I'm a picky eater, and I honestly never thought I'd eat anything from a mobile restaurant so lovingly dubbed "roach coach." But today's food trucks are far from cheap eats on wheels -- there are some seriously gourmet offerings on four wheels.

Food Network has pounced on the food truck craze with their fun new show 'The Great Food Truck Race' (premieres Sun., Aug. 15, 10PM ET). With chef and Food Network fixture Tyler Florence hosting, the show follows seven trucks from across the country as they prove their ingenuity and business savvy to try to win the $50,000 grand prize.

I caught up with Florence to hear all about this new wave of food competitions on TV and what kinds of trucks we'll see on the show. Then came the kicker -- he loves the trucks so much, he's getting in on it, too. Sign me up.

I'm so excited for this show! It's really not like anything else on the network right now ...
I know -- 'The Great Food Truck Race' is one of the most interesting shows that's come out of the Food Network in a long time. They're partnering up with amazing network producers like Tom Forman from Relativity Real. Nobody does network programming, competition style, better than him. He's just the best in the business. It was so much fun to work with such professional people that really know how to make competitive programming exciting to watch. We've got guys from 'Amazing Race,' 'Apprentice,' 'Survivor' ... so they knew how to make this really compelling.

So what sets this apart from other food competition shows?
It was such an interesting take on food programming, because it's not so much about the food. All the food trucks we cast are really good at doing what they do, so that's the apples to apples comparison. But other than that, you really can't compare anything -- you can't put a crepe truck and a burger truck next to each other and say, "Who's got the best thing?" They're just different. But what you can do is say, "OK, who's got the better business savvy?" These chefs on wheels go to a different market in every city, and it's really all about staying alive in a really interesting business environment. It's about their willingness and ability to survive on a competitive level.

So it really is a race for them? Who can get set up and selling in new places the fastest.
Absolutely. There's an elimination challenge in every city. They got 72 hours to make the most money. We start each truck with a full tank of gas and a completely cleaned out pantry, and everyone gets the same amount of money, so everyone starts on a completely even playing field. They've got 72 hours to shop, prep, cook and compete for the dollars and the hearts and minds of the whole community.

Food trucks have really exploded, so it's great timing. Was there a specific food truck you were most excited to try?
Honestly, I didn't try any of their food -- it was a conscious decision from the production side to not eat the food for two reasons. One, if they gave us the food, we would be messing with their inventory. One team literally lost by three dollars, and ours could be the unit that put them over the top. Also, if we paid for it, we would be showing favoritism. So none of us ate the food.

OK, that can't be easy ...
No. They all did amazing work. All the food looks absolutely phenomenal, but we decided to let the public cast their votes with their wallets.

So what are
None of the teams really knew what the other teams were doing because there were actually no rules -- if we had one rule, we'd have to have 100. So we roll in, everyone gets the same seed money and they drove off. We had seven different teams, seven different camera crews and they'd follow them around 24 hours a day and watch them figure it out. It was amazing how business savvy these food trucks really are ... they're very sophisticated. In their hometown, they're rockstars -- they can literally just Twitter, "Hey I'm on the corner of whatever," and 25 minutes later, there's a line around the block. But in the new cities, they don't know anybody, so they're trying to figure out who'll Twitter, who's calling the paper, who's calling the television station, who's gonna let them know we're out here. These guys really thought out of the box. It was amazing to watch them all step up to the plate and be strong, independent mobile companies.

We actually just had one of the trucks from the show at our offices. The Grill 'Em All truck was a huge hit at AOL.
The guys from Grill 'Em All are so much fun -- they had so much energy and heart. Just watching those guys compete in the show was really exciting.

So Grill 'Em All is the death metal burger truck -- what can you tell us about the other trucks in the race?
There's an amazing truck called Ragin' Cajun, these guys from Louisiana who make unbelievable jumbalaya. There's a great banh mi truck [Nom Nom Truck] ... those guys are really clever and definitely a team to watch. There's also a team called Nana Queens that did hot wings and banana pudding. Those guys are really on their game, and they're fun to watch. There's a truck called Crepes Bonaparte out of Orange County with these really buttoned-up, perfect little crepes. Then there's a team out of Austin, Texas, called Austin Daily Press who made phenomenal looking grilled pressed sandwiches. Then Spencer On the Go! from San Francisco does really high-end French bistro food. It runs the gamut.

Why do you think food trucks have become such a craze?
That's what's so cool -- two years ago when the economy fell apart, all these chefs were really kind of out on the street in a sense. Restaurants were closing everyday and there was no seed capital whatsoever to raise $4 million to open up a restaurant. It always seems in a time of crisis that people sort of evolve and figure out how to move forward, and food trucks became this very sensible way to be in business for themselves. So instead of raising $4 million for four walls, raise $25,000 for four wheels and you can be in business next weekend.

If you had a truck, what would you serve?
That's funny ... we are actually doing a food truck ourselves. I just opened up my first restaurant in the Bay Area six weeks ago called Wayfare Tavern in the financial district. And then we're opening up an old '40s-style steakhouse in downtown Mill Valley in Marin County. Then we're also opening up a restaurant called Rotisserie & Wine in downtown Napa, and that's actually gonna have a mobile rotisserie truck which will be kind of cool.