Meet Dereck Dillon of Saucy Pasta in North Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dereck Dillon.

Dereck, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As long as I can remember, I have always enjoyed cooking and being in the kitchen. My grandpa was a big influence growing up and he is a great home baker. I have always been interested in food and the community it brings with it. Whether a family of four or a dinner party of 12 close friends, I enjoy that food removes most barriers and can even bring strangers together over the breaking of bread. My training and experience in the industry comes from real-world experiences and experimentation. I enjoy learning about food, cooking, sustainability and will read or watch anything I can about food. In the past, I have worked in many valley restaurants and spent six months in Park City, UT cooking professionally. After being in the finance and investment industry since 2004, I decided to take a break and recharge in the mountains of UT during the winter season of 2015. My first 4-hour shift at Tupelo (Park City’s newest restaurant on Main street in 2015), I peeled heirloom carrots as Chef Matt directed me. After learning what he was going to use them for and how he was going to present them to the guests, I was hooked. It was the most fulfilling “shift” I have worked. I returned to AZ, and to the investment industry until an opportunity presented itself in late 2018. My goal was to open a restaurant, but a food truck startup was more cost-effective. We wanted to test our concept of fresh sauces and pasta in the Phoenix area. We bought the truck in January and entered our first Food Truck Event in February. It has been non-stop since then: permits, marketing, taxes, food, and more food. Being a small business owner is so rewarding, but it’s the hardest I have worked up to this point in life. The last year has been amazing and we still have so much more to learn and many more Phoenicians to feed!

Has it been a smooth road?
This is my first business as an entrepreneur. The biggest struggle is balancing the business aspect I am familiar with from background in college and finance with the cooking aspect that is my passion. From the very beginning, all I have wanted to do is get in front of people, cook them food, and watch them enjoy what I create. There is so much more to running the business than just creating a great menu and cooking delicious food. The road has been relatively smooth, this first year has had a few bumps, but it is a learning experience and we are getting better each day.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Saucy Pasta – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
Cooking is such a passion of mine. Creating menus, dishes, and food from scratch gives me an outlet to be creative. I love working with simple ingredients, like flour and water, and creating the pasta that is a “vehicle” for our scratch-made sauces. Everything that we make and serve from the truck, including our catering options, is made from scratch. We have unique sauces that are mostly Italian-inspired. No sauce is the base for another, and each one has been developed over months of trials and tastings. The goal is to have sauces that are different than anywhere else in the Valley. We serve our sauces over fresh pasta that we make daily. There are not very many pasta food trucks in the Valley that produce the quality we strive for, and this quality can be tasted in our food. Up to this point, the positive feedback I have received at our stops, the events we have done, and the catering jobs we have completed is what I am most proud of. I cook so that people can enjoy my food, and hearing their praise means the work I have put in is paying off.

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
One of the main things I enjoy about Phoenix and the metro area surrounding the city is proximity. You can get to just about anywhere in about 30-45 minutes (depending on the time of day). This means that you don’t have to travel far distances to have a great meal. People who enjoy food should look around their neighborhoods, but also be willing to drive to another part of the Valley to eat at the new (and old) restaurants. I wish the food truck scene was a little bigger and more well known. As a native Phoenician, the restaurant landscape is wide and there are lots of variety. However, I would enjoy seeing more mobile food vendors to complement the restaurants around the Valley. There are numerous brick and mortar restaurants in Phoenix offering amazing food, but keep in mind that your next mind-blowing meal could be from a kitchen on wheels, like mine.

Pricing:

• Pasta bowls range from $10 – $15
• Parties and catering start around $8/person
• Fresh Pasta by the pound is $8

Contact Info:

• Website: www.saucypasta.com
• Phone: 6232525236
• Email: events@saucypasta.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saucypastatruck
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saucypastatruck
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/saucypastatruck

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