BBQ SNOB

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MY STORY

I have the best job in the world. I have been told this since Texas Monthly created the role of Barbecue Editor for me in 2013, and for good reason. Traveling around Texas in search of barbecue and chronicling the stories I find is my day job. Thankfully, I have a passion for storytelling, and an outsized appetite for smoked meat. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to every one of Texas’s 254 counties, and most states in the country, in search of barbecue. I haven’t loved them all, but I have now visited over 2,700 individual barbecue restaurants in the world.My journey from amateur to professional writer was shepherded by the late Anthony Bourdain. He saw potential in my voice, and signed me up as the first author in his line of Anthony Bourdain Books with Ecco. With a book deal in hand, and an appearance on No Reservations guiding Bourdain to Austin’s best barbecue joints, I had enough credibility to ask Texas Monthly for a fulltime job. They went for it, and in 2013 I began a new career and became an author with The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue.My task is to eat bad barbecue so you don’t have to, and to connect hungry barbecue devotees, and future fans, with the best barbecue joints I can find. I do that through weekly Texas Monthly articles on our dedicated barbecue page, and in our popular Top 50 BBQ list published every four years. I share stories and recommendations through podcast interviews and television appearances, public speaking, and in books and essays that I've authored.

I’m not a native Texan. I left my birthplace in Ohio for New Orleans in 1996 to attend Tulane University. After graduation in 2001, I took my degree in architecture to Dallas where I became a licensed architect. Barbecue was everywhere, and I couldn’t get enough smoked brisket, ribs, and sausage. At first, I loved just about everything smoked, but as I racked up barbecue meals my tastes became more discerning. I began eating barbecue with intent, paying attention to the methods and qualities that made for great smoked meats, and cataloging every visit in my long-ago blog Full Custom Gospel BBQ under the name BBQ Snob (which remains my social media handle).My barbecue explorations expanded across Texas and beyond. I’ve helped with ranking four different Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ lists, winning a National Magazine Award in 2018 for the previous year’s Top 50 story, The Golden Age of Barbecue. The first Top 50 in my tenure was in 2013, and the latest in 2025 when we named Burnt Bean Co. in Seguin the best in Texas.
My interests in barbecue go beyond the brisket, which is why I helped my friend and third generation pitmaster Samuel Jones recount his family history and barbecue recipes as the co-author of Whole Hog BBQ: The Gospel of Carolina Barbecue, published in 2019.In 2023 and 2024 I set a course criss-crossing the country alone looking for the best examples of Texas-style barbecue outside the state. I tried 149 barbecue joints in 37 states. That search culminated in the United States of Texas BBQ list for Texas Monthly, where I named Palmira BBQ in Charleston, South Carolina the best Texas-style barbecue outside the state.I’m always in search of new adventures. Speaking at barbecue festivals in Ireland, Brazil, and Mexico allowed me to witness the true influence of Texas barbecue around the world. We do it best, and the rest of the world has noticed. Long live Texas barbecue.

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MY WORK

The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue is my first book, and was the debut title in 2013 for the Anthony Bourdain Books line at Ecco.I contributed an essay to Wyatt McSpadden's stunning photo collection Texas BBQ: Small Town to Downtown, published by University of Texas Press in 2018.I co-authored the story of Skylight Inn and Sam Jones BBQ in Whole Hog BBQ: The Gospel of Carolina Barbecue, published by Ten Speed Press in 2019.I contributed an essay to the Yeti SMOKE Coffee Table Book, published in 2025.I wrote the foreword to New School Barbecue, by Even LeRoy and Paula Forbes, published in 2026 by Abrams Books.We publish the Top 50 BBQ List every four years at Texas Monthly. My role as Barbecue Editor has been integral in ranking the best in the past four issues:June 2013: The Fifty Best BBQ Joints...in the World!
June 2017: The Golden Age of Barbecue (National Magazine Award Winner!)
November 2021: The New Stars of 'Cue
June 2025: The ListTexas Monthly has a dedicated BBQ PAGE where most of my work is published since they created the position of Barbecue Editor for me in 2013.I have been a guest on plenty of television adventures, which include sharing a table with the great Anthony Bourdain at Franklin Barbecue and J Mueller BBQ (RIP) for the Austin episode of No Reservations. Andrew Zimmern and I filmed together in the DFW area, and again in Atlanta for two episodes of Bizarre Foods. My two appearances on CBS Sunday Morning were separated by a decade. In both, I explained the current state of Texas barbecue. My Netflix moment came when I helped narrate Tootsie Tomanetz's feature for Chef's Table: BBQ. I showed John T. Edge how to eat beef links in the Beaumont episode of TrueSouth, and helped KXAN tell the story of Lockhart barbecue in their documentary Family Beef. I fed Phil Rosenthal in Austin at several barbecue joints including the bacon rib at LeRoy and Lewis BBQ when Somebody Feed Phil visited Austin. Smokelandia aired its pilot episode with me as the host in 2018. There wouldn't be a second episode, but I've helped tell the story of many Texas pitmasters in multiple episodes of Texas Monthly Presents: The Story, including the State of BBQ special.

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SHARING MY BBQ KNOWLEDGE

Covering all things barbecue has been my career since 2013. Having visited over 2,700 barbecue joints in that time, I’ve developed plenty of barbecue opinions to share with your group. I’m also a student of barbecue history, and an avid researcher. I can share smoked meat stories from the past and put today’s barbecue in a historical context. I’ve also witnessed the transformation of barbecue from a mainly rural experience to one that is now dominated by the expansion of big city barbecue. A new wave of immigrant-influenced barbecue is also growing, with pitmasters blending flavors from around the world with meats that are wood smoked the old-fashioned way. Let me know how I can inform and engage your gathering on the subjects of:- Barbecue history and transformation
- The current state of barbecue in America
- Turning my barbecue passion into a career
- I can also tailor a presentation to the needs of your groupFor booking, contact me via email: [email protected]