The Office BBQ
Brian Baumgartner, who played accountant Kevin Malone in hit US comedy series The Office, is much better cooking meat than cooking the books. So who better to write a BBQ cookbook. RUPERT BATES reports.
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A Dunder Mifflin barbecue would be delusional, chaotic and hilarious. Michael Scott would insist on being the hopeless pitmaster; Dwight Schrute the manic fire starter.
Don’t have a clue what I’m talking about? Well, nor did I until a few weeks ago when I began to binge watch the American version of The Office. Readers, get on Netflix now; it’s the smartest, cringiest, funniest television.
The Emmy-winning mockumentary set in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin paper company ran from 2005 to 2013. I’m very late to the party and only got there when a copy of the Seriously Good Barbecue Cookbook, by Brian Baumgartner, who plays Kevin Malone in The Office, landed.
Baumgartner is passionate about BBQ; make that obsessive, to such an extent that he put out a call to the world, gathering 100 of the best recipes, including some of his own. Asked for a book endorsement, I wrote: ‘Brian has compiled a delicious collection of recipes from BBQ chefs around the world. He has served up a book about food, fire and friendship, inspiring, educating and entertaining in equal measure; a passion for cooking seared on every page. Barbecue is a global community and I vote Brian for mayor.’
Baumgartner, now living in southern California, is originally from Georgia in the south where BBQ tailgating at American football games is the ultimate community builder. “That’s what I grew up with, culturally engrained in me. Grilling has always been my go-to cooking and I am on the barbecue four or five nights a week.”
Having voraciously consumed the Netflix series Chef’s Table: BBQ, Baumgartner, during the pandemic, had to drive to Nashville, Tennessee for a photoshoot for a movie premiere that couldn’t happen. The road trip was also an opportunity to see his parents – travelling 7,000 miles across three states – including a diversion to South Carolina to visit Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ in Charleston, not to mention other smoking joints along the way. “It was a trigger for the cookbook; the desire to share experiences and food.”
Every recipe, plucked from not just the United States but international fire pits, has a story to tell. Take the San Francisco ribs with bao buns and pickled vegetables by his great friend John Mardikian, whose restaurateur grandfather George Mardikian was a food consultant to the US Army, receiving commendations from presidents, not to mention the gratitude of GIs everywhere.
“I trialled most of the recipes myself before they went into the book, although, to be fair, I could rely on reputation for several of them too!”
Smoked baby back ribs
Seriously Good Chili Cookbook
Juicy smoked burgers
His own contributions include grilled chicken breast with whipped garlic sauce, smoked baby back ribs, and his “mom’s BBQ chicken”. Baumgartner dips into Kansas, tours Texas and goes Southern Style across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Memphis and the Carolinas. There are recipes from Canada and Korea, and even a barbecued lobster with lime, garlic and herb butter from cook and author Jane Lovett in England.
Baumgartner diplomatically avoids anointing any US state barbecue king, but is adamant that the meat, be it beef, pork, or chicken, should always be the monarch of the plate. “For some of the bigger restaurant chains, their differentiation is clearly the sauce, driving flavour from that and the meat reduced to what the sauce is on.”
There are chapters on sides, sauces, rubs and marinades, as well as sweets and drinks, not to mention a dive into the history and culture of barbecue, and cooking tips and techniques.
Baumgartner has tasted barbecue in the UK at a traditional English country estate, and after a round of golf at Sunningdale in Berkshire – Masters champion Scottie Scheffler is a huge fan of The Office – and also fell in love with “the green of south-west Ireland, a green unlike any green I have ever seen”.
At home he has a smoker, a kamado oven and a gas grill to cover all bases, and, “if being showy,” will do his pork ribs, but when it comes to his marinated chicken breast, Baumgartner’s modesty goes out the window. “I promise you it is the juiciest, moistiest chicken you’ll ever taste.”
He claims to be no pitmaster, but you suspect he is getting there, although he remains intimidated at the prospect of roasting a whole hog – by the butchery more than anything else. “But nothing really scares me.” Pizza is very much in his repertoire too, cooking in wood-fired ovens. “I am no baker, but I love experimenting with toppings. The house favourite is pepperoni with jalapenos and honey.”
We head back to The Office. The day after we speak, I watch the episode where Kevin spills a big pot of his homemade chilli and learn that two years ago Baumgartner published the Seriously Good Chili Cookbook.
“Never in our wildest dreams did we think the show would run as long as it did and prove so popular. It has even become required viewing for teenagers, that correlation between the unreasonable boss – [Michael Scott played by Steve Carell] making his employees do unreasonable things, at times silly things – and the unreasonable teacher. The Office is part of the cultural landscape.”
The Office, says Baumgartner, is about being stuck in an environment not by choice, with people you would not choose to be around, but “spend a ton of time with”. It is the antithesis of BBQ, which brings family and friends together in a place very much of your choosing.
BBQ chicken drumsticks
Barbequed lobster
Kansas City style brisket burntends
Mom's BBQ chicken
He has met, loves and admires Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, creators of the original UK series of The Office – 14 episodes and two seasons, compared to 201 of the US version across nine seasons.
The cast of The Office would often gather at each other’s houses to watch the show together. “Round mine I would invariably be grilling. BBQ is all about gathering people together, entranced by the smoke, deciding what to do next, eating it, talking about it – until the next time. I love it so much.”
I haven’t yet finished The Office, so have no idea if the infamous ‘party planning committee’ ever organises a BBQ. If they do, I trust the socially awkward Kevin rips off his accountant’s tie, dons an apron and grabs the tongs.
I’ve been distracted too long and need to get back to season six. As for Brian Baumgartner, whether it’s southern California, southern England, or southern Ireland, we vow the next time we meet will be round a fire with 100 recipes to choose from.
Seriously Good Barbecue Cookbook by Brian Baumgartner is published by Fox Chapel Publishing.
Larissa Bahr Photography ©
