Food trucks: Caribbean Press owner, former disc jockey, spins a tasty rice bowl

This is the latest in a summer series on Central Mass. food trucks — with a look at the people at the wheel and the window.

Truck: The Caribbean Press

Owner: Jermaine Smith

The most scrumptious plate: Caribbean curry chicken rice bowl — many words, but also many flavors. Smith says it’s the one dish you must try if you approach his food truck “because no one else does it.” The plate includes shredded chicken in Caribbean curry seasoning over rice and beans with Virgin Islands coleslaw.

From spin to press: Smith owns three food trucks, with Caribbean-style sandwiches and rice bowls holding the main stage of his menu, but one of his gigs as a disc jockey turned him to owning a food truck business.

In 2019, while performing at a bar, he noticed a small food truck in the back. He learned it belonged to a friend. Before long he was negotiating a purchase.

The deal, which cost him $4,000, turned his passion for cooking from a hobby to a business.

“That was the beginning of it,” said Smith, 45. “It was a tiny one — it was 5 by 8 (feet).

“I started doing paninis and then one of my friends didn't want bread, so I started doing coleslaw bowls, and then I started doing sides, rice and beans. I just started being creative and just doing what I have to do.”

Smith attributes his love for cooking to his Dominican grandmother and mother, from whom he “learned food."

He half-jokes that his family-nourished passion for cooking and attention to detail are what keep him from hiring any help. He likes to do everything to his own standards.

“I have trust issues,” said Smith, with a laugh in his voice. “No one can do the quality that I can do.

“I have to eventually let it go, but for now I’ll be doing everything.”

Smith said he always tries to adapt to whatever comes his way. A year after he opened his first food truck under the name The Caribbean Press, he bought another truck in upstate New York.

Last year, he bought a third off Facebook marketplace.

With a menu that often differs depending on the truck and the event where he pops up, Smith’s staples are his paninis and rice bowls, which range from barbecue chicken to vegetarian options, all of which heed the flavor family of the Dominican Republic, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and others.

Where the press is hottest: While Smith’s trucks can be spotted in Worcester County festivals and markets throughout the summer, he also offers catering services.