Food Truck Race Rolls Through the Smokies

GATLINBURG, TN – Food Network spent two straight Sunday nights in Sevier County last month. The first was in downtown Gatlinburg. The second was inside Dollywood.

The Great Food Truck Race: Sweet & Savory sent its five remaining teams here for an episode titled “Sweet & Savory: The Great Gatlinburg Smoke Off,” which aired August 16. The following Sunday the four survivors were working the crowds in Pigeon Forge.

That is a lot of national airtime for one county.

The Route

Season 19 opened in Nashville on July 26 with eight trucks, four savory and four sweet, all chasing a $50,000 grand prize. Host Tyler Florence took them to Franklin for the Tennessee Whiskey Trail, then to Knoxville, then over the ridge to us.

Gatlinburg was stop four. Dollywood was stop five. From there the race left the state for Louisville, KY, where the finale aired September 6 from Churchill Downs.

Food Network announced the season back in June and described the route as running from Nashville through the Great Smoky Mountains. They were not exaggerating. Two of the six stops were twenty minutes apart.

The series is produced by Critical Content for Food Network.

The Smoke Off

Florence opened the Gatlinburg episode with what he called a “holy smokes” taste challenge. Each truck had to build a special around a smoky ingredient, and one member of each team had to go get it.

The ingredient was waiting at the top of the mountain. Teams rode a chairlift up and walked a sky bridge to claim it, which anybody who has been downtown will recognize as Gatlinburg SkyLift Park although Food Network never named the attraction on air.

Jollof Bowl of Baltimore won the challenge and the $300 bonus that came with it.

Then immunity ended for the rest of the season, and the bottom teams went into a grill-focused redemption battle judged by barbecue expert Rashad Jones. Cason Funnel Cakes beat Waffadilla and stayed alive.

Dollywood Next

The August 23 episode moved the trucks into the park, and the challenge got specific. Teams had to work an iconic Dollywood item into a dish: cinnamon bread, fudge, turkey legs, or candied jalapeno. Stuph’d Beignets & Burgers of New Orleans took it.

Stuph’d also posted $2,435 in sales that day, which the show called its biggest single sales day ever. Arnold Myint joined Florence as guest judge for a potato-focused redemption battle.

The episode aired two days before Dolly Parton died.

If you want to see how this end of the state looked to a national audience, those two Sundays are the ones to watch.

Driven Destinations

Gatlinburg picked up a second national credit this summer, and this one it got to open.

Driven Destinations is a new travel series from Gray Media and Circle Country, produced by POWERNATION Studios and hosted by Jackie Powell. Gatlinburg was chosen as Season 1, Episode 1.

The premiere covers mountain coasters, local pottery, dining, outdoor adventure, and the long views off the ridges. According to the Gatlinburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, the episode is reaching 107 broadcast markets along with Circle’s 11 streaming platforms and the Circle YouTube channel.

The Gatlinburg Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Take

Chad Netherland, president and CEO of the Gatlinburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, called the run of coverage tremendous recognition for the destination and the people who work in it every day.

He is not wrong about the value. A tourism office cannot buy a slot on a Food Network franchise, and it certainly cannot buy the first episode of somebody’s new series.

Planning Around It

If you are visiting the Smokies in the near future, expect company. Great Smoky Mountains National Park logged 11,527,939 recreation visits in 2025, more than double the second busiest national park in the country, and October is already the tightest month on our calendar.

Book lodging early. Get into the park before nine in the morning. Eat at odd hours.