Food Truck Week: High 5 Lunch mashup smackdown
Layers of comfort food from a chef who calls himself the 'Culinary Rogue'
I've been reviewing new food trucks all this week, just in time for Indy's food truck season, which "officially" begins May 1. Georgia Street's Food Truck Friday season kicks off on Downtown's Georgia Street. Sample various trucks 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. each Friday through September. Find the new food truck High 5 Lunch at Leinenkugel's First Friday Food Truck Festival season opener. Thirty trucks roll up at 5 p.m. the first Friday of each month, starting May 1 through October, at the Old National Centre parking lot, 502 New Jersey St.
High 5 Lunch
The food: Chef/owner Luke Trinosky's from-scratch fare is Mom's kitchen meets millennial mashups. Sausage an Italian cook taught Trinosky to make ends up in sausage "meatballs." Trinosky coats them in tomato sauce and then loads them on alfredo-sauced elbow macaroni. Caprese salad is the lively garnish. Ground chuck and brisket meatballs braised in porter beer sauce land over a hops and barley salad. "When the season's right, I'll get the hop, you can eat the soft tender end of the hop," the chef said of the plant essential to beermaking. Trinosky sources produce directly from farmers and gardeners during the growing season. He has featured his own Canadian bacon with garden-fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and fennel-seasoned goat cheese on gluten-free bread. High 5 Lunch desserts are especially fun. Coconut pecan frosting typical on German chocolate cake covers chocolate Rice Krispy treats. Fruity Pebbles cereal might serve as a cheesecake crust. Trinosky is an adventurer in the kitchen. "I'll dive into, like, Indian cuisine, find out as much as I can about it and then see what works."
The chef: Trinosky has been an instructor at Harrrison College's The Chef's Academy for the past nine years, but he started cooking as a teenager and watching cooking shows at age 8. The Van Wert, Ohio, native purchased his first food truck 11 years ago when he returned to Van Wert to find mostly fast food restaurants. "There wasn't much for me careerwise, so I bought a food truck, but it was a fixer-upper so it didn't go very far." New job opportunities convinced Trinosky to abandon the truck but not the dream. "When food trucks showed up five years ago, I started thinking about it again… I love the way the food scene in Indy is going, and I want to be a part of it. I love that people are opening themselves up to different foods, different techniques." Peer into Trinosky's culinary mind at his blog culinaryrogue.com.
The truck: Look for a butter yellow trailer hitched to Trinosky's red jeep. HIgh 5 Lunch's blue and red logo is painted on the side of the trailer. Trinosky and a friend came up with the High 5 Lunch name a couple years ago when they discussed a cooking show featuring hosts traveling to restaurants and talking about their "killer food." Plus, Trinosky said, "At our school, we give painful high fives."
The stops: High 5 Lunch truly pops up by surprise. "What people love is not knowing where to find me," Trinosky said. The chef is not completely elusive. He books private events and festival and shares his whereabouts on Twitter and Facebook. Find High 5 Lunch at Leinenkugel's First Friday Food Truck Festival 5 p.m. May 1 at Old National Centre, 502 New Jersey St.
Don't miss: Anything with Trinosky's Italian sausage. It has a little spice, a touch of fennel and some oats.
The price: $8-$10
www.high5lunch.com, Twitter: @CulinaryRogue, (419) 203-8349
Call Liz Biro at (317) 444-6264. Follow her on Twitter @lizbiro, Instagram @lizbirodish and Facebook. Email her at liz.biro@indystar.com.