Ragin Cajun hits reality TV

Ragin Cajun Stephen Domingue gets ready to roll.

The Creole charisma of Stephen Domingue, the indefatigable owner of Ragin Cajun Café on Pier Avenue, will be on display in the reality TV show “The Great Food Truck Race,” set to premier on the Food Network Sunday, Aug. 15.

The gregarious Domingue, a Lafayette, La. transplant who has been pleasing Hermosa taste buds since 1992, said he’s not allowed to say much about the show in advance.

“You know it’s a reality show, so they got me on lockdown,” he said.

Nevertheless, he offered a tidbit.

“I’m the star of the show,” he said.

When Domingue auditioned for the show, he brought family members, super chef Joey Quebedeaux, a “lady fiddler” and “six of the most beautiful girls in Louisiana” wearing New Orleans Saints football-themed outfits. The fiddler played, and the girls danced.

“You know how you can jazzercise? Well they Cajun-ized,” Domingue said.

It was a hit with the TV folks.

“They went crazy, man,” Domingue said.

One necessary component for the show, a food truck, came as an afterthought.

“I went to the audition and I told them I had a food truck. I lied. So I had to get a truck in a day and a half,” Domingue said.

After he secured the truck, he began working on security clearances to bring it to businesses such as large area aerospace plants.

“I don’t want to be like those other guys with trucks, and work the streets like a ‘ho,’” he said. “I want to bring the truck in behind the gates.”

In “The Great Food Truck Race,” seven teams “representing the country’s best food trucks” cook their way across America, according to the Food Network. Each week the teams that sell the most food race on to the next episode, while the losing team drives home. The eventual winner gets a $50,000 grand prize. ER

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