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Food Network-Featured Chef Serves Farm to Table
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Chef Hank A. Olson places the finishing Green Garlic Jus over the main course of Applewood bacon fat slow cooked long ranch pork shoulder with roasted carrots, pickled cherries and apricots during the Farm to Table dinner hosted at Bloomingcamp Ranch on the evening of Friday, June 10. Olson is the chef/owner of Food Fix, a Modesto based food truck recently featured on Food Networks Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, with Guy Fieri. Teresa Hammond/The Leader

Diners of the Farm to Table event hosted by Bloomingcamp Ranch were in for a special treat this past Friday.

Recently featured on the Food Network, Hank A. Olson, chef/owner of Food Fix was on hand to prepare the four-course meal for those in attendance. Olson was visited earlier this year by accomplished chef and television personality Guy Fieri as a featured eatery on the popular show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”

The episode featuring Olson’s Modesto based Food Fix truck first aired in mid-April of this year and has shown several times since then.

“I guess he learned of us from viewer e-mail,” Olson said of his food truck eatery, just entering its second year of business. “Alton Brown had also visited the year before.

“I get people coming to the truck saying they just saw the show,” he added of the episode’s repeat showings. “Everything just gets busy from there.”

Olson shared he has been excited about food since the age of eight years old. While he enjoys the art of preparing visually and tasty food, he is visibly uncomfortable with the title of chef, stating he just loves cooking good food.

Food Fix was a business opportunity made largely due to funds acquired as a Kick Starter project. During the reveal of the signature orange truck on his Kick Starter page, Olson stated, “Good things take time guys, that time has come and we will be on the streets in a few days.”

That note was made in late 2014. Since that time Olson and his crew have served up a boatload of the ever popular Porkstrami and Pretzel sandwich, as well as a number of other mouthwatering lunch time treats and side dishes. Earlier this year, the success of the truck gave Olson the opportunity to leave his long time job as a Culinary Arts teacher at Institute of Technology.

“Teaching was a good experience,” Olson told Farm to Table diners. “I learned a lot and got to try a lot.”

During the first year of Food Fix on the open road serving lunch as well as catering events, Olson continued to teach.

“I wasn’t sure if I was just being ambitious or going insane,” he said, chuckling.

Bloomingcamp Ranch hosts the Farm to Table events monthly throughout the summer. A different chef is featured at each monthly event. The next dinner is scheduled for July 22. For more information visit www.bloomingcamp.com.