The TV Column

Ferneau in Food Truck Season 8; Endeavor is back

Hitting the road for The Great Food Truck Race is Little Rock chef Donnie Ferneau, his wife, Meaghan (left) and sous chef Amanda Ivy. The race begins at 8 p.m. today on Food Network.
Hitting the road for The Great Food Truck Race is Little Rock chef Donnie Ferneau, his wife, Meaghan (left) and sous chef Amanda Ivy. The race begins at 8 p.m. today on Food Network.

If there's one thing that's improved in my 24 years on the TV beat, it's that these days there's almost always something on for everyone.

If I have just one program each night to look forward to, I'm happy. But tonight proves to be one of those occasions where TV will take care of an especially broad swath of the viewing public.

Three series will return today -- a popular reality competition show, a PBS drama sure to please Anglophiles, and a thriller that has (if my email is any indication) struck a chord among Arkansas viewers.

Let's take them in that order because the first one has a local connection.

• The Great Food Truck Race, returns for the six episodes of Season 8 today at 8 p.m. on Food Network. A Little Rock crew is in the hunt.

For those unfamiliar with the format, The Great Food Truck Race features a number of food trucks competing in several cities for the grand prize of $50,000. One truck is eliminated each week until only one is left rolling.

For the new season, termed "Battle for the South," seven teams of food truck novices are "slicing, dicing and deep-frying their way from New Orleans to Savannah [Ga.]."

Novices? Indeed, this batch of chefs do not have experience cooking out of trucks. They include well known Little Rock chef Donnie Ferneau Jr., 42, who owned a restaurant for almost 10 years.

"However," Food Network tells us, "a rocky tenure with a health food spot [North Little Rock's Good Food by Ferneau] put him in debt. He's now ready to take his award-winning culinary skills on the road for a big comeback."

Along for the ride aboard The Southern Frenchie (named for a breed of bulldog) are Ferneau's wife, Meaghan, and his sous chef, Amanda Ivy. The Southern Frenchie delivers signature dishes such as Southern Fried Chicken, Pimento Grilled Cheese and Southern Poutine.

The first episode, "The Big 'Not So Easy,'" finds the teams arriving in New Orleans' French Quarter to meet host Tyler Florence. The first challenge has them creating their version of a beignet.

The second challenge is trying to impress New Orleans celebrity chef Susan Spicer with a special dish. One team will be eliminated and the remaining six truck on.

From New Orleans, the competition moves to Pensacola, Fla., Tuscaloosa, Ala., Nashville, Tenn., and Athens, Ga., before ending up in Savannah.

• Endeavour on Masterpiece, 8-9:30 p.m. today on AETN and PBS. Inspector Constable Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) is back for Season 4. The further adventures are set in the summer of 1967, "when the effects of the Cold War and '60s counterculture are being felt in Oxford, England."

We pick up the action barely two weeks since the events depicted in the Season 3 finale when our intrepid heroes are dealing with upheaval in their personal and professional lives.

Endeavour waits to hear the result of his Sergeant's Exam, and self-medicates to numb his heartache over Joan Thursday's (Sara Vickers) sudden departure.

Meanwhile, Joan's father, Detective Inspector Fred Thursday (Roger Allam) and his wife, Win (Caroline O'Neill), deal with their sad empty nest. Their son Sam (Jack Bannon) has gone off to the Army, while Joan is in parts unknown.

In tonight's episode, "Game," Endeavour is consumed by the hunt for a serial killer. He races to find the connection between an early chess-playing computer and a baffling series of drownings.

The series will air at the same time on Sundays through Sept. 10.

• The Last Ship, 8 p.m. today on TNT. It's a two-episode premiere for Season 4, which will have 10 episodes.

What possibly can be left to do after the gallant crew of the Navy destroyer U.S.S. Nathan James has already (1) saved the world and (2) thwarted a coup in America?

Well, naturally, there's yet another global disaster with which to contend. In the first episode, "In Media Res," we pick up the action 16 months since the coup was quashed. Chief of Naval Operations Tom Chandler (Eric Dane) is nowhere to be found.

For those of you who are not Latin scholars, "in media res" means "into the middle of things." That means our tale begins already underway and we will be filled in as we go along.

In the second episode at 9 p.m., "The Pillars of Hercules," the ship's crew "continues their search for an item that could save the world, while Chandler immerses himself in a mission for revenge."

Trivia: The Pillars of Hercules is what ancient sailors called the two promontories that flank the narrow Strait of Gibraltar.

The Last Ship, which also stars Adam Baldwin and Bridget Regan, has already been renewed for a 10-episode fifth season.

The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:

mstorey@arkansasonline.com

Style on 08/20/2017

Upcoming Events