Job Spotlight: Enrique and Liz Camacho, chef and owners of Paradise By the River food truck

Enrique Camacho loves cooking food and, in particular, he has a passion for creating Puerto Rican dishes and sandwiches that taste as if they were prepared by his mother and grandmother themselves.

In fact, it’s their homestyle recipes that helped fuel the desire of Camacho and his wife, Liz, to recently launch a food truck eatery called Paradise By the River in Phenix City. They can be found at the amphitheater or adjacent to a used car dealership on Broad Street just around the corner, with the possibility of a food truck park being set up at some point near the Frank K. Martin Pedestrian Bridge that connects Phenix City with Columbus.

Enrique, 29, born in Puerto Rico, and Liz, 27, from Columbus, spent the last five years getting the Paradise food truck ready. He joked that their union hinged on his cooking abilities, although they have known each other since they were kids.

“She ate my food one day,” he said, laughing. “She says she fell in love with my food before she fell in love with me.”

The Camachos’ ride thus far hasn’t been the smoothest. An occasional equipment malfunction has tested their patience. And on Thursday, as the storm clouds were rolling in, lightning hit their generator and fried the truck’s battery. That was only hours after a lunchtime crowd flocked to the mobile eatery, with a couple of Fort Benning soldiers spotted at a table under a tent, enjoying a meal, then grabbing more to take back with them.

The Columbus couple and their Paradise By the River business — the name a play off the Chattahoochee and its river park whitewater activities — join a growing fleet of food trucks across the U.S. They allow entrepreneurs seeking a less costly way to launch an eatery to do so, with the additional capability of moving from location to location to meet customer demand.

The Ledger-Enquirer talked recently with the Camachos, discussing their jobs, its challenges and the most popular dishes they serve to hungry customers. This interview is edited a bit for length and clarity, with an expanded version available at www.ledger-enquirer.com.

Why did you launch the food truck?

LIZ: We actually got the bug to do this when we lived in Florida. We lived in Miami when we first got married and they have a huge food truck venue down there. We just fell in love with the atmosphere. My husband is an amazing chef and always has been, and it was just a way to pull two things that we’re really passionate about together.

ENRIQUE: I’ve always loved cooking and I’ve worked at different restaurants here in Columbus. But I just wanted to cook something that I wanted to cook. To me, my cooking is more like Puerto Rican home food. That’s what I’m comfortable with. That’s what I’ve grown up eating. Every time I cook for somebody new, they love it and they always tell me I need to open up a restaurant. So we just finally decided that maybe we need to sit down and think about this. We were going to open up a brick and mortar (restaurant), but we didn’t have enough money. So we started thinking about other possibilities and looking at food trucks.

What was the process like getting everything together?

LIZ: It’s taken us about five years and lots of saving. A lot of saving. We had our truck custom-built and we had to go back down to Miami to get that done. And every time you think something’s right, something else is going to go wrong. We were getting hit with new permits, new licenses, and things like that. It’s been a fun, but very stressful ride.

Talk about the food you serve. And you let customers know it’s “fresh, not fast food”?

LIZ: It’s Puerto Rican cuisine. We’re all authentic. My husband is Puerto Rican and he learned all of these recipes from his grandma and his mom. Our most popular would probably be our pinchos, which is a chicken or pork kabob, or our tripleta sandwich, which is a triple meat. It’s steak, pulled pork and a Spanish-style ham.

ENRIQUE: The tripleta sandwich everybody really loves it. It’s a good sandwich for a good price and it’s fun to cook. You buy that one sandwich and that’s all you can eat. That and a drink and you’re good.

Did the progress in the downtown areas encourage you to open the food truck?

ENRIQUE: I saw the development going on with the whitewater and all of the stuff that’s really going to bring a lot of income to town. I really wanted to be in Columbus, but with all of the regulations with the health department, there’s just a lot of obstacles. In Columbus they pretty much want you to have a full-blown restaurant. You can’t share a kitchen with anybody. You can’t do it at home or anything like that.

LIZ: Actually, licensing is different in Columbus and Phenix City, and Phenix City — without saying anything bad about Columbus — has been a lot more helpful in getting us started and supporting us and helping us when we hit roadblocks and things like that.

Could you operate a separate licensed and inspected kitchen in Columbus to manage and prepare things for the truck?

ENRIQUE: If I built one at my house, it would probably be about $35,000, which I don’t have. In Atlanta, they have a whole facility for trucks like that. You pull your truck in and you have a place to dispose of your water, dispose of (waste), and prep your food. Here in Columbus we just don’t have that. That would be a good thing for somebody to do. I’ve talked to a few people and they’re thinking about doing it in the future, but not right away.

Are company and private events in your future?

LIZ: As we get bigger and more corporations contact us, we would love to do things like that. We would love to do more events. But right now we’re just trying to get our name out there and fill people up with good food.

What’s the most challenging part of your job at this point?

ENRIQUE: I guess getting everything prepared, the truck ready. I’ve had a few mishaps with my generator. I’m pulling too much power out of my generator and my circuits are breaking and stuff like that. So every day, it’s something new. There are little bumps in the road. You’ve just got to get through it.

What do you enjoy most about the work?

ENRIQUE: I enjoy cooking ... and watching people bite into my food and them having smiles on their face. I had someone that came early last Friday morning. They left and came back and said, “Honey, you don’t have to cook dinner tonight because I’m just going to buy some food from here and take it home to eat.” Stuff like that really motivates me and makes me want to cook. When people come back again and again, it tells me I’m doing the right thing.

Do you feel a bit like pioneers since the local area hasn’t had many food trucks?

LIZ: We’re hoping, we really are, because lots of food trucks coming together and serving different types of food and working together as a community would be a great thing. ... Even if it just starts with our little truck, one thing we learned when we lived in Florida is that food trucks in themselves make people want to come and look. It’s a fun atmosphere. It’s fresh food. It’s people going out and reaching their dreams.

And selling out your food occasionally, just as you did a week ago at Uptown Riverfest?

LIZ: (Laughs) People were just coming and coming and swamping us, and we ended up with nothing but a scoop full of rice to bring home.

BIOS

Name: Enrique Camacho

Age: 29

Hometown: Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

Current residence: Columbus

Education: Jordan High School

Previous jobs: Construction, mechanic and lots of cook/chef jobs

Family: Liz, his wife of six years, and sons Judah, nearly 5, and Eli Ziggy, 3; his father is a 21-year Army retiree and his mother shares his passion for cooking; he has a sister living in South Korea with her husband, who is a major in the Army

Leisure time: Enjoys working on his Mazda RX7, spending time with his wife and children, traveling and going to church

Of note: He has lived in many countries and visited places all over the world; he is bilingual in English and Spanish, and speaks some German. His passion, aside from food, is cars, and he has built and raced cars with his father since childhood

Name: Liz Camacho

Age: 27

Hometown: Columbus

Current residence: Columbus

Education: Three Springs-New Beginnings class of 2004

Previous jobs: Her first job was waitress; she also has worked at a detox center in Florida; and since starting a family she has taken over bookkeeping at F & B Auto Electric, which her grandfather started in 1953

Family: Aside from her husband and children, her mother is Barbara Judice, a retired school teacher, and her father is Richard Judice, who took over and has managed her grandfather’s shop since 1999

Leisure time: She has a strong passion for photography and is an avid reader; she also enjoys spending time with family and can usually be found walking their Husky on the Riverwalk, going on trips or attending church

Of note: She grew up on Broadway in downtown Columbus; she is an advocate of adoption and mental illness treatment, with a goal of using photography to better explain the emotions that can come with both of those; aside from her two biological sons, they hope to adopt a child in the future; she was adopted and was able to meet her birth mother in 2009, and they have formed a close relationship

This story was originally published May 17, 2015 at 2:59 PM with the headline "Job Spotlight: Enrique and Liz Camacho, chef and owners of Paradise By the River food truck."