This podcast episode elucidates the intricate and often humorous dynamics of the barbecue industry as experienced by seasoned professionals. Notably, our discussion pivots around the essential lesson of patience in barbecue preparation, underscored by the adage that "if you're looking, you ain't cooking." We delve into the idiosyncrasies of barbecue competitions, sharing anecdotes that highlight the challenges faced in unconventional cooking environments, such as a health inspector's unexpected arrival. The dialogue further explores personal culinary journeys and the influence of antique collecting on our barbecue ventures. Ultimately, the episode serves as both an exploration of barbecue mastery and a reflection on the camaraderie inherent in this culinary art form.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcripts
Speaker A:
This is Barbecue Nation after hours, the conversation that took place after the show ended.
Speaker B:
Hey, everybody, it's jt.
Speaker B:
And this is a special version of Barbecue Nation.
Speaker B:
It is brought to you in part by Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Speaker B:
Beef you can be proud to serve your family and friends.
Speaker B:
That's Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Speaker B:
Hey, everybody.
Speaker B:
Welcome to Lightning Round here on Barbecue Nation.
Speaker B:
I'm JT along with Leanne Whippin.
Speaker B:
And we've got.
Speaker B:
How about this, Matt?
Speaker B:
Matt Abba Dabadoo with us.
Speaker C:
Don't do it.
Speaker B:
And Shane McBride.
Speaker B:
I did it so you wouldn't kid.
Speaker B:
So there you go.
Speaker B:
This is the part of the show where we just ask really irrelevant and irreverent questions.
Speaker B:
And some goofy, too, because you can swear in this part, it doesn't go over the radio.
Speaker B:
There you go.
Speaker A:
This is where I shine.
Speaker B:
How long did it.
Speaker B:
How long did it take you guys?
Speaker B:
This is kind of a rudimentary question here, but how long did it take you guys when you were really trying to start getting into barbecue?
Speaker B:
This before the restaurant was open, but not to quote, unquote, peek under the lid.
Speaker D:
Oh, man,.
Speaker A:
Not too long.
Speaker A:
I was pretty good at that.
Speaker D:
I wasn't.
Speaker D:
I'm very impatient.
Speaker A:
Yeah, I've noticed.
Speaker A:
One thing I've learned in barbecue is patience is key.
Speaker D:
I mean, you certainly.
Speaker D:
Everyone's heard the slogan, if you're looking, you ain't cooking.
Speaker D:
You got it, and just, like, let it do its thing.
Speaker D:
But, I mean, it took me a little bit to just be like, matt, leave it alone.
Speaker D:
Go have a beer.
Speaker D:
Like, walk away, cook.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
What's the biggest thing you guys think individually, you've learned so far?
Speaker B:
You came out of the restaurant business, but as we've all established, barbecue restaurants are a little different from being classically trained chefs into what you're doing now with grills and smokers and stuff.
Speaker B:
But what's the biggest thing you think you've learned so far?
Speaker D:
Been a lot.
Speaker A:
It's still the same.
Speaker A:
It's kind of good in, good out.
Speaker A:
That's a big part of what we do.
Speaker A:
I've also learned that when you're at a barbecue competition and you're hanging out with large barbecue guys, don't try to.
Speaker D:
Keep up with drinking them.
Speaker B:
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point.
Speaker B:
I can't keep up with Leanne, so she's got that classic glass there.
Speaker B:
It's Ralph Lauren.
Speaker B:
I mean, come on.
Speaker B:
You know, I get red solo cups out here on the coast.
Speaker B:
So, you know, if this is one for each of you, Matt and Shane, if you could work with one of your barbecue heroes, and I know you've worked with quite a few of them, but if you could work with one of them, who would it be?
Speaker D:
Tuffy Stone.
Speaker D:
I love Tuffy.
Speaker D:
Tuffy's awesome.
Speaker B:
I like that answer, Shane.
Speaker B:
Just point.
Speaker B:
I like that.
Speaker A:
I'm the same.
Speaker B:
Okay, what is the best day for either of you?
Speaker B:
And you can both answer this contained for activities away from the restaurant.
Speaker A:
Monday.
Speaker B:
No, I mean.
Speaker B:
But what do you like to do?
Speaker D:
I don't think that was the question, chef.
Speaker A:
Can you clarify that question?
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
What do you do on your day off?
Speaker B:
If you get.
Speaker B:
Or a half a day or three hours, whatever.
Speaker B:
You get time off.
Speaker D:
What.
Speaker D:
What are the hours for?
Speaker C:
Fun.
Speaker D:
This is my perfect day for fun.
Speaker D:
On a day off.
Speaker D:
On a month, it's usually a Monday.
Speaker B:
Right?
Speaker D:
Is I get to wake up in the morning, take my son to the park, go get him a donut somewhere, and then we get pizza for dinner, and then afterwards some ice cream.
Speaker D:
That's just like, can I come live with you?
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
Yes.
Speaker D:
Let's go.
Speaker B:
Okay.
Speaker A:
It's pretty nice over there.
Speaker D:
I'm just gonna have to pick your brain about some barbecue stuff, that's all.
Speaker B:
Yeah, it's okay.
Speaker B:
I'm.
Speaker B:
I'm an.
Speaker B:
When it comes to that.
Speaker B:
What about you, Shane?
Speaker A:
I have a terrible collecting habit.
Speaker A:
So there's a flea market or antique market.
Speaker A:
Terrible liquor store that I haven't been to.
Speaker A:
Yeah, I'm going to go look for pretty much.
Speaker D:
So, Matt, greatest things about our barbecue trips have been shaming, like, oh, there's an antique store there.
Speaker D:
Or, hey, there's an awesome antique shop at this town that nobody's ever heard of that I somehow know about that I want to go and check out.
Speaker D:
You're like, what?
Speaker C:
I totally.
Speaker C:
I totally agree with you.
Speaker C:
I actually had an antique.
Speaker C:
I rented a space in an antique mall.
Speaker C:
And the name of my company was Lee Antiques.
Speaker C:
I used to be totally into antiques.
Speaker D:
Oh, God, take enough of it.
Speaker D:
I go anywhere.
Speaker D:
We're always stopping into at least one to two antique stores.
Speaker C:
It's like a treasure hunt.
Speaker D:
Well, it's exactly what he says it is.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
I hate to tell you this, but my wife and I owned an antique store for a while.
Speaker B:
Things were a little slow in the broadcasting business.
Speaker B:
This is 25 years ago.
Speaker B:
So she said, I'm going to start an antique store.
Speaker B:
Of course I wrote the checks for it, but it was like, holy shit, look at all this stuff.
Speaker B:
I didn't even know we had this stuff.
Speaker D:
I break his chops all the time.
Speaker D:
I'm like, you literally could open up a store with just the stuff in your house, not even including the stuff you have in storage units, just the stuff you have in your house.
Speaker D:
You can put your own antique shop.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
A lot of cool stuff.
Speaker C:
So what's your.
Speaker C:
What.
Speaker C:
So, Shane, what's your most favorite piece that you have to date that you just will never let go of?
Speaker D:
What are all those porcelain things that you find?
Speaker D:
The little dog.
Speaker D:
The dog things.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
I have lots of really great federal period furniture.
Speaker A:
My mom and I have a house in Charleston, South Carolina.
Speaker A:
And I've put everything that's in there is Southern.
Speaker A:
That was made between:
Speaker C:
Wow.
Speaker A:
I have a great sugar chest there that are.
Speaker A:
Those are pretty rare.
Speaker A:
And I have some pretty special pieces of art that I would never get rid of.
Speaker B:
Right.
Speaker A:
When I buy art, it's either like, Hudson Valley School or I really enjoy finding food centric art, so I have a ton of that.
Speaker B:
Cool.
Speaker A:
And it's spilled into the restaurants now.
Speaker A:
There's artwork in the restaurants.
Speaker B:
I love that on a scale.
Speaker D:
All my art.
Speaker B:
You what?
Speaker B:
You eat your art?
Speaker D:
I eat all my art.
Speaker D:
I go out and buy food.
Speaker B:
I just eat things.
Speaker B:
I got it.
Speaker B:
I got it.
Speaker D:
I just put in my pile.
Speaker B:
Okay.
Speaker B:
Do you remember what the first thing you ever grilled or smoked or barbecued was?
Speaker B:
Both of you?
Speaker D:
First thing I ever barbecued was ribs.
Speaker D:
And I did it with our business partner, Rob Shager, out in Long island at his house.
Speaker D:
It was the first time that I'd been really exposed to seeing an offset cooker.
Speaker D:
I mean, never in my life had I seen a person have one in their home.
Speaker D:
And I was like, oh, my God, you have one of these.
Speaker D:
This is insane.
Speaker D:
I had no idea how to use it.
Speaker D:
And, yeah, the first thing I certainly smoked were baby back ribs.
Speaker A:
First thing I ever grilled was a hot dog.
Speaker A:
I was about 6, and first thing I ever smoked was a chicken.
Speaker B:
There you go.
Speaker A:
Both of them.
Speaker A:
With my uncle, who was a chef,.
Speaker B:
You know, they had to smuggle that offset smoker into Long island because nobody knew what it was.
Speaker B:
It could have been from another planet.
Speaker B:
As far as probably.
Speaker B:
Probably like that.
Speaker B:
If we put your skills to music, what would the music be?
Speaker D:
Oh, man.
Speaker D:
His would be fish.
Speaker A:
Grateful that.
Speaker D:
Mine would probably be Bon Jovi or Billy Joel or, like, a Rocky album soundtrack.
Speaker D:
Probably.
Speaker D:
What?
Speaker B:
That?
Speaker D:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
And then you hear Billy Joel in the background singing Uptown Girl or something like.
Speaker B:
There you go.
Speaker B:
Like that.
Speaker B:
Where's the worst place you ever had to cook.
Speaker B:
It can be a restaurant, a competition, a backyard barbecue with somebody.
Speaker D:
I feel like we've had multiple opportunities for this.
Speaker D:
There is certainly a great story where Shane and I were cooking down at an event somewhere and.
Speaker A:
Pennsylvania.
Speaker A:
That one.
Speaker B:
No.
Speaker D:
When we had to wheel all the ribs in to bring it up to your hotel room because the health inspector came as we were.
Speaker A:
Health inspector showed up.
Speaker D:
Health inspector showed up to the kitchen that we were guest pit mastering in for an event.
Speaker D:
And they certainly weren't prepared to have like two huskies with like two deep lexans full of seasoned ribs.
Speaker D:
So like, you guys gotta get outta here.
Speaker D:
And we're like, where do we go?
Speaker D:
And they gave us a dolly and Shane just took the ribs and brought them up to his hotel room until they were gone for us to put them on the cooker to smoke em.
Speaker A:
That was funny.
Speaker A:
I've cooked in some fields before that were not optimal, that's for sure.
Speaker D:
Memphis, what was it,:
Speaker D:
That was not fun that year.
Speaker A:
Memphis is a challenge every year, no matter what.
Speaker B:
Yeah, I get it, I get it.
Speaker A:
This year was 100 degrees every day.
Speaker B:
What?
Speaker B:
On a scale of 1 to 10, how much barbecue do you guys eat on a regular basis?
Speaker B:
Or do you still revert back to some of your classic training when you're cooking at home?
Speaker D:
I probably, I'll probably eat barbecue for me and my family maybe once a week.
Speaker D:
Outside of like constantly tasting everything at the restaurant.
Speaker D:
Like if I'm home, at my house, I'll.
Speaker D:
I'll fire up my little smoker that I have for my backyard and do like a shoulder or some ribs or something like that maybe once a week or.
Speaker D:
Chicken.
Speaker D:
A lot of chicken.
Speaker D:
Smoked chickens.
Speaker A:
Yeah, I smoke a lot of chicken too.
Speaker B:
There you go.
Speaker B:
If I declared you supreme ruler of barbecue for one week, what would you as supreme ruler decree?
Speaker D:
That New Yorkers can cook good barbecue.
Speaker B:
Okay, that's pretty.
Speaker B:
That's pretty good.
Speaker B:
That's pretty good.
Speaker B:
What's the worst concert you ever attended?
Speaker D:
God.
Speaker B:
And I know they have some crappy concerts once in a while in New York, so they had to have.
Speaker B:
Because we have them here.
Speaker D:
I went to a fish concert when I was probably 18 or 19 years old and Vernon Downs racetrack and it was again like a.
Speaker B:
Like a mud pit.
Speaker B:
Hot.
Speaker D:
It was like a multiple day concert and it was just like muddy and hot and sweaty and smelly.
Speaker D:
The music was fine.
Speaker D:
But I'm by no means a fish head.
Speaker A:
Like this Guy is.
Speaker D:
So that was probably my least favorite concert I've ever been to.
Speaker A:
I would say it was.
Speaker D:
Shane was probably also at that concert, and I probably didn't even know.
Speaker A:
Dylan in the middle of the 90s in South Florida.
Speaker A:
Really bad show.
Speaker C:
Really?
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Allison Krause opened up for him and she was phenomenal, and he just stunk the joint up.
Speaker A:
Except his band.
Speaker A:
The band was incredible.
Speaker A:
He just wasn't on it.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
And I've also seen Van Morrison do some really bad things.
Speaker A:
Wow.
Speaker A:
But those are alcohol induced.
Speaker B:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:
I went to a Merle Haggart concert one time and he could barely make it to the stage.
Speaker B:
Okay.
Speaker B:
His band was great.
Speaker B:
I don't know.
Speaker B:
I don't even remember who the warmup hit was, but they were great.
Speaker B:
Merle comes up there and he starts to sing one of his classics, like Okie from Muskogee or something like that.
Speaker B:
And all of a sudden he just kind of wanders around and goes back mad.
Speaker B:
Straw bales on the stage and he sits down on the straw bale and the band doesn't know what the hell he's doing.
Speaker B:
He's sitting there and all of a.
Speaker C:
Sudden.
Speaker B:
He breaks into Tulsa Time or some other weird song, and he just goes off on this riff for about 10 minutes.
Speaker B:
And then they.
Speaker B:
They kind of got him up and got him back to the mic and it kind of blew everybody away on that.
Speaker B:
It was.
Speaker B:
I was at a few rock concerts which I don't remember very clearly over the years, but that's.
Speaker A:
That was the problem.
Speaker A:
So there's some of those ones I just don't remember.
Speaker B:
Yeah, I saw.
Speaker B:
I saw Blue Oyster Cult, the Doobie Brothers, and some.
Speaker B:
Somebody else in Santa Barbara one time.
Speaker B:
That's what I know.
Speaker B:
So don't ask me.
Speaker B:
Don't ask me how the concert was, but I remember that.
Speaker B:
Okay, here's the one.
Speaker B:
Leanne, have you ever cooked in your underwear in a thunder or snowstorm?
Speaker D:
Inside or outside?
Speaker B:
Outside.
Speaker D:
No,.
Speaker A:
I've done it.
Speaker A:
Well, maybe not in a snow or thunderstorm, but certainly cooked in my underwear.
Speaker D:
Well, you know what?
Speaker D:
I have to retract my.
Speaker D:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
From being from upstate New York.
Speaker D:
I've definitely gone out and grilled, like, steaks or chicken or hamburgers or hot dogs in my underwear during a snowstorm.
Speaker D:
For sure.
Speaker D:
I'm sure that's happened at some point with a coat on, but in my underwear.
Speaker D:
Like, not totally.
Speaker B:
Yeah, see, there's two honest guys there.
Speaker B:
Leanne.
Speaker C:
I hear it.
Speaker B:
Chris Lilly was too very honest about that.
Speaker C:
Yes, you know, Chris has done that also.
Speaker C:
In the elements.
Speaker D:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
In fact, that was at the Jack, I think, wasn't it?
Speaker B:
Or something like that.
Speaker B:
They were cooking in a field and his son was.
Speaker B:
He was in the back of the truck.
Speaker B:
Son was in the sleeping bag.
Speaker B:
And the storm came in and Chris told us the story was on the show a few weeks ago.
Speaker B:
And they jumped up and they're running around in their underwear trying to, you know, not let the cookers blow over in the tent and all this stuff.
Speaker B:
And they're out.
Speaker D:
Do what you got to do.
Speaker B:
You do what you got to do.
Speaker B:
Okay.
Speaker A:
I saw Chris Lilly over the weekend at Memphis.
Speaker A:
And to see him hanging out with his grandkids, pretty awesome.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Magical.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
They call him Chick, Chick, Chick.
Speaker B:
Got to remember that.
Speaker B:
Yes.
Speaker B:
Okay, Chris, your favorite movie, what's your favorite movie of all time?
Speaker A:
Brothers.
Speaker B:
Attaboy.
Speaker B:
I like that.
Speaker D:
Oh, man.
Speaker D:
Favorite movie of all time?
Speaker D:
Rocky 4.
Speaker B:
Rocky 4.
Speaker B:
You like the Rocky?
Speaker D:
Gladiator?
Speaker B:
Gladiator was good.
Speaker B:
I know this answer.
Speaker B:
Would you describe yourself as corn fed or grass fed?
Speaker D:
Corn fed.
Speaker B:
Ford or Chevy's?
Speaker A:
I'm a Ford guy.
Speaker D:
I'm a Ford guy.
Speaker B:
All right.
Speaker D:
I'm an Explorer.
Speaker B:
Okay, here's a tough one for you.
Speaker B:
Captain and Tenille are the Allman brothers.
Speaker A:
Allman brothers.
Speaker D:
Whatever he said.
Speaker B:
I like that.
Speaker B:
Hold on, we're almost done here.
Speaker B:
Oh, have you ever smoked an armadillo?
Speaker B:
Do you ask that a lot?
Speaker A:
Because somebody just asked me that in Memphis.
Speaker D:
Yeah, I wish.
Speaker D:
I wish I lived in a region where I could find one to smoke one.
Speaker B:
They're tough.
Speaker B:
Let me tell you, when you say.
Speaker A:
Smoke, like when I ran one over, I smoked that armadillo.
Speaker B:
Yeah, I know, that's.
Speaker B:
Do you know what you're supposed to do, Shane, when you.
Speaker B:
After you run one over, you gotta get out of your car or your truck.
Speaker B:
You go over and you sit.
Speaker B:
You pick up the armadillo and you put them in a sitting position.
Speaker B:
And then you take your Lone Star bottle and wrap their little hands around it and you drive off.
Speaker B:
That's a thing in Texas.
Speaker A:
All right.
Speaker B:
Wow.
Speaker A:
I will remember that.
Speaker B:
Ye.
Speaker B:
What's the dumbest thing you guys have ever seen?
Speaker B:
Not what you did, but dumbest thing you've ever seen with a grill or a smoker?
Speaker D:
Oh, my God.
Speaker D:
Try to make barbecue without putting wood into it.
Speaker D:
It's probably the.
Speaker B:
There you go.
Speaker A:
There is a really bad issue of people not knowing how to light a grill up here.
Speaker D:
Oh, he loves it.
Speaker D:
He loves watching people try to Light.
Speaker A:
A light charcoal of watching people try to light charcoal.
Speaker A:
One of my favorite things, because we'll go to a big, giant events like New York City food and wine or south beach food and wine.
Speaker A:
And everybody's got to cook in those big John grills, right?
Speaker A:
There's a big rectangle with a grill over it, and they give you a bag of charcoal, and they always give you lighter fluid.
Speaker A:
And just to watch people try to figure out how to use those things.
Speaker D:
Is.
Speaker A:
My wife can do it.
Speaker A:
My life.
Speaker A:
My wife can light charcoal with the best of them.
Speaker A:
She laughs at them.
Speaker B:
Now, is that one of those things where you just get a drink and sit back in the lawn chair?
Speaker D:
He loves it.
Speaker D:
He'll even go as far to be like, hey, Matt, give me the elbow.
Speaker D:
Grab his beer.
Speaker D:
I'll like, sit back in his chair and be like.
Speaker D:
He's like, it's happening.
Speaker A:
Watch, watch.
Speaker A:
There you go.
Speaker B:
I like that.
Speaker B:
Okay, last question.
Speaker B:
Leanne might have some.
Speaker B:
But this is my last.
Speaker B:
My last question.
Speaker B:
If you could dine with any two historical figures, live or dead, I don't care.
Speaker B:
We'll resurrect them for the dinner.
Speaker B:
But if you could.
Speaker B:
If you could have dinner with them, share some barbecue with them, who would those two.
Speaker B:
Two historical figures be?
Speaker A:
I'm ready.
Speaker B:
Go.
Speaker B:
Fire.
Speaker A:
Theodore Roosevelt and Jerry Garcia.
Speaker B:
Now, that would be a hell of a combination.
Speaker D:
That'd be pretty cool.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker D:
I honestly don't know.
Speaker D:
I like.
Speaker D:
I think Jesus might be a cool guy to say, hey, what's going on?
Speaker D:
Tell me the real story.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
And.
Speaker D:
I don't know.
Speaker D:
I'd love to have my.
Speaker D:
My grandma back for a day and have another.
Speaker B:
There you go.
Speaker B:
There you go.
Speaker B:
Shane, I do have to tell you something.
Speaker B:
I. I do a golf show, too, and I had a guy on the golf show and I have similar questions for the after hours thing on the golf show.
Speaker B:
And he was.
Speaker B:
He was a Deadhead.
Speaker B:
And he goes, yeah, the great thing about being a Deadhead is because you never wanted to run out a dope, because if you did, you found out how crappy the music really was.
Speaker B:
And.
Speaker A:
That's true.
Speaker A:
I won't argue with on that.
Speaker B:
Okay.
Speaker B:
Okay.
Speaker B:
I have a frame Deadhead picture in my.
Speaker B:
In the cave was what we called kind of the family room down at the end of the hall.
Speaker B:
And I stole it from a radio station, but I just thought it was a cool picture because Garcia was there, and I think Jerry Ware was with him that day or something.
Speaker B:
So.
Speaker B:
Not Jerry Weir.
Speaker B:
Bob Weir.
Speaker B:
Excuse me.
Speaker B:
Anyway, Matt abdu and Shane McBride from Pig beach in New York.
Speaker B:
Their new cook, it's the Pig Beach Barbecue Cookbook.
Speaker B:
You guys have been great.
Speaker B:
I've had a lot of fun.
Speaker B:
I think Leanne has had a lot of fun.
Speaker C:
Yes.
Speaker C:
Thank you.
Speaker D:
Thank you.
Speaker D:
You guys are awesome.
Speaker B:
And I expect to see Shane on an episode of Hoarders very soon.
Speaker B:
Coming.
Speaker D:
You might actually.
Speaker D:
It might actually happen.
Speaker D:
That could actually happen.
Speaker D:
I might actually sign them up for it.
Speaker B:
There you go, guys.
Speaker B:
Thank you.
Speaker B:
Best of luck with everything.
Speaker C:
Thank you for your time.
Speaker C:
I know you guys are extremely busy, and congratulations on your success and everything you have coming down the road.
Speaker D:
Thank you so much.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
And you're welcome back on the show anytime.
Speaker B:
I don't extend that invitation because.
Speaker D:
Let us know.
Speaker B:
That's okay.
Speaker B:
Do what?
Speaker B:
I'm sorry.
Speaker A:
I had the face for radio, so.
Speaker B:
Yeah, so do I.
Speaker B:
That's why I do it a lot.
Speaker B:
So, you know, we.
Speaker B:
We could do the Shane and Jeff facial profile radio show or something.
