In four seasons of featuring the best food trucks across the globe, "Eat St." host James Cunningham knows the formula that makes a truck television-worthy.

"There’s the food, which has to be great; the personality of the truck owner; and the attention the owner takes to make the truck more than just a regular food truck," said Cunningham via phone from his home in Canada. His show airs on the Cooking Channel.

"Both Camille and Opel are phenomenal chefs. Their food is unbelievable."

That would be Camille Komine of Camille’s on Wheels and Sanith "Opel" Sirichandhra of Opal’s Thai Truck, both of whom were featured on the show. Komine’s episode reruns at 4 and 8 p.m. Friday.

(Sirichandhra has since opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant, Opal Thai Food, in Haleiwa. Komine will hit the streets on occasion, but she also has moved on, to catering for film and television productions and private events.)

Their dishes — Komine’s Thai Pork Tacos and Sirichandhra’s Thai Stir-fry — are included in "Eat St.: Recipes from the Tastiest, Messiest and Most Irresistible Food Trucks" (Penguin Group, $20), a cookbook featuring the fare of 150 trucks. The book will be released Tuesday.

The show zeroes in on gourmet street food from cities across the United States, Canada and a few other countries around the world. Researchers for the show find subjects by scouring blogs, Twitter and other social media, Cunningham said.

"It’s pretty easy to tell the good trucks from the bad," he said.

Still, since the show’s first face-to-face contact with trucks is when they arrive for filming, the crew shoots more trucks than will be aired. "Some don’t make the cut," he said.

The allure of the Hawaii trucks, he says, was the freshness of the food.

"You’re spoiled over there. The fusion cooking was outstanding. Camille’s Thai Pork Tacos is something you can’t get on the mainland."

Cunningham says if the show is renewed, they want to return to Hawaii.

Komine says when the "Eat St." crew came to film in 2011, she took them to the fish auction and filleted fresh mahimahi.

"I knew that was something different for them," she recalled.

She says she created her tacos to break into the food-truck world. "I was inspired by Roy Choi’s fusion cooking. I made my Thai pork in red curry sauce and shredded beef with mango salsa."

Komine’s cooking also garnered attention from "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," a Food Network show, and because of that exposure she’s come to realize the trucks are a resource for tourism.

"I get two or three calls a day from Canadian tourists. The trucks are a real tourist draw because we can do them here all year round," she said.

———

>> Opal Thai Food, 66-197C Kamehameha Highway, is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays. Call 637-7950.

>> Find Camille Komine on Twitter @camillesonwheel, email meely@me.com or call 282-1740.