Three Men and a Barbecue

There was a boat involved too. What happened when three of the UK’s finest fire cooks headed to Texas BBQ country? They broke the ‘what goes on tour’ rule to speak to RUPERT BATES.

If you were to pick three live-fire chefs from the UK to ride into the United States and cook for your life, you couldn’t do much better than selecting BBQ gunslingers and legends of the flame Jim Moore, Adam Purnell and Elky Whittaker.

The trio – better known by their respective Instagram handles of @onlyslaggin, @shropshire.lad and @thesmokeinelk – were not in Texas to plant flags in stateside briskets, but to tour, taste, learn and demo. 

BBQ bucket list moments galore, and the USA wants them back – for longer. Well, you can’t have them; they’re ours and we should cherish their talent – just three shining examples of the calibre of fire cooks, content creators and event hosts we have, as British barbecue starts to rock the world stage.

They were only meant to go alligator gar fishing – as you do – but for some reason the subject of food came up and the trip turned into a tour of Texas barbecue joints, not chasing the icons, but finding the hidden gems. Kamado Joe grills and Yeti cool boxes accompanied them not so much to publicise their wares but place the brands in the space marked adventure and discovery.

“Kamado Joe and Yeti put us in contact with people excelling in the Austin BBQ scene. We wanted to visit restaurants pushing the boundaries and not just serving traditional barbecue food – places with originality and evolution, while still recognising and respecting the traditional side,” said Jim.

“If everybody else turned left, we turned right to find something different, not following the herd to the established Texas names, great though they are.”

Adam Purnell said everybody loved the food they cooked on the Kamado Joe grills, steering away from traditional Texas barbecue and surprising their hosts, who knew a lot about the chefs from their digital content and reels, by the range of dishes they could create, each of the three celebrating their own styles and influences.

“We cooked jambalaya, lamb racks, lobster tails, hanger steak, chicken wings. We also made scotch eggs for the guide on the boat trip, and he went home and sent pictures cooking them on his Traeger. Fire and friendship everywhere,” said Adam.

The boat trip was a highlight and a bucket list item, with Adam and Elky each landing an alligator gar. Jim’s fish, ‘the biggest of the lot,’ apparently got away, amid hilarious tales of the three rushing around the boat to balance it, as they wrestled with monsters of the deep.

“If we hadn’t caught any fish, we’d have just been three fat blokes on a boat eating scotch eggs!” said Elky.

I can’t imagine any of them rushing for anything. The hotter the fire, the cooler the chef and natural cooking choreography around the grill. “We work together pretty seamlessly. But, ultimately, it’s just a barbecue with your mates and a few beers,” said Elky. 

“Hearing from others with similar ideas, I gained insight into where the Austin BBQ scene is developing and moving. It’s not a static beast and ever evolving, meeting the needs and embracing the flavour profiles that reflect its diverse community,” says Jim.

He believes the Big Four – brisket, ribs, poultry and pork – are still done better in places like Austin; a lot to do with cost, time, demand and weather, as well as obvious expertise and experience.

“In terms of BBQ from a grilling perspective and outside of traditional barbecue, I think the UK is ahead of the curve with impressive homegrown talent coming through. We fully embrace the wealth of flavour profiles, food ideas and concepts from right across Europe, the Middle East and further afield which we use within our version of BBQ. Personally, I don’t feel we are bound by tradition, so we don’t have to break any barriers and to a degree have more freedom to explore and develop,” said Jim.

“I don’t think we get near them for classic US-style barbecue, and we haven’t got the capacity and numbers through the door to push out such quantities. But when it comes to pushing the boundaries of what you can cook over live fire, the UK is well ahead. 

Not sticking to rules gives us freedom and creativity,” said Elky. “Brisket was fantastic wherever we went. You think you’ve tasted the best in the world, until the next restaurant – delicious, but the same.”

While there is much to learn from the US, Jim sees that thirst for knowledge being reciprocated as American chefs are drawn to greater grill opportunities and live-fire cooking experiences emerging in the UK.

Adam, who was in Las Vegas and California before joining the others in Texas, came home to his Embers café and events space in the Shropshire woodlands near Ironbridge Gorge, armed with inspiration and with American barbecue firmly on the themed menu, including brisket for the first time to celebrate the cafe’s first anniversary, taking record sales. 

“I recently cooked Outside Brown – pork shoulder cut into steaks and smoked, 

so you get more bark than you would from whole hog cooking and served with a vinegar-based sauce. I have learnt so much from my travels and want to go back for more.”

Likewise, Elky will feed his findings into the fires of The Smokin’ Elk BBQ School. There might not be enough teaching time for a big brisket or rack of ribs, but the impact of the visit to KG BBQ, for instance, will see American-style barbecue, using British produce, fused with Middle Eastern and Asian flavours at his Cowplain shack near Portsmouth in Hampshire. And, yes, Elky celebrated Portsmouth’s League One title just as you might expect.

“You are always learning. We quizzed every chef in every restaurant about their briskets, their shoulders, how long, what temperature, which woods, what rubs, fascinated by how they operated and prepped behind the scenes. Even the food trucks were all restaurant quality, top of their game,” said Jim.

KG BBQ got their vote as the best food tasted on the trip. Owner Kareem El-Ghayesh is an Egyptian pitmaster, who set up a food truck in Austin with an Egyptian/Middle Eastern twist – the lamb chops and brisket come highly recommended. InterStellar and pitmaster John Bates (sadly no relation) hosted a lunch, explaining his methods and concepts, based on the best ingredients and woods – try his beef kielbasa, a Polish-style sausage.

LeRoy and Lewis was another Austin favourite, treated to smoked and chopped burgers, while Matt Johnson of Mill Scale Metalwork gave the trio a tour of his pit building business and custom-built smokers in Lockhart, followed by the tastes and smells of Kreuz Market.

“We’re definitely going back,” they said as one. Time to confiscate their passports. You suspect the Texan pitmasters they met will soon be heading over here – the ultimate endorsement of where British BBQ now stands in the world rankings.

Jim Moore – @onlyslaggin – is a content creator, working alongside his wife Rom, based in Belfast, Northern Ireland with almost two million social media followers. The term onlyslaggin is ‘an ode to Irish friendships and humour, having fun with friends and family.’

Adam Purnell – @shropshire.lad – Back in 2017 Adam started his YouTube channel Shropshire Lad, showcasing his outdoor cooking adventures in Shropshire. Now a leading live-fire chef and content creator, last year he opened Embers, a café and events space.

Elky Whittaker – @thesmokinelk – quit his day job two years ago and now runs The Smokin’ Elk BBQ School in Hampshire, as well as creating content across social media platforms. You can usually find him with a cold beer in one hand, tongs in the other.