Hearts in Oro-Medonte to Caribana in Toronto. She even developed a special menu for a one-day vegan food festival which attracted 16,000 visitors last year. The food truck season is May through November, depending on weather, and she stays busy the rest of the year with catering, mostly weddings and corporate events. Machado-Boys says through most of the summer, she works 40-70 hours per week, supplementing with contract workers as needed. During festivals, the days are long.
“For Boots and Hearts I’ll be pushing 100 hours, and the truck becomes my bed,” she said.
It’s hard work she says, but totally worthwhile if you can cheer someone up and make their day.
Food preparation is just a part of what goes into running a food truck. Machado-Boys says each season begins with health inspections, permits, maintenance and upkeep. She needs to be wellversed in all the bylaws governing food truck operation to avoid fines, which can range from $1,000 to $3,000. Eventually she’d like to expand into bottling some of her sauces for retail sales. One of the challenges, she says, is that as someone who has coped with ADHD all her life, she writes nothing down, making it difficult to manage regulatory and labelling requirements.
Lez Eats was named 2023 Gold Winner in the catering category by Simcoe County Community Votes. The food truck will be located at Steer Enterprises at the intersection of Airport Road and County Road 9 throughout the summer with feature menu items each week as well as standards like burgers, crispy golden fries tossed with sea salt, and chicken fingers subtly flavoured with jerk seasoning. They will also be at the Summer Solstice celebration in Creemore on June 20.
Lez Eats Taco Sauce
1/2 cup ranch dressing
1/2 cup mayonnaise
4 tbsp taco seasoning
3 tbsp hot sauce
Trina Berlo photo: Sam Henderson mans the Lez Eats food truck at Cashtown Corners where hungry locals were fuelling up on their lunch break. Monday’s menu board included dill pickle poutine.
