Meet the Entpreprenuer Behind Moncton’s Bangkok Food Truck
MONCTON – May Jariya O’Brien starts prepping ingredients before the sun rises.
Her watch says 8 a.m. when she loads Pad Thai sauce and many kinds of curry onto her bright orange trucks. Every day, the trucks’ destinations are different. But what stays the same is the authentic Thai food that Bangkok Food Truck delivers all around New Brunswick.
“I’m not just a Thai food chef. I am a Thai person that cooks to share a part of my culture with New Brunswick,” says O’Brien.
With ingredients imported directly from Thailand, Bangkok Food Truck offers various Thai options from a signature dish like Pad Thai to uncommon dishes like Garlic Pork served with Jasmine Rice. The truck operates from the start of the summer to the end of November.
“It has been four years since we started this food truck business. New Brunswickers really love real Thai food, and it [Bangkok Food Truck] has been very successful so far,” says O’Brien.
O’Brien went to a culinary school specializing in Thai food. But when she came to New Brunswick in 2005, she never thought of opening a Thai restaurant or owning a food truck.
“I didn’t really know what to do at first and then my friend was like ‘oh why don’t you sell Thai food’, and I decided to go for it since there wasn’t an authentic Thai restaurant in the province at the time,” says O’Brien.
But O’Brien knew she still needed to gain more experience and test her recipes before starting anything serious.
“For two or three years while I was working in a daycare, I had a Thai food stand at the market in Shediac,” says O’ Brien.
“The food Truck was starting to become popular. I watched food trucks in America on the TV, every day. That is kind of where I got the idea from.”
Her business journey hasn’t been easy. O’Brien said she started from nothing, but her hard work and her curiosity were the reason she was able to survive the rough starting point.
“The first and second year were difficult. We didn’t have anyone working for us. I did everything myself, cooking and cleaning,” she says. “I had to get up super early even sometimes we don’t go to bed until 2 a.m.”
Based in Moncton, Bangkok Food Truck recently added the second truck and now employs over 20 people.
“We have more help but I still do most things myself; especially, cooking. I want to make sure that the food quality is closely controlled,” says O’Brien. “We sell food. We have to stay tight with this kind of thing.”
O’Brien said there are some big advantages to starting a business in New Brunswick.
“It [New Brunswick] is not as competitive as the bigger provinces. It is easier to start out and getting your business established,” she says.
O’Brien is still unsure where she will be in ten years, but in the next couple of years, she plans to grow her business in the region.
“We are looking into open a small take-out restaurant in either Fredericton or Saint John. We don’t have a specific plan, but we have a lot of ideas,” she says.
“I miss Thailand a lot, but I like it here in New Brunswick. It’s my second home. People are kind and interested in learning about new cultures.”