New Book By Lawrence Resident Celebrates NJ Food Trucks

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ — New Jersey is home to some of the best food trucks in the country, and a Lawrenceville resident is celebrating these mobile food establishments in his new cookbook.

The New Jersey Food Truck Cookbook hit the bookshelves in February. Authored by Lawrenceville's Patrick Lombardi and Vincent Parisi, the book features a collection of recipes, profiles and photos.

A contributor at “Best of NJ,” Lombardi attended many food truck events for a series he was working on. He saw the hard work that went into maintaining such an establishment and the camaraderie shared among food truck owners. The idea for a book began to form.

He then approached Parisi, editor-in-chief for "Best of NJ.”

“I went to Parisi as a courtesy to tell him I'm doing the book. At the time, he had another idea, more like a coffee table type of book. And then he said we can do this book together. So, we partnered up,” Lombardi said.

Released on Feb. 13, the book features 30 food trucks, biographies of people involved and over 30 recipes.

With NJ’s food landscape dotted with food truck owners serving delicious bites, choosing which establishment to feature was quite a task for Lombardi.

“A lot of them have already been featured in the best of ‘New Jersey Food Truck’ series. So, we went through who we had featured and then divided them into regions. That way we could spread it out more evenly and fill in the gaps,” Lombardi said.

During the process of writing his book, Lombardi learned that running a mobile food establishment was a tough job. Although a food truck is different from a brick-and-mortar place, the path is not necessarily easier.

“Food trucks carry the connotation of quick, easy and cheap food. It’s not true. A lot of hard work goes into it,” Lombardi said. “Maybe there are fewer hoops they have to jump through, but it's a very involved industry, with restrictions, inspections and fees. Many food truck owners have a lot of experience from working in a restaurant or another food truck, just so they have some good footing on dealing with people.”

Born and raised in New Jersey Lombardi graduated from Rider University in Lawrenceville, with a bachelor’s degree in English.

He is a full-time employee with the state and moved to Lawrenceville in 2020 after marrying his wife Christine.

As a Mercer County resident, he has many local favorites but it’s hard for him to pick just one food truck.

“There are some really good food trucks in the County. I love Mama Dude’s in Hamilton. The owner also has a restaurant. He locally sources all of his produce and ingredients, and his menu is seasonally changing,” Lombardi said.

His favorites also include the Surf and Turf Truck in Hamilton, and House of Cupcakes in Princeton.

On March 18, at 11 a.m. Lombardi will be celebrating the book’s release at Mama Dude’s, with owner Andrew Dudich. The restaurant is located at 11 Sunnybrae Boulevard, Hamilton Township.

The New Jersey Food Truck Cookbook was released through The History Press, an imprint of Arcadia Publishing. It is available in paperback.

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