MODESTO — A new gourmet food truck is hitting the streets of Modesto this summer.
Thanks to community donations, local chef Hank Olson is ready to help residents get their ‘Food Fix’ in Stanislaus County.
Olson has been in the culinary industry for the past 20 years. He got his start in Modesto at the age of 15.
“I started working at Foster Farms fried chicken on Coffee Road,” Olson said. “I just started cooking and never stopped, really.”
He soon moved from his humble beginnings as a dishwasher to a cook. He graduated from the culinary school at Columbia College and has since worked everywhere from Sonora to Chicago. He has managed three different Bay Area Top 100 restaurants throughout his cooking career.
Since 2007, Olson has also worked as an instructor at the Institute of Technology.
Recently, Olson decided to get a jump on his longtime dream of opening his own restaurant. He wants to start a mobile food truck and eventually turn it into a restaurant. For funding he turned to the Internet.
On May 9, Olson launched a 30-day Kickstarter campaign to fund his truck, which he has since coined Food Fix.
Kickstarter, an online crowdfunding platform, allows everyday people, called “backers,” to pledge money toward the development of creative projects, from films to music to technology. Project creators manage their own page, where they set a fundraising goal and deadline. Projects must reach their goal in order to receive the pledged money.
For Olson’s project, pledge levels ranged from $10 to $2,000, and each level comes with perks for the backers.
For $25, for example, pledgers would receive a free meal from the truck when it opens, a “Get Your Fix” sticker, and their names listed on the business’s website and Facebook page. Higher levels of pledges came with rewards ranging from limited edition t-shirts and house parties. The highest contributors’ names will be listed on the back of the truck.
“I have 21 people who are going to have their name on the back of my food truck forever,” Olson said. “I have no problem with that. It’s those people who made everything possible. It was an amazing feeling to see everybody jump on the bandwagon and start pledging.”
During the month-long campaign – which wrapped up in June – Olson raised a total of $19,379 from 167 backers, surpassing his $18,000 goal.
Contributors included family, friends, current and former students, and even complete strangers.
Lifelong acquaintance Lynn Johnson rallied support for Olson’s social media campaign. She made a special effort to reach out to friends and relatives of Olson’s father, who passed away of cancer 10 years ago.
“They’ve always had that promise they made to him to help me out with anything I’d ever need in life,” Olson said.
Throughout the Kickstarter challenge, Olson also had the support of longtime friend James Ablett, a chef at Taste Restaurant in Plymouth. The two worked together at Perko’s in Modesto and eventually became roommates in culinary school.
All these years later, Ablett was more than willing to help his friend reach his cuisine dream.
“I wish him the best and hope his success leads to him never having to work for somebody else ever again,” Ablett said.
Now that the campaign is complete, Olson has begun fulfilling contributor rewards, which he hopes to have finished by August. His next step is to locate and purchase a truck to bring Food Fix to life.
Olson’s goal for the truck is to appeal to a wide demographic of customers by providing unique, delicious dishes and healthy alternatives that you cannot find anywhere else.
“I call it gourmet because it’s all from-scratch food,” Olson said. “I want to keep it as locally-sourced as possible and constantly change the menu according to seasonality.”
This gourmet menu includes, among other dishes, sweet and sour slaw, barbecue chips, root beer pulled pork, and Olson’s famed homemade pretzel rolls.
Food Fix supporter Lynn Johnson believes Olson’s truck will be popular with the community because, according to her, it will bring some variety to the area’s current food truck selection.
“There are a lot of different food trucks out there, they’re just not here in Modesto,” Johnson said. “So, I think that will go over well.”
Specialty aside, Olson’s greatest focus is on delivering ingredients that are fresh and local.
“It’s just good to keep your neighbors in mind,” Olson said. “Everything grows in the Central Valley. When I worked out in Chicago, everything came from here. There are so many awesome farmers, and there’s so much awesome stuff you can do with your surroundings when making menus.”
Olson intends to officially open Food Fix for business in July or August. He would like to eventually open his own restaurant within the next three to five years.
For more information, visit foodfixtruck.com.
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