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Noah Rock of Noah's Rockin' Buns (Photo courtesy Noah's Rockin' Buns)
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A pulled pork bao bun from Noah's Rockin' Buns food truck (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
“I learned the food truck world and fell in love with it,” says Noah Rock, chef and owner of the namesake nomadic venture Noah’s Rockin’ Buns, a bright green mobile concept dedicated to serving up a variety of bao buns from savory to sweet.
A graduate of the now shuttered Culinard culinary school and a former chef at its partner restaurant, Kitchen on Cary, Rock, 34, says cooking has always been at the forefront of his career. With a resume that includes managing the salad bar at Ellwood Thompson’s, opening the bygone Travinia at Willow Lawn and holding down the kitchen at Metro Bar & Grill, it wasn’t until he hit the road aboard another food truck that the wheels really started to turn.
In 2019, after responding to a Lindsey’s List ad, he joined the Lowco Eatery team. Taken under the wing of owner Aaron Pietzyk, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of Charleston, South Carolina, and former head chef at Poogan's Porch restaurant, it was on the Low Country-inspired mobile venture known for its crispy chicken sliders that Rock entered a yearlong crash course in food truck operations.
“We became good friends, and I learned a lot from [Pietzyk]. If I hadn’t worked with him I wouldn’t be doing this right now,” Rock says. “He showed me how things should be done. ... He inspired me to do the truck thing.”
In December 2020, Pietzyk and his wife put Lowco on pause until further notice and relocated north. Without a job and missing the rush of the road, Rock decided to take matters into his own hands.
On July 3, he unveiled Noah’s Rockin Buns, a venture focused on the slightly sweet, fluffy treats.
“I wanted to do my own thing and thought of a bao bun special I did at Metro. … Nobody does bao bun trucks,” he says. “They’re steamed, yeasty deliciousness, and you can do whatever you want; they’re a blank canvas.”
Making appearances everywhere from neighborhoods to breweries, Noah’s Rockin Buns offers a smoked pork bao bun with pickled red onions, carrots, cilantro, cucumber, signature Rockin’ Glaze — a peppery, spicy gastrique sauce made with AR’s Hot Southern Honey — and crushed Virginia peanuts; a tempura fried shrimp bun with slaw, crispy red onions and house remoulade; a wok-fried tofu vegan iteration; and an ode to his Lowco days with a fried chicken bao bun available in original and spicy versions.
Other options include fried Brussels sprouts with bacon lardons, pickled red onions, goat cheese and Rockin’ Glaze; fried edamame; and truck-cut crispy potato chips. A recent dessert special was a fried bao bun topped with fresh berries, fried bananas, powdered sugar and chocolate syrup. Buns on the idea board include confit duck, brisket, a vegetarian-friendly mushroom variety and a traditional bao bun with pork belly.
"It’s great, it's my passion, and I’m glad I went down this route," Rock says. “It’s a lot of hard work, it definitely takes it out of you on the daily basis, but again that’s the excitement, too — the setting up, tearing it down, driving to where you're going, packing up every day loading up, making sure you’re ready to rock and roll."
