Empowering Entrepreneurs in Mobile Food

Andrea M. O’Neal

Andrea M. O’Neal is as Southern as Southern gets! While she may have been the first generation born in California, her roots run deep in Savannah Georgia and Mobile Alabama. Andrea spent 27 years in the medical field before switching her focus and following her passion cooking at the UC Davis Medical Center. She then opened up a private chef/catering company and is now reinventing herself as part of the Instrucktional Program. She specializes in beignets with a twist and other traditional southern favorites.

Bradley Thathiah

Bradley Thathiah, a fifth generation Indian born in South Africa, he decided he wanted to share a dish from his hometown. Raised in San Francisco he worked previously as a graphic designer and administrator when he decided to follow his passion and dive head first into the culinary industry.

Chelsea Ross

“Over the last several years of working in the hospitality industry, I developed a strong passion for cooking and bringing people together around food. I adopted a vegan diet as a teenager, and have therefore decided to launch my own plant-based BBQ food truck in order to provide a nostalgic, communal experience similar to backyard BBQ’s. I am thrilled to be a part of the Instrucktional program and the Off the Grid team!”

Cris Vasconcelos

A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Cris left a successful career in financial management to pursue new opportunities in the world of food service and hospitality. He soon landed a role as a cook with The Whole Cart, where he quickly rose through the ranks and went on to supervise several of the company’s mobile food concepts. Cris’ goal for his first mobile food venture of his own is to introduce Northern California palates to the flavors of Brazil.

Ikeisha Fields

Joonseok Hur

With great passion for food and cooking, Joon started his service industry career in 2002. Intrigued by making people happy over dining tables, Joon and his brother operated a Japanese restaurant and a Korean restaurant in San Francisco for 16 years. 

Joon stepped away from his restaurant in 2017 to take care of his newborn daughter. During his time away, he found himself spending time thinking about new concepts while trying not to miss any moments of his daughter growing up. 

In 2019, he joined Off The Grid as an Instrucktional entrepreneur with the concept of casual comfort Korean food. As a Starwars fan, he refers to himself as an Instrucktional padawan. Joon is planning to create Be-Bop, a Korean bibimbap truck.  

Matthew Driscoll

Matt first learned his passion for pizza making 20 years ago and has been an active pizzaiolo for 15 years in Santa Cruz, CA. He’s also been doing dough acrobatics since 2010, when he competed in the World Pizza Games for the first time. He’s worked for Pizza My Heart and was the head pizzaiolo in the Northern California region for Whole Foods Market, which sent him to compete at the World Pizza Games and International Pizza Challenge from 2010-2015. When not making pizza he’s running his independent record label called S.A.F. Records and also showcasing his pizza skills on his Instagram page, -The Pizza Series-.

“I’m very excited to be apart of the ITK program and get my concept off the ground and make it become a reality. I hope to gain the knowledge and tools needed to run a successful pizza truck. It’s been a dream of mine for many years to run my own pizza business. So happy that the Instrucktional program exist and gives young entrepreneurs like myself a chance to make their dreams come true.”

Samuel Esquibel

Samuel Esquibel is a relative newcomer to foodservice, but will not have trouble adapting to the work ethic and values of the industry thanks to his years in law enforcement and the military. After deciding that a career making people happy would be truer to his personality, he applied to Instrucktional for help realizing his dream of opening a tater tot truck.

Norma Quinonez

Semilla

 “Where homestyle flavors and aromas transport you to your grandma’s table.”

Norma Quinones was born in Durango, Mexico and raised in San Francisco, California. She inherited her love for cooking from her family visits back to Durango as a young girl. Norma was inspired by watching her mother and grandmother make cheese, chorizo, bread, flour tortillas (on an old-fashioned comal) and salsa from scratch on her grandmother’s farm in Santiago Papasquiaro. Amongst her fondest memories were helping make the traditional stew that filled gorditas and burritos—emblematic of the Durango region. Her traditional homestyle recipes are a part of her heritage, passed down from her mother, her grandmother, and generations before her.  Norma’s wish is to share her family’s legacy and bring the traditions of Durangan cuisine to the Bay Area.

Tobias Waldhecker

Hi, my name is Tobias and I am a 25-year-old graduate student from Germany. After completing my Engineering degree and working at Deloitte in Europe I decided to come to the US (first Boston then San Francisco) to study business. During my time in Boston, me and my fellow students came up with a startup idea that combined business school spirit with my lifelong passion for fitness: A food franchise named “Fuel Restaurants” for sportive and athletic people. 

Today, 1 out of 5 Americans has a gym/sports membership! In general, people pay more attention to their body and are more aware than ever about their food. At the same time consumers demand convenience, cheaper prices and better quality. By turning the traditional restaurant business model upside-down we can offer awesome nutritional meals and protein shakes for fair prices. Time to Fuel the athlete in you!

William Lyons

“Growing up in the Bay Area, as a child I used to follow my mother and grandmother’s around the kitchen gaining knowledge on how to cook culturally diverse cuisines. This love then blossomed into a full-blown passion when I moved to Louisiana and had to start cooking for myself. Moving down south was a huge culture shock, but I instantly fell in love with the food. I began to learn how to cook my favorite Southern dishes. This then allowed me to mesh California flavors with Louisiana spices to make it my own.”