Plot

Aspiring Portland chef Cleo Morelli tries to win a food-truck competition while the competition tries to win her heart.

A deliciously charming love story about Cleo, a spunky young chef with a popular food truck. With help from her niece Tessa, Cleo's handcrafted Italian sandwiches have become a favorite of the bustling and competitive Portland food scene. But when Gabe, the handsome chef of a rival food truck called the Bacon Wagon, parks across the street, Cleo's goal to win a local food-truck competition takes a spicy turn. With Gabe's help and her family's encouragement, Cleo learns that she won't win if she doesn't push herself. As she realizes that what she wants most is to own a restaurant, she also begins to understand that her food isn't the only thing that could use some TLC. The only way Cleo can have everything she wants is if she adds the most important ingredient to both her cooking and her life: love.—Christopher Sey

Having modernized the recipes of classic Italian sandwiches taught to her by her long-deceased grandfather Matteo, Cleo Morelli owns and operates Cleo's Kitchen, a food truck, in her hometown of Portland, Oregon, the "City of Roses". She has long resisted her mother Mary's want for her to join her and Cleo's brother Tim in the family real-estate business--such work would kill Cleo's soul. And despite loving to cook, period, Cleo has also resisted the suggestion, especially by her assistant Andy, to open a bricks and mortar restaurant to allow her to expand the food she presents to the world. That resistance is also despite Matteo's old storefront being currently for lease, it which would be the perfect locale for an Italian restaurant. Despite believing that food should not be competition, Cleo has at least the chance to dream of expanding her food business horizons when she learns that Norma Duncan, arguably the queen of the food scene in town, is holding a food truck competition, the trucks entered with the most nominations going into the final six competition judged by her for a winner take all $100,000 grand prize. Cleo's dream for that grand prize takes a hit when a new truck comes into town, Mo-Bacon, that parks across the plaza from Cleo's, it which is all about the beloved pork product. Mo-Bacon's sole driving force, Gabe, is a native son of Portland who left five years ago backing out of a business opportunity with his former boss, having driven around the country in the truck for the last five years looking for new experiences, whether that be in discovering great food or great people, he only returning now for his younger brother Nate's thirtieth birthday before he plans to resume his life on the road. While Gabe has no intention of entering the competition, Cleo still tries to dislike him if only in his truck siphoning off much of her business, she not able to in his good nature and their shared love of food. As Cleo and Gabe start to fall for each other, they hit potential problems when he is unexpectedly pulled into the competition, his past relationship with Norma, she that former boss, which could tip the scales, and each having some misconceptions of the other, Cleo having always believed that male chefs have egos bigger than their heads.—Huggo