Andy Husbands - Pitmaster: Recipes, Techniques, and Barbecue Wisdom

This is the golden age of barbecue in America. In the dozen-plus years since our book Peace, Love, and Barbecue was published, barbecue has skyrocketed in popularity. Barbecue has emerged as a breakout cooking genre, earning respect for its intricate regional history and manifold methods and becoming a cuisine unto itself. Pitmasters are a new breed of rock star, folk heroes whose stories are kept in the spotlight by flocks of bloggers, reporters, photographers, and TV crews.

Mind you, barbecue is not the new cupcake. Its neither a trend nor a revival. The cooking and the culture the food and the folklore and the feelingsare inextricably entwined and deeply rooted in heritage and history. And, like any worthy legacy, barbecue continues to evolve in the able hands and brave hearts of the next generation.

Barbecue continues to evolve in the able hands and brave hearts of the next generation.

Many are the paths that lead to the pit. Like Amy, Sam Jones was born into the business and he embraced his heritage reluctantly at first. Hes now the torchbearer of whole hog barbecue in North Carolina, carrying on his familys rich tradition at Skylight Inn while forging his own sterling identity up the road at Sam Jones Barbecue. Meanwhile, John Lewis, a native son of Texas and a pastry chef by training, now helms his own Lewis Barbecue in Charleston, South Carolina, and it seems like the whole world is scrambling to replicate his innovations in brisket and beef ribs. Tuffy Stone, one of the most talented chefs and pitmasters we know, has earned tremendous success on the competition circuit, on barbecue television, and with his string of barbecue restaurants in Richmond, Virginia.

Then there are these two New Englanders, Chris Hart and Andy Husbands, whom weve had the pleasure to know for well over a decade. Weve watched as theyve continually tweaked their methods and honed their skillsno one cheered louder than we when their team, IQUE, became the first New England team to win the Jack Daniels World Invitational Barbecue Cooking Contest in 2009. All the while, in true barbecue fashion, they haven't merely earned accolades for their food, but they've also embraced the people and the culture of barbecue.

Over the course of the decade or so weve known Chris and Andy, America has been to war, withstood economic woes, and weathered a full-fledged identity crisis. Our homeland remains fraught with deep and abiding uncertainty, and barbecueAmericas original comfort foodnourishes the body and soothes the soul. Barbecue keeps us connected to what is good and wholesome and pure about our countryand it is about the people as much as the food. Folks are flocking to barbecue in search of sustenance and community; whether your barbecue is a backyard or restaurant or festival experience, it wraps you in warmth and belonging.

Were fond of putting it this way: Barbecue = food + family + love. In this treasure of a book, Chris and Andy highlight some prominent citizens of the barbecue world. Reading their stories and reveling in their recipes reminds us how very fortunate we are to be part of this great big barbecue family.

by Chris and Andy

We are a couple guys from Boston. Our grandpappys werent cooking barbecue back in the early 1900s and neither of us stepped foot in the South until we were in our 20s. But we have been immersed in the barbecue life for the past 25 years. The spark came from a couple of restaurants local to us: a burnt-end sandwich at East Coast Grill in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Memphis-style ribs at Jakes Q-for-U in Boston. We continued down the rabbit hole, traveling and opening restaurants and then dedicating ourselves to competition barbecue. These years of experience have culminated with Andy opening The Smoke Shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Chris becoming the first pitmaster from the Northeast to lead his team to a Barbecue World Championship.

Since the publication of our first book, Wicked Good Barbecue, American craft barbecue cooking has continued to soar in popularity. Authentic barbecue restaurants are opening across the country, The Kansas City Barbecue Society has doubled membership, and barbecue message boards are teeming with newbies. Pitmasters are becoming bona fide celebrities. And most importantly, more people every day are turning off their gas grills and cooking with wood.

This book is about our barbecue pathssharing what we have learned and focusing on the barbecue regions and people that inspire us the most. We have been influenced by barbecue restaurant owners with a commitment to regional traditions, competition barbecue champions, families with a multi-generational tradition of cooking whole hogs for holidays, and even amateur backyard fanatics.

We looked to barbecue author and television host Steven Raichlen and one of our mentors, barbecue legend Jake Jacobs, to provide the voice of the backyard barbecue cooks. Much of our inspiration starts with the traditional barbecue regions of North Carolina, Texas, and Kansas City. Weve turned to our barbecue friends from those regions, such as pitmasters Sam Jones, John Lewis, Rod Gray, and Elizabeth Karmel, and pit builder Jamie Geer, for wisdom and insight into these American culinary legacies.