Mobile food dispensing vehicles (aka food trucks) are a trendy commodity in major urban areas with people standing in line over an hour for a gourmet burger. Well, the trend trickled down to Collier County this season and Marco Island Farmers Market has its own meals on wheels – The Nosh Truck – and customers don’t have to stand on line for a Thai burger cooked by chef Scott Sopher, formerly food and beverage director/executive chef at the Naples Bay Resort.

The chef for all seasons, ahem cuisines, boasts a well-rounded food service background including Johnson & Wales class of 1999 with internship at the Biltmore Estate’s various food venues. Then, spent several years at Steamboat Springs Resorts in Colorado until he tired of the cold and moved to Bonita where he opened a couple of restaurants including the popular Traders and Cin Cin in Fort Myers.

Chef Sopher still keeps a consulting hand in the kitchen at the Naples Bay Resort even though he left there in February 2011 to devote all his time to his Nosh Truck and catering business.

“I wanted to build a business and work for me — my specialty is a fusion cuisine with Asian and Mediterranean influences that I like to call inspired street food with a little Tex-Mex thrown in – it’s a big mix. I keep eight daily specials on my menu board and one of my top sellers is the Pad Thai Beef Burger, a 6-ounce Angus beef patty topped with bean sprouts, green onions, cilantro, peanuts, sriracha and mayo on a sesame bun,” he said adding that he tries to buy a lot of his ingredients from farmers markets and utilize whatever is in season and buy organic when ever feasible.

Another one of his signature hand foods is the Market BLT with avocado made with ingredients bought at daily farmers markets as well as the Korean BBQ pork sliders that he serves with a piquant Asian slaw suggestive of kimchi.

Chef Sopher’s Blackened Tilapia Tacos on a soft corn tortilla topped with pineapple-tomatillo salsa is equally popular with customers, as are the gourmet-class panini sandwiches filled with turkey, Brie and apple slices on artisanal Italian bread or the Fresh Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil Pesto Panini, to name but a few from the chef’s culinary repertoire culled from his restaurant experience.

“I’m also introducing a new dessert to complement my crème brulee, because Plant City strawberries are in season I created a fresh strawberry balsamic jam and I’m doing a Nutella, banana and jam stuffed Panini, and sometimes I’ll cook up a kettle of my signature gumbo or a pot of New England chowder that’s favorite with my take-out customers and the catering trade,” he said noting that his catered Street Food Party business is a popular entertainment alternative. Customers choose 4 menu items and two sides with two and a half hours of service and unlimited trips to the truck at $15 per person plus tax and gratuity, or he also offers a customized buffet or plated dinner menu.

“With The Nosh Truck Party locations are limitless because we’re mobile. I can pull the truck up and cook anywhere, on the beach, in a park, historical sites and even your driveway.”