Amherst pair creates sandwich for show on Cooking Channel

A local concession trailer often found at local festivals and the Lorain County Fair will take the spotlight May 10 on national television.

Amherst couple and owners of Sarge’s #1 Concessions, Ted and Barb Gucik said they were one of the concessions chosen to be featured on the Cooking Channel’s “Carnival Eats,” which features carnival food across the United States.

The Guciks worked with the crew at the Lorain County Fair on Aug. 24 and 25 and specially created a new sandwich for the show to feature.

Barb Gucik said the show found appeal in their concession trailer because “we did have something different,” citing their Porky Loves Mac & Cheese sandwiches, made with macand-cheese, pulled pork and apple-smoked bacon.

For the show, Ted Gucik said the couple worked for six months to perfect its special Mac Attack Taco, which features mac-andcheese, pork and coleslaw inside a fried tortilla.

Ted Gucik said he always had an interest in cooking.

As a senior sergeant in the U.S. Army, he said he would cook everything from burgers and hot dogs to corn-on-the-cob on the weekends.

“Then, we would feed the company or battalion to give the mess sergeants a break,” Ted Gucik said.

Now, cooking has found a new role in his life with the concession trailer he and his wife have owned for 12 years.

The couple will sell as many as 300 sandwiches over a weekend at festivals between the beginning of May and the end of October, Ted Gucik said.

Those sandwiches, however, have a high demand year-round.

“We have people in the local area that stock up and buy four to a half dozen sandwiches, then freeze them,” he said.

As for the shooting of the

show, Ted Gucik said his time as a trainer in the military helped ease his nerves in front of the camera.

“I was on camera even in the military in the classrooms, so when it came to this, it was just natural,” he said.

Carnival Eats host Noah Cappe also helped bring an element of fun to shooting, Ted Gucik said.

“(Noah’s) a blast,” he said. “It was great.”

The show will air at 9 p.m., May 10.

COURTESY COOKING CHANNEL Sarge’s #1 Concessions owner Ted Gucik, left, and Cooking Channel’s “Carnival Eats” host Noah Cappe, above, pose with the concession trailer’s Mac Attack Taco, to be featured on the show May 10. At right, Gucik cooks during the filming of the episode.

COURTESY BARB GUCIK