Diving into success

Carpinelli looks to win his second straight state diving championship

By RiCH FisHer

When Tommy Carpinelli bends the diving board and allows it to propel him skyward, what follows is when the fun really starts for the Lawrence High School senior.

“I really liked the flipping and how unique it was,” he said of what drew him to diving in the first place. “There wasn’t much like it. There’s not really many places you can get the feeling of jumping off the board and flipping and twisting and stuff like that. I just found it so exhilarating.”

Carpinelli has parlayed that exhilaration into a college education, as he will dive for Georgetown University next year. Prior to that, he still has some things to accomplish in high school, as he will attempt to win his second straight NJSIAA state diving championship at Montgomery High School on March 1. Tommy enters the competition with the highest qualifying score of 521 points.

By ReBeKaH SCHroeDer

Once he started, it was an easy decision for Patrick Lombardi—and a rewarding one—to just keep on (food) trucking.

He learned that since the recipe for a successful food truck is equal parts determination and delicious food, the stories behind them are worth filling up on, plate after plate. These businesses are run by families, couples, independent owners, and partners, some of whom see their work as an extension of their culinary school experiences, while others consider it a side project to share recipes on more flexible terms.

Such diverse backgrounds serve up an explosion of culture and talent for the industry, a niche that Lombardi, a BestofNJ.com contributor and photographer, has written a book about with the publication’s editor-in-chief, Vincent Parisi.

The first paperback to come from Best of NJ, The New Jersey Food Truck Cookbook evolved from Lombardi’s “The Best New Jersey Food Trucks,” a web series that has run every spring and summer season— considered the prime time for food trucks due to the increase in outdoor festivals and events—since March 2018.

Released on Feb. 13 through The History Press, an imprint of Arca-

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See ad in SIX09 on page 10 dia Publishing, every chapter of the book centers on a different food truck business from throughout the state. Of the 20 food trucks featured, Lombardi highlights the biographies of the people involved, over 30 recipes, and Q&As with the business owner(s).

A self-described “foodie” and lifelong New Jersey resident, Lombardi, who graduated from Rider University in Lawrenceville, officially moved to the area at the end of 2020 after marrying his wife, Christine, in July of that year. They now live in Lawrence Township.

Lombardi currently works fulltime for the state of New Jersey, yet still has the same love of writing, covering food, hiking (“The Best NJ Hiking Trails”), and history (“Jersey Through History”) for Best of NJ, with previous credits for websites such as NJ.com, MyCentralJersey. com, and Patch.com.

The concept for “The Best New Jersey Food Trucks” began as a pitch Lombardi made to Parisi in late 2017, which the latter documents in the book’s preface as growing from a standalone piece Lombardi had been writing at the time on Bearded One BBQ, a Monroe-based food truck.

But Lombardi sensed a greater potential than just the one-off could provide when, upon reflecting on the