Best BBQ Show

Laurel Evans is a Milan-based cookbook author, television personality, cooking teacher and American food enthusiast. The seventh-generation Texan fell in love with an Italian photographer who brought her to Milan in 2004. In 2009 she published her first cookbook and launched an award-winning blog, Un’Americana in Cucina. She has since published three additional books about American cuisine, and is currently the food editor for the Italian edition of Food&Wine magazine. She also consults with Blacket BBQ for digital communication, recipe creation and quality control.

Emilio Scoti is a photographer and director from Milan, Italy. He lived three years in Texas in the early 2000's, where he met his wife and fell in love with the Hill Country forever. After moving back to Milan, he worked as a travel photographer and became increasingly involved with food photography and film directing. Currently working also as photographer and communication consultant for Blacket BBQ restaurant brand. He loves to spread the word about BBQ culture all over Italy.

Mauro "Max" Chiefari: @texicanabbq_

Laurel Evans: @laurelevans

Emilio Scoti: @emilioscoti

You’re listening to the Best BBQ Show but you could be watching the show on our youtube channel! That’s right, we’re on youtube. You can find the channel in our show notes or on any of our social media. The show is upgrading this year and I hope you enjoy some of the new ways I’m covering the BBQ scene in Texas, North America and across the globe.

This week we’re talking to Esaul Ramos and Joe Melig IV the men behind 2M Smokehouse. They have an amazing story and I truly enjoyed speaking with these guys.

Enjoy this episode. It’s freezing in Texas right now so I’m going to go cuddle up with a bottle of Tequila.

Enjoy.

You can follow 2M on Facebook or Instagram

While you're at it, follow our social as well.

Thank you for listening and if you liked the show please leave a 5 star rating on apple podcasts. It helps the show grow and get discovered. If you didn’t like the show you can write me at [email protected]. Tag us in all of your meat posts and if you see people getting a little too friendly with their bbq, remind them #dontsqueezeyourmeat!

Tag us in all your social media with @bestbarbecue.

Our Facebook and Instagram

You’re listening to the Best BBQ Show and I’m your host Yoni Levin.

This week we have some great talks that I was able to attend during BBQ Town Hall. Every year Jeff Savell and his team create a day of information and updates for pit masters and restaurant owners. This is the 5th year and I am truly grateful for being able to attend.

This is a nice long episode for y’all. First up is Daniel Vaughn, BBQ Editor for Texas Monthly and the man behind the Texas Monthly Top 50 List. He talks about how he chooses what restaurants to visit for his long list and some tips for restaurant owners on how they can successfully promote their businesses. Y’all know I love social media so this is a treat for me as well.

Second is David Anderson (about 38 minutes in) who is a livestock economist at Texas A&M. He discusses trends in beef, pork and turkey trends in the past few years and how the future might look. His talk was full of information and if you listen closely you can hear my notepad flipping as I feverishly took notes.

Please enjoy these experts and let me know what you think of the episode. I attend a lot of these types of talks and if you enjoy them I’d love to provide you with more. While you’re at it don’t forget to rate and review the show on iTunes. We broke in the top 100 under food last week and it’s all because of your support!

Thanks again and enjoy this nice juicy episode from the Texas A&M Town Hall 2018.

You’re listening to the Best BBQ Show and I’m your host, Yoni Levin.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of sitting down at Terry Black’s BBQ with a table full of amazing people. From Brazil, Rogerio Betti. A true meatman in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A man who brings great happiness to 1000 people a day at Quintal deBetti where they cook amazing steaks family style. The man behind Churrascada, a Brazilian BBQ Festival where high quality beef is cooked by masters of their craft.

Also at the table, was Mauro “Max” Chiefari a local pitmaster who came all the way from Italy to cook Texas BBQ. A man who is passionate about BBQ and spends his days cooking at the iconic Franklin BBQ. He first learned the ways of BBQ at Kerlin BBQ side by side with Bill Kerlin a top Austin pitmaster and owner.

Mark Black, owner of Terry Black’s BBQ, brought us an amazing platter of BBQ so we had something to eat as we learned about deBetti’s big events and passion for good food. Mark also hung out for a bit and shared some of his questions. Mark, a true professional, was helping customers and managing staff while we all shared a delicious platter.

We talked all about the history of beef in Brazil. How the cooks are in love with their food and the quality of their meat. Rogerio started by cooking steak on a small grill outside his butcher shop and now he has a huge following all over the world.

During the interview he says “Eat less and eat better”. Happiness is good food and if you’ve heard any of our episodes you know I truly want all of you to spend good times with good people eating great food. Your friends and family deserve the best and so do you.

We talked for hours about the amazing meat they’re cooking in Brazil and their steaks seem to have amazing fat within them. I would say if you can scroll @debetti on instagram while you’re listening you’ll like what you’ll see. They say only good vibes at their restaurant and I can vouch for the fact that they bring good vibes with them everywhere they go.

My equipment gets so greasy in these interviews. I’m truly putting it to the test and it’s worth the time it takes to rub everything down with simple green. I have said it before, Texas BBQ is taking over the world. I meet people from every continent that want to learn more about the BBQ that is being cooked in Central Texas.

While you’re on insta and cruising around tag us in yours or your favorite BBQ posts. I feel like I’ve just dipped my toe into the international BBQ enthusiast world and I want to dive in head first. Help me find your favorite cook, restaurant or butcher by shouting out the show in yours and their posts! I can’t get enough of the good food that’s out there.

Enjoy this episode and Obrigado to Rogerio for taking the time on his trip to share his story with the Best BBQ Show. This is a fun one. Enjoy.

Follow all our guests on Instagram:

Mauro "Max" Chiefari - @texicanabbq_

Rogerio Betti - @deBetti | @churrascada | @quintaldebetti

Mark Black - @terryblacksbarbecue

Kosmo Q. He makes sauces that win all kinds of events every year. He has over a dozen teams and knows a few things about BBQ. We met up at the Jack Daniel’s invitational in Tennessee. We were in the Boomerang BBQ tent surrounded by B&B Charcoal.

He is a man that is always reinventing himself. As we all know you have to be willing to learn if you want to cook good BBQ. If you think you already know everything, you probably don’t know too much.

Kosmo makes over 80 sauces and is always experimenting with something new. He also has a ton of cookers at his house and cooks with them all the time. With the end of the year coming The Jack Daniel’s invitational was a great way to end our coverage of the BBQ world in 2018.

What do you want us to cover in 2019? What’s missing? I’m seeing Texas BBQ grow across the globe. More and more people are entering the many competitions available internationally and the technology they are using is moving away from traditional methods.

Please tag us on any posts, pages, or anywhere you think we should be interviewing and talking to people who love to cook cue.

Enjoy this episode.

Thank you for listening and if you liked the show please leave a 5 star rating on apple podcasts. It helps the show grow and get discovered. If you didn’t like the show you can write me [email protected]. Tag us in all of your meat posts and if you see people getting a little too friendly with their bbq, remind them #dontsqueezeyourmeat!

Tag us in all your social media with @bestbarbecue and use #meatman and #meatwoman wherever you see someone who loves meat!

You’re listening to the Best BBQ show and I’m your host Yoni Levin.

This week we head back to The Jack Daniels Invitational. A special event for a select group of pit masters and teams. This isn’t just any other competition. You have to win a lot of competitions to get here and in some countries even win a lottery after that.

This was the 30th year of “The Jack”. It is considered one of the most prestigious barbecue competitions in the world. 103 teams, 27 of which are international including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Italy, Poland and Slovenia.

25,000 people descended upon Lynchburg, TN to spectate the competitive barbecue. The competitors cook almost 4000 pounds of meat and the winners will share almost $50,000 in cash and prizes.

While the BBQ cooks in Wiseman Park you can see the distillery looking down the hill at you. The home of the world’s best-selling whiskey and the United States oldest registered distillery.

Cold weather was the theme this year and Rob Reinhardt is no stranger to the cold. In an amazing town with the great hospitality of small town Tennessee, this man is taking his que to another level.

Rob Reinhardt is about his team and his restaurant. When he’s not cooking competitively he has a crew that can cook for 50 to 5000 people. They pull their rigs all over Saskatchewan cooking in beautiful Canada. My father used to hitchhike around Canada, but that’s a story for a different show.

Please enjoy this great conversation with Rob from Prairie Smoke and Spice BBQ.

Thank you for listening and if you liked the show please leave a 5 star rating on apple podcasts. It helps the show grow and get discovered. If you didn’t like the show you can write me [email protected]. Tag us in all of your meat posts and if you see people getting a little too friendly with their bbq, remind them #dontsqueezeyourmeat!

Tag us in all your social media with @bestbarbecue and use #meatman and #meatwoman wherever you see someone who loves meat!

This week was a hunt. I had to track down a rare bird. Usually indigenous to the Los Angeles area, this pit master has been cooking BBQ on the west coast for years and representing Texas with the quality and pride that the great city of Los Angeles deserves.

He’s a neighborhood source of brisket for executives and moguls in Hollywood. He spends his days selling million dollar homes and his nights cooking that good ol Texas Cue. His name is Burt Bakman. The creator of Trudy’s Underground BBQ. A true underground BBQ source in the LA area that he decided to make legit under the name Slab.

He now resides where Oprah’s favorite bakery used to be on third street in Beverly Hills. He’s walking distance from Uncle Paul’s Deli and in the center of one of the largest cities in the world and he comes all the way to Texas just to make sure he’s cooking the food right.

Also on this episode you’ll hear from a guy named Adam @adamcomplains on instagram. He’s an enthusiast that I also saw this morning at Valentinas so I know he’s legit. Look out for him in the LA scene.

Patrick and Erin Feges stop in to talk about their restaurant and their baby that’s due in a month.

Robert Lerma hops in and out of the conversation adding only exactly what you’d expect from him while taking world class photos in between.

And Leonard Botello the fourth also joins us and discusses his upcoming restaurant opening and how the city of Houston is making opening a restaurant very difficult. It’s hard out there for BBQ. If you work for the city of Austin, Houston, Los Angeles or any other cities that have great BBQ please reach out to us. We need your help explaining BBQ to the bureaucrats. They seem to have trouble comprehending a cooking method that is as old as time.

You’ll also get a few minutes with Clay Cowgill, Ben Sasssani and some other quick guests. It was truly fun to drive all over Houston and Austin just trying to keep up with Burt. He moves fast and eats BBQ faster. Please enjoy this nice juicy episode with Burt Bakman and friends. Enjoy.

Thank you for listening and if you liked the show please leave a 5 star rating on apple podcasts. It helps the show grow and get discovered. If you didn’t like the show you can write me [email protected]. Tag us in all of your meat posts and if you see people getting a little too friendly with their bbq, remind them #dontsqueezeyourmeat!

Tag us in all your social media with @bestbarbecue and use #meatman and #meatwoman wherever you see someone who loves meat!

I spent Sunday afternoon eating all kinds of delicious bites from all over Texas. From Houston to Mobberly this invitational was the second version of the Austin vs Houston throwdown. Although there were good bites from both cities, it was Bodacious BBQ who took the trophy this weekend.

Check out our instagram stories to see all the food at the event. There was brisket, ribs and even tongue served a few different ways.

I cruised around the tents before and after the event. We talked to some of the talent while drinking local brew from Friends and Allies. They brew one of my favorite Austin beers, the noisy cricket.

We started out talking to Evan Leroy of Leroy and Lewis who made big red pickled red onions and The Mighty Joe Yim who was there helping them out. Leroy and Lewis always runs deep at events.

Next we ran into Chef Ara from Harlem Road BBQ who was cooking up some delicious beef ribs with polenta right next to Bangers. The guys a bangers were cooking some pastrami beef tongue and we got to sneak a bite.

We ran into John Brotherton and his crew cooking steaks for the crowd and the S&S Pit Crew was hanging out too. Bram Tripp told us a little about what’s to come at Loro before he goes off on his honeymoon.

Shane Stiles and Bill Dumas got on the mic before we talked to the organizers of HOUBBQ and @subtlefoodie who was there running the judging and enjoying the day.

I hope you enjoy this episode from the ATX vs HOU throwdown.

Thank you again for listening and as always tag us in all of your meat posts and if you see people getting a little too friendly with their bbq, remind them #dontsqueezeyourmeat! And as always tag us in all your social media with @bestbarbecue and use #meatman and #meatwoman wherever you see someone who loves meat!

Everyone knows the BBQ family is growing way beyond the borders of Texas or even these beautiful United States of America. There’s Dave Peralta who is smoking American briskets in the Philippines using dragon fruit and tamarind wood. There’s Holy Smoke in Sweden who are feasting on Texas BBQ just south of the arctic circle. This episode is all about the west coast and how Texas BBQ is popping up all along the pacific ocean.

This week’s episode takes us to Bruery Terreux, a wildly traditional brewery in Anaheim California. Yesterday Danny Castillo and his crew fed hundreds of hungry Californians at a pop up and our new west coast correspondent was there to talk to the people involved.

Did I just say west coast correspondent? Yes, I did. I’d like to introduce y’all to Abe Delgado. AKA @abedelgadoeats on instagram. Calling Abe a BBQ enthusiast is an understatement. He’s loved Texas BBQ his whole life even after he moved from Texas to California. You may remember him from our coverage of Texas monthly and he’s combing the streets of California trying to sniff out any BBQ he can find.

Your west coast host was at Heritage BBQ talking to a long list of west coast enthusiasts. He spoke with Shark Man Dan aka Ragged Tooth bbq who are cooking some Texas BBQ out there. He spoke to Alex aka @theoffsetbbq on instagram and a huge enthusiast. Alex throws down to help other bbq pit masters like Andrew from Moo’s in LA. There’s not a huge pool of Texas BBQ people so they are tight on the west coast. You never know when you need a little help at the smoker or on the cutting line.

Abe also spoke with some of the enthusiasts of Heritage BBQ. This couple goes to every popup that Danny throws and they’re often first in line. They like to be early so that they can get a beef rib.

There was a film crew at the popup as well led by Florentino Levas who are shooting films all about BBQ and the long hard work of cooking it. At first he didn’t believe that this BBQ was in Cali and he was pleasantly surprised to meet Danny and the crew. Everyone at the popup appreciates not having to travel to Texas to eat this style of bbq.

One of the most active members of the west coast foodie community is GoldLineLA. He connected with our show on instagram a long time ago and we’re glad he linked up with Abe. You can follow him and see all the amazing eats he tries all over LA.

Enjoy this west coast episode brought to you by our west coast correspondent and enthusiast, Abe Delgado, enjoy.

Thank you again for listening and as always tag us in all of your meat posts and if you see people getting a little too friendly with their bbq, remind them #dontsqueezeyourmeat! And as always tag us in all your social media with @bestbarbecue and use #meatman and #meatwoman wherever you see someone who loves meat!

This week I’ve got a great episode for you. I long list of people I spoke with at the close of Texas Monthly BBQ. Some of these BBQ restaurant owners, cutters, pitmasters rarely get to meet and this is one of those rare occasions. The final hour of TMBBQ.

I’ve got a long list of people that I got to speak with while I was walking around. So get ready, we’ve got a lot to cover.

We spoke with Catherine Stiles and Lance Kirkpatrick, two of the many talents at Stiles Switch BBQ. They were hanging out with John Kulow aka ATX Food Guy.

We talk to Evan Leroy of Leroy and Lewis BBQ. A modern man who always experiments with new ideas, even in BBQ. Evan was with Brad Robinson of Chuds BBQ as well as Chris Mcghee from The Switch.

We talk briefly to Shane Stiles and Johnny Texas before I run into Rober Sierra of S&S Pit Crew. A guy everyone is happy to see and someone who works hard cooking BBQ. Robert cooks for his competition team when he’s not cooking for his family.

I talked to Dusty Dworak from 2M Smokehouse, his knife skills serve some of the best BBQ in the state. John Mueller pulls me away to hang out with the LA BBQ crew, Ali Clem and LeAnn Mueller. They told us about their travels and all the weird things they ate in Asia.

I grab a shot with Dominic Colbert and Mike Ruffino while John Brotherton shouts out his friends. Misty Roegels and they guys from Panther City get on the mic until I run into Patrick Hernandez.

Patrick was working with Truth BBQ for the fest and they had one of the longest lines of the day. Of course if we’re going to hang around by the Truth tent we’re going to talk to Cory Taylor, one of the most outspoken members of the team. Leonard Botello IV owner and vision behind Truth BBQ talks to us about Houston and their soon to open second location.

Finally, I run into Dylan Taylor and Joe Yim who have been cooking at Terry Black’s BBQ at one of the biggest operations in Austin. Just over that weekend they cooked over 400 briskets and they’re still smiling and having a good time.

That’s the beauty of the BBQ life. You can work long hours and still have a big smile on your face. You’re creating something delicious and putting smiles on peoples faces. You get to make people happy.

That’s why this show exists, because I know it makes people happy. It connects people all over the world. I’m happy to be that connection. It’s an honor to be your host and it’s an honor to present you yet another episode of the Best BBQ Show. Enjoy.

Thank you again for listening and as always tag us in all of your meat posts and if you see people getting a little too friendly with their bbq, remind them #dontsqueezeyourmeat! And as always tag us in all your social media with @bestbarbecue and use #meatman and #meatwoman wherever you see someone who loves meat!