The salient point of this podcast episode revolves around an engaging conversation with Allie Romero, who shares insights from her culinary journey and discusses her latest book, "Gas, Fire, Heat." In our discourse, we delve into personal reflections, including Allie's heartfelt desire to share a meal with her late parents, highlighting the emotional connections that food can foster. The dialogue further explores the nuances of living in Texas, where Allie notes the warmth and friendliness of the people, which has inspired a more leisurely approach to life. We also touch upon the challenges of mastering barbecue techniques, particularly the elusive perfect brisket. This episode encapsulates not only the art of cooking but also the profound memories and relationships intertwined with the culinary experience.

Links referenced in this episode:

• paintedhillsnaturalbeef.com
• gascookbook.com
• instagram.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Painted Hills Natural Beef

Welcome to Barbecue Nation with JT and Leanne.

After Hours, the conversation that continued after the show was done.

Hey, everybody, it's JT and this is a special version of Barbecue Nation.

It is brought to you in part by Painted Hills Natural Beef.

Beef you can be proud to serve your family and friends.

That's Painted Hills Natural Beef.

Hey, everybody.

Welcome to After Hours here on the Nation.

I'm JT along with Leanne Whippen, and today we're in the hot seat is Allie Romero.

We've been talking about her new book, Gas, Fire, Heat, and the regular show.

Now it's time to talk about some really fun stuff.

You ready for this, Ally?

I'm ready.

You sure?

I am ready as I'll ever be.

Okay, we'll.

We'll start easy with this.

If you could cook for and then dine with a historical figure, who would it be and what would be on the menu?

I feel like you asked me this question last time and I, like, failed.

Yeah.

Easiest one.

We have easiest one.

Oh, my gosh.

Who would it be and what would be on the menu?

I mean, historical figure, Like, I mean, the first thing that comes to mind, not a historical figure, but, I mean, I would do anything to have one more meal with my mom or my dad, you know, preferably both of them, but not ever together.

You wanna.

You wanna embellish that a little bit.

So with my dad, I think that, you know, he was really, like, the.

My original inspiration for getting into doing what I do.

He's my original cooking inspiration, I think sitting down with him with a beautiful glass of BV Cab, which was his favorite, and a big, huge rack of lamb from New Zealand, which was also his favorite, and some roasted potatoes and some glazed carrots and a huge glass of wine.

I lost her suddenly a couple of years ago, and so that was something where, you know, again, I just would love to share where I'm at with what's going on.

I think that she would be so proud knowing that I had a cookbook out.

I think that I got the chance to tell her I was writing it.

I think that we got to do that.

But her.

It would definitely be some sort of a comfort food meal.

Fried chicken and a, I don't know, Mac and cheese or something.

Just, you know, fun and Just to share and.

And sit down at the table with each of them once again, and would be my.

My ultimate.

Who I'd want.

Yeah, absolutely.

How do you cut your sandwiches?

Vertically, horizontally, or diagonally?

I cut them vertically.

Yeah.

I don't do horizontal, although I can see that.

And then I've seen recently where people are doing, like, various shapes of triangles.

I. I just cut the sandwich, Leanne.

Well, I've.

I've always cut my sandwiches, and.

And my family knows this.

My whole entire life, I've always cut my sandwiches into quarters.

Quarters, okay.

Always quarters.

And I don't know why that is, but.

And it kind of jeopardizes the ingredients.

But over the years, I've been quite good at it.

You know what would be really good in quarters is peanut butter and jelly.

Yeah, yeah.

Peanut butter and jelly in quarters would be fantastic.

I feel like with turkey and tomato and lettuce and cheese, like, then it might all kind of fall apart for me, but.

And grilled cheese, I cut into quarters diagonally, so they're little triangles.

There you go.

Yep.

So, Allie, do you ever cook your grilled cheese with a pizza cutter?

Do I cut it with a pizza cutter?

My grilled cheese, I don't.

I've cut a quesadilla with a pizza cutter.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

How to cut a five gallon bucket of ice cream with a pizza cutter.

That's a great idea.

I'm not kidding.

It gives you really nice.

Five wedges of ice cream.

There you go.

I love that.

There you go.

Use what you got.

Use what you got.

Yeah.

What.

What do you think you've learned so far living in Texas?

And this doesn't have to only pertain to food, but, you know, you were below the equator, and then you were in Hawaii, and you were in the Bay Area and all that, and now you're deep in the heart.

Well, you're in the northern part.

Doesn't matter.

Deep in the heart covers everything in Texas.

But what do you think you've learned most about living in Texas?

I have learned how to slow down a little bit.

I think that the people here are incredibly warm and friendly.

Like, noticeably warm and friendly there.

You can feel the sense of pride of people who live in Texas.

But I think that that's the overwhelming thing is just, I. I mean, there's times where I go to the grocery store and I'm zooming around for 20 minutes, and the same two people are chatting in the front of the store from when I entered the store, and it's like it's just kind of taking time to kind of slow down a little bit and be a little bit more in the moment.

The barrier was a pretty fast pace compared to.

I feel like it's a little bit slower here, but like, in a good way.

Okay, who is, who is someone that's really grabbed your attention in the food world this last, say, year or two?

I mean, I look up to so many people.

I feel like for me it's always about kind of like who's doing something new, but not like the tick tocky new stuff where, you know, it's more like assembling food and that sort of thing.

I mean, for me, it's still about the food and the ingredients.

As far as someone who's new on the scene who's kind of grabbed my attention, I, you know, there's a number of people I've followed on Instagram for, for a while that, you know, have put out various cookbooks.

I mean, I don't know that I could narrow it down to just one person.

It's okay.

There's so much inspiration from so many people.

So many people are doing such great things.

Okay.

Would you recommend a career like yours for somebody who's just getting started?

Yes, if you are completely fine with being totally self driven and also, you know, not afraid to self promote.

There's a lot of self promotion that has to go into this job just to kind of like put your, again, put yourself out there.

It's just for some reason, I've never been afraid of just kind of putting it out there.

And if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out.

And then maybe something else comes along.

But I don't ever kind of like take that too personally.

I mean, there's obviously occasions where I take it more to heart than others, but I think that I would recommend it.

But you have to have the love and the passion.

Like it has to be all the things together that.

Right.

It's like I said, nobody wakes you up in the morning and says, okay, here's the things you need to do.

Like you need to study who's doing this and who's doing that and how do I emulate that type of success?

Or how do I get to be this there?

Or how can I get to write a book?

Like, how do I go about this?

And then really just figuring it out.

You have to be self driven.

Sure.

What's the worst thing you've ever eaten?

The worst thing I've ever eaten.

I mean, I remember from my Childhood, like, I think I had to try like liver and onions.

I think that probably wasn't my favorite.

I think that's probably still tops the list of like worse things.

Not my favorite.

Tastes like dirt.

Yeah, pretty, pretty bad.

Okay.

And lima beans, I'm not a big fan of.

I'm with you there.

I'm with you there.

My mom used to make.

We got time here because it's after hours.

I, when I graduated from college, I moved back to the, our home ranch.

My brother and his wife were living there because they're, they were building a house right up the road.

They just moved out of town and, and from town, I should say.

And so it was one big, I won't say happy family, but it was one big family.

And my mother would make these big ass pots of lima beans and I, I came home from the, we had three ranches there on this one road and I came home from the one I worked at and walked in and looked at those lima beans and immediately jumped in the shower, ran upstairs, changed my clothes, went out.

As I was coming out the back door, my brother was coming in.

He said, where are you going?

I said, I'm going to go to eat Chinese food because mom's got lima beans.

He says, give me two minutes, I'll meet you out front.

So he went up on the other side of the house, changed his clothes.

Now the table was all set, everything was all ready to go.

And he snuck out the back, the front door, jumped over the hedge, met me on the road.

We drive down to the end of the road.

We lived on a dead end road.

We drive down to the open end of the road.

And my dad was coming home from work at that time, and he goes, where are you two going?

Going?

And he said, mom's cooked lima beans.

And he goes, well, wait.

I said, we don't have time.

And we left.

And he was, he was mad at us for a week.

Those were.

I don't explain.

I gotta go.

Yeah, gotta go, gotta go.

Yeah.

Have you ever come across something in the food world that you just could not master to make it the way you wanted to?

I mean, there's a number of things in the barbecue world, or, you know, smoking specifically, that are.

It's trial and error.

I mean, brisket, right?

Brisket is like, everybody asks all the time, you know, how do you do the perfect brisket?

And there's so many people out there, so many experts who will give you their opinion and give you this and give you that and tips and tricks and all of that.

But that, that takes a while.

I think that now I've got it.

But that took longer than a lot of indoor cooking.

Yeah.

That sort of thing.

As far as something else I haven't been able to master, baking is a little bit of my nemesis.

So I don't know that I, you know, have mastered everything in the baking world.

I, I, it's not my favorite.

Got it.

If you could teach a politician how to barbecue, cook, whatever, who would it be?

A politician?

Yeah.

Oh, I don't, I don't know if I want to hang out with any of those people.

Good answer.

Good.

I mean, who?

I, I don't know.

That's a special kind of person, right?

I don't know.

Yeah, yeah,.

Yeah.

I don't, I don't, I don't have anybody for that.

Okay.

None of them.

None of the above.

All right.

Very.

I will accept that.

What's your least favorite activity in the world to do?

Least favorite activity is running.

I hate running.

That's mine.

That's mine too.

Running is.

No, it's, I mean, I do it because I have to do it, but like, I, I, I watch the timer and I just wait till I'm done.

Yeah, I hate running.

Okay, me too.

Do you remember the first thing you ever got in trouble for as a child?

Yes, I was a good kid.

I, I was a rule follower.

I still am, but I was always afraid to, like, get in trouble.

I, but I lived in a small town, so I grew up in Sebastopol, which is 6,000 people.

Literally at that point.

There was one stoplight.

It's in Sonoma county in the Bay Area.

And it was a game day.

And on game days, the cheerleaders wore their cheerleading outfits.

So it was a game day.

I had my cheerleading outfit on.

I was with my friend Wendy.

And we didn't even cut class.

We cut brunch, which is like a 15 minute.

It was like a rainy day.

And we, all we wanted to do was go get a hot chocolate.

I mean, this is like, right.

Like really terrible stuff.

So we left school.

It was our senior year.

We went downtown.

Well, the sheriff of the town happened to be married to the secretary of the school.

We're obviously standing out like sore thumbs.

One stoplight town in our cheerleading uniforms, running across the street to get our hot chocolate.

We didn't even skip class.

We got back and, and he followed us back and, and reported us right in.

And I remember at that point, it was like mail stuff.

It was not like email.

So I Had to, like, keep checking, checking the mailbox to make sure I could, like, get the notice out before my mom saw it, because I always knew she was going to be so mad.

That's like the first thing I can really think of where I was like, oh, my gosh.

Like, I'm.

I'm done.

I'm done for.

Oh,.

I was a good kid.

I know that.

That.

That was just a Tuesday for me.

That was.

What are you talking about?

What's your absolute favorite non barbecue food or dish?

Non barbecue food.

It's gotta be, I mean, Mexican food.

Just in totality.

Okay.

All of it, except the right.

I don't have to eat the rice and beans like I want.

I make these carnitas bowls where I've got, you know, just kind of.

Everybody makes their own.

And I make like a cilantro lime rice, and I make the carnitas and I make the tomatillo salsa and the pickled red onions and the limes, the cilantro, the cotija cheese, and.

And I do like crispy tortilla strips on top.

And the kid.

Everybody makes their own.

And it is.

It's one of my favorite things.

And what's even better is the leftovers for lunch the next day.

I love, okay, leftovers.

What's one thing you miss about your twenties?

I miss the kids being little because at that point I was just starting to have.

My first baby was at 28.

So I miss that stage because it's like you want them to get older, but then you kind of want them to be little again.

Different stages, different problems that come along with each of those.

I miss that and I miss.

I don't know, I think just the way the world was.

I feel like in my 20s, that was before social media and cell phones and all of that, and it was just simpler and it was just less complicated and it was just more free.

I think just that stage in life I miss.

Understandable.

If you were an animal, what animal would you be?

I would definitely be a bird or a dog, because our dog gets more love than, like, I think anybody in this family.

Name something that your spouse was absolutely 100% correct about.

But you still think he was wrong.

You're blushing.

No, because he.

We always have these back and forth where he's like, I was right.

I'm like, I don't know if I'm gonna admit it.

What was he right about?

That I.

You still think he was wrong?

I mean, I'm pretty much right a lot of the time.

Okay.

A few Times, but they don't come to mind.

All right, all right, what.

It's kind of a personal thing.

What is the biggest change you think should be made, if any, in food advertising?

I think that it's important to know the source of where things are coming from and how they are being produced.

And if there are, you know, things or pesticides or antibiotics or, you know, I think more of that needs to possibly be more available to customers just to.

To make sure that we're eating what's healthy for our bodies.

You know, I mean, it's like you go over to Europe and all of a sudden you feel great, and yet you're eating pasta and bread and butter and cream dishes or, you know, in Italy and cheeses and wines and all these things, and.

And suddenly you don't feel it.

And I think that there's something to be said.

It's definitely a difference.

Even though you're eating kind of the same types of foods or even dairy or carbs or whatever, but they translate different in different countries.

And I don't know exactly why that is, but as far as food advertising, I would say it's just a matter of, like, being forthcoming with what is.

Is going into our foods that we eat.

Okay, we're almost done here.

What's your favorite movie?

Mine is Casablanca.

I'm just giving you an example.

Okay.

Mine is Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Okay, good one.

I think that's the first time we've heard that one, Leanne.

I don't know.

I don't know.

Yeah, maybe.

I think so.

What's the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?

Make my bed.

Oh, my God.

That's what you're supposed to do, right?

Like, I. I feel like that is a theory.

You're supposed to start the theory.

I like that.

You know why?

Because I.

Because messes, like, messes equate to.

I have enough to worry about, especially with the 3K that, like, if the more things can just be organized, then I don't look at and go, I still have to do that.

I still have to do that.

I still have to do that.

Or maybe you don't do that and you just walk past it and you're fine with that.

That's great, too.

But I'm just not that person.

Okay, all right, all right.

This is kind of an esoterical question, but do you think cooking could help kids who have trouble in math?

Yeah, I mean, I think that there's lots of ways that you can kind of evoke different types of learning styles.

So why not know?

I mean, it's kind of that creative outlet.

Everybody learns differently.

So, you know, maybe.

Maybe it could.

I mean, especially with different measurements and things like that.

Sure, sure.

Two more.

Name one book that should be mandatory reading for everybody.

This one.

There you go.

I like it.

There you go.

Walk right into that.

I love that.

Okay, last one.

What would your last meal be?

On Death row?

It would be very hard for me to imagine Ali Romero on death row, but if you were, for whatever reason, if you ever got to that sides,.

It's still out to get me.

Yeah.

What would your last meal be?

My last meal would definitely involve courses.

It would be some sort of, like, a magnificent seafood appetizer with crab and shrimp and lobster and maybe even a few oysters.

And then it would morph into, like the best steak of my life.

Probably a.

A cowboy ribeye or a.

Or a tomahawk steak.

Some sort of a bone and ribeye and then.

And with some maldon salt on top and.

And some truffle mashed potatoes.

And I think I would just skip the veg at that point.

And then I would go straight to a dessert, and it would have to either be something chocolate or it would have to Fruit crumbly.

There you go.

Yep.

With.

With ice cream, you don't have to worry about cholesterol or caloric value that day.

She's stalling death with all of her courses.

I know.

Yeah, exactly.

I gotta.

You gotta give me time to get through them.

I want like, the French Laundry style, like, Death Row.

I want, like, 20 courses, all with their own wine pairing, and then I'm ready.

Well, you know.

Yeah, I get it.

I get it.

Allie Romero, her new book, Gas Fire Heat.

This one.

That's the one right there.

That's my little note.

It's in there.

Thank you.

You've been.

You've been excellent and a lot of fun and good luck with it.

And if we can help you in any way, just let us know.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for having me.

This was a lot of fun and I appreciate the support on the new book.

No problem.

We'll be back next week with Meathead.

Like we said, Father's Day show.

And it kind of just doesn't seem like it's should be that time of year already.

It's so going by so fast.

Anyway, for Leanne, Allie, and myself, thanks for listening and remember our motto here.

Turn it, don't burn it.

Take care, everybody.