Gambit: How did you start a pop-up food truck?
Donnell Brown: I am from South Central Los Angeles. I moved here from Long Beach. My whole family is from here — from the Lower 9th Ward. I am a descendent of Oubres from Edgard. I was born in San Diego, but I grew up in South Central Los Angeles. I lived through the riots, all that.
I am Creole. I was in the military. I lived off-base in Germany. I cooked for myself. I have three grown kids. I used to cook for them.
For the past 21 years, I had been a race car mechanic for Porsche. I have done everything from pit crewing to building Porsches, building motors. That was my main thing. I worked for Formula DRIFT, 24 Hours of Daytona, pretty much all the sports car racing series…