Steve's Culinary Adventure from Joiner to Chef

What does it take to transform from a joiner to a culinary entrepreneur in just three years? Join us as Steve from Charred Food Company shares his inspiring journey, ignited by casual pre-lockdown cookouts and fueled by a deep passion during lockdown. Steve recounts his evolution from a barbecue novice to running a professional barbecue kitchen, highlighting the importance of community feedback and the trials and triumphs along the way. His story is a testament to following one's passion and turning it into a successful venture.

Ever battled imposter syndrome while chasing your dreams? Steve's transition from a building site to a professional kitchen provides valuable insights into overcoming self-doubt. Balancing his existing contracts, he gained experience in local food businesses before seizing an opportunity in a fine dining restaurant. Through hard work and dedication, Steve now runs a barbecue restaurant kitchen, demonstrating the importance of trusting one's instincts and understanding the quirks of barbecue equipment.

Looking to perfect your barbecue skills or simply enjoy some humorous barbecue mishaps? Steve's mastery of beef ribs and amusing recounts of kitchen blunders will both educate and entertain. We also discuss his future plans for Charred Food Company, including pop-ups and barbecue festivals, as well as the launch of his new barbecue podcast with Scott. Tune in for a delightful mix of humor, inspiration, and mouthwatering barbecue talk that’s sure to resonate with enthusiasts and aspiring chefs alike.

This Episode is sponsored by AOS Kitchens 

Transcript

Barbecue Journey

Dan 0:00

Today's episode of the Meat and Greet Barbecue Podcast is brought to you by AOS Outdoor Kitchens. They are the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Meat and Greet Barbecue Podcast. Today we're speaking to Steve from the Charred Food Company about his journey from barbecue beginner to running a professional barbecue kitchen, all in the space in total of three years, but even just cooking professionally within a year. It's a fantastic story, but we'll let Steve talk to you about that. So, without much further ado, here's Steve. Hello, steve. Thank you so much for coming on to the Meat and Greet Barbecue podcast. For anyone who might not know who you are, please do introduce yourself.

Steve 0:51

Hi, I'm Steve. Under the moniker of Chad Food Co on Instagram, it used to be I Can, you Can Cook. I still am doing some stuff to do with that. I'm sure we'll talk about why that name changed before. But yeah, yeah, always on instagram. Uh started to dip my toe into tiktok and many other different things. Um, and yeah, it's a pleasure to be here. Guys, thanks for having me on.

Owen 1:15

Yeah we're really, yeah, looking forward to talking to you. Obviously, we've been in contact for a little while now, um, and you know, seeing some of the things that you're you're cooking, so really keen to try and understand a little bit more about what's got you to where you are now. Uh, as well as, obviously we'll talk, you know, naturally we'll start talking about what's planned for the future, but, um, I think I I can't remember if it was uh either on instagram, facebook, or it might even be youtube. I think I came across you originally and I know that you've done various kind of bits and pieces on YouTube. Where did you kind of start your culinary journey, shall we say?

Steve 1:58

I mean, I've always cooked, I've always really enjoyed cooking. But I suppose what we want to talk about is maybe the barbecue stuff started pre-lockdown fully enough. Um, a friend of mine who's really into barbecue had a weber kettle. He only just lives across the road from me. He's into his cooking as well. We're both really into cooking, and I think it was the summer before lockdown we just had loads of barbecues at his house where we would just make excuses for me to pick meat up on the way home from work from the butchers, buy a load of beers and go to sydney's garden and cook it, and we had no clue what we're doing. We didn't know what the vents were for on the bottom of the webber kettle or anything like that. We were just lighting a fire and burning things on it and everything just tastes like lighter fluid, like they say, or whatever we use to to get it going and it went from there.

Steve 2:48

Then he's, I started to find things on the internet, uh, for cooks, mainly american youtube videos. I'd send him links, they'd send me links, and, yeah, that's what. That's where it started, that's where it grew from, um, and then I got myself a weber kettle, but it was the most. You know, the most basic one, with the three little vents on the bottom that you have to burn your fingers on to adjust when it's cooking. So I had that one first Lockdown hit and that was when I really got into barbecue. So I was grilling before, but I wasn't doing anything like smoking or anything else like that Lockdown hit. I was barbecuing loads, loads, but also cooking loads because I'm just well, I was a joiner by trade. I had my own business doing like replacement windows, doors, conservatories and that kind of thing.

Steve 3:33

For many years uh, put me in good stead, spent a good living off it, but just the last few years, hated it, just hated. When the alarm go off in the morning, just it. It was depressing. Especially it was raining outside, you know, and I was working on a site and I just thought can I, can I do something with this? And, um, like I say, during lockdown I started to do things online. So I started to host zoom calls like this with pals, um, cooking, showing them how to make curries or fake kfc or fake mcdonald's and things like that, and doing stuff with the kids, because you couldn't get any of that during lockdown. So when I could eventually get the ingredients to do it, started doing it and just it just kind of snowballed. So all the things online um, got more and more. I was recording videos. All my friends like you should do this. You should put postings on the internet. You've got instagram and, um, I opened an instagram account. I had two instagram accounts.

Steve 4:28

One of them was doing okay during lockdown and then it got hacked and I had no clue how to get it back, um, and then I just started to post things on the other one, which was the icon you can cook, and, um, yeah, it just kind of grew and grew and grew and these doors just started to open. People started to contact me and I don't want to, I don't want to name drop and put, you know, say, oh, this guy give me this for free, or. But I did get a few things sent to me because I don't want them getting mired off people, um, which again just sort of fed that hunger that I had to learn as much as I could about barbecue. And the more I learned, the more I it. And it wasn't just the cooking side of it, it was the talking about it, it was the cooking for people and people go oh my God, how did you cook this beef?

Steve 5:13

Or I'm just having getting that feedback and the interaction and I think, um, yeah, that's still what keeps me going now. I think, just the feedback that you get from people when you do it, you guys know yourself, you entertain a lot, and I think that's what fuels the fire in your belly to keep going and just get better and better at achieving things and trying to improve on the knowledge you've already got, because you'll never know everything about barbecue. I learn things all the time and it's evolving so quickly, especially now with technology and the things that are coming out. But yeah, that's where it all started really for me, during lockdown, and you guys I said it just before we started recording you guys are a huge part of why I'm here. So thanks for making me give up a very well-paid career and search for a job in hospitality, which pays terribly but, no, I'm loving it, no worries.

Steve 6:10

I'm in a fortunate, I'm in a very fortunate position and it was my wife who gave me the push and my family that gave me the push. So just try it, because if you don't try it you'll never know and you'll always regret not trying it. And I'm fortunate because I've got a trade. If it doesn't work out, I've still got the trades and I've still got the contacts in the trade and I still moonlight here and there. If I've got a quiet week, I'll I'll go and do like um surveys and things like that for other friends who are still in that industry. So, um, and I need that money to subsidize the bobbins money that there is in hospital, but um, but yeah. So there's a lot of factors. There's a lot of people. I'd be here all day thanking the people I've been involved in me making decisions that I've made to get here from those early days during lockdown. But I mean you, you guys are definitely part of that.

Dan 6:56

So, uh, yeah, thanks that's very kind of you, yes thank you, yeah, and do you know what I'd like? I'd love to dig into that more, because the amount of people that we speak to, whether it be at shows or whether it be through instagram, that their dream is to be able to chuck in the day job, as it were, and actually be able to just cook, whether it be on barbecue or even just cooking in general, and for that to be the main part of their life.

Dan 7:24

It's very brave what you've done, um, and exciting as well, and it sounds yeah, I imagine, and the support that you had around you must have helped, but what did it feel like when you first made that choice? And, on top of that, when did you know that it was going to be okay?

Steve 7:41

um, I mean, initially it was super scary. It was you hear people talking about imposter syndrome, like I knew what that meant straight away. Um, and I didn't. I didn't. It wasn't like, right, okay, I'm gonna stop doing this job on friday and I'm gonna start this new job on monday. I was trying to be as smart about it as I could, so I carried on working. I had some contracts that I needed to finish, but I knew that I didn't have to put five days a week into it. So I started to speak to people locally who had food businesses, restaurants or takeaways and I already had them contacts because I do.

Steve 8:23

I started to do um a radio slot once a fortnight on local radio which is about food, so it could be me talking about a recipe that I've cooked. It could be me reviewing a restaurant. Um, again, I just that was accidental. How I fell into that that's a whole other story. But basically I already knew some people in and around the little town where I live, in Altrincham, and um, I just kind of reached out and said look, would, would you have any interest of giving this daft middle-aged guy who's having a midlife crisis a couple of shifts and showing him how a professional kitchen works. And a few people were like yeah, yeah, sure, come down, like. But one of them was am I all right saying the name of businesses on it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But one of them was am I all right saying the name of businesses on it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course.

Steve 9:06

One of them was a burger place called I call myself Sanchez, and it's run by a real chef who is a Portuguese chef, and it's a burger place, but it's like gourmet-style burgers, so it's not like your typical greasy spoon type thing. The ingredients they use are all from local farms. It's all local produce. It's like higher end. The kitchen is tiny, I'm not lying. It's probably the size if you imagine four telephone boxes put together. That's how big the kitchen is. It's tiny because it's in this little um courtyard that's got all trendy bars around it, so they've got great footfall. It's always dead busy.

Steve 9:42

Um, and I went and started to do a couple of shifts there. Um, I was warned off it by numerous people already worked in industry saying it's it's hard work. You know, working in a kitchen it's high stress and this, that and the other, and I was like listen, you've not been on a building site on a monday morning when all the plasters have come in and they've been on it all weekend. Listen, that stress. That stress when customers are ringing you saying why is my conservatory roof not on and it's peeing down. That stress.

Steve 10:06

And then a strange thing happened. I was interviewing a couple who were opening a restaurant, uh, just up the road in a place called nutsford it's quite well to do, very nice little village, and um, they'd had restaurants down south. Very established chef, husband and wife team were coming up to Cheshire and opening a restaurant and I was going to interview them for the radio show that I do talk to them about what they're bringing to the area and what kind of food it's going to be. And it was a fine dining restaurant. I just got chatting, like I'm chatting to you guys. We met in a coffee shop and I was speaking to Chris the chef and obviously when you get two people who like food talking, that's, that's it. I'm not going to show them up. So I'll tell him all about it. He was really interested in you know what I do with barbecue and smoking meats and things like that. And I said you know I was getting some experience cause I'm hoping to set this, this road into catering or food or whatever, and he basically offered me a job. Um, um, stupidly, I accepted it Not stupidly, but just I don't know what the word is that you know through caution. So when they thought, sod it, I'm going to do it.

Steve 11:15

So that became quite intense and that was, uh, september through to January, I worked the busiest period my restaurant just opened fine dining. Never done anything like that before my life over the Christmas period, christmas and New Year, and I absolutely loved it. Chris was amazing. I learned more in those few months I think that in a compressed portion of time, than I ever have learned anything in my life. I was like a sponge, just soaking it all up. Um, and the fine dining aspects of it again just ignited something in me that I was like this this is what I want to do. Um, and, yeah, I went from there to where I am now, which is in a barbecue restaurant in Stoke-on-Trent, which is about half an hour up the road. Uh, is in a barbecue restaurant in stoke-on-trent, which is about half an hour up the road, and I'm running the kitchen crazy.

Owen 12:09

That's. That's. That's quite a journey and really when you've started from in the chefing point of view, within less than a year, yeah, I have no right to be running a kitchen anywhere.

Steve 12:20

I can just about run the kitchen in my own house. I have no right right. But yeah, it's like I say, these doors were opening and I'm a big believer in like things happen for a reason. So when these opportunities present themselves to me, I try to grab hold of them If I can. If I can make it work and it's not going to affect my family in an adverse way, then I try to take advantage of anything that's put in front of me. And yeah, that's where I am now. But I've had so many conversations with people in and around the industry and learned so much in the few months I mean it's not even a year, really that I've been in a professional kitchen and I'm running this kitchen Any regrets.

Steve 12:59

No, not one. I think it's the best thing I ever did. I'm having so much. I don't want to use the word fun. I'm really enjoying it, because if you use the word fun it sounds like it's a walk in the park and it's not. It's extremely hard. The hours are crazy, like unsociable hours, but just learning about that camaraderie between a team that runs a business that's in hospitality, and all the trials and tribulations that go with that it's all the trials and tribulations that go with that it's just been a fresh challenge. I urge anyone who is late 30s, early 40s, around my age if they're stuck in a rut and it's viable security-wise, financial security-wise to try something else. Even if it's going to night school and doing it on top of the job that you're doing. Give things a try. It might, this might not work. I'm you know you might interview me again next year and I'm like you guys done me over. This is terrible.

Owen 13:53

I blame you I was gonna say I love how this is all on us mate but I would urge anyone to do it.

Steve 14:00

It's kind of yeah it, it got me out. I was stuck in a rut, I was miserable, um, and when you like that you guys have spoke about this before because the first I think one of the earlier shows that I listened to that really caught my interest with you guys was the queue together, sort of bits and bobs that you did. Um, I'm not saying I was depressed or anything like that, but I was definitely not myself for a period of time and I feel I feel like I'm myself now. I enjoy, enjoy the challenge of it all.

Owen 14:29

So, yeah, and so now you're running the kitchen, you kind of because it's a smokehouse, isn't it? Yes, so are you fully in charge of the menu and what kind of comes out of it? So interested to know. Then, taking from where you were what three years ago, to just starting to learn on a Weber, to now run in a smokehouse kitchen, where are you now finding that inspiration to keep that menu fresh, appealing, exciting for you as cooks in the kitchen, kitchen, but also for the guests that are coming, that may be regulars, that come in every friday, saturday and they want, they want something new. Where do you kind of get your inspiration from that?

Steve 15:16

I mean multiple places. I think the main thing is interaction with other people who are into food, not necessarily just barbecue. I've made a lot of. My wife calls them pretend friends. You know internet friends that you've never met. Those ones Pretend friends on the internet who I speak to regularly, who are also into food. Ruben from Ruben Rubens I don't know if you've seen him on Instagram.

Dan 15:43

I speak to him semi-regular.

Steve 15:50

How the hell do you do that? Please give me. And he's that guy is so open and just, he replies to every message, he's supportive and just relationships like that building. I get all of that from there. And but also now being in hospitality and speaking to suppliers, so, um, the butcher that we use in stoke catering butcher, I now use them as a personal butcher as well, just because I know the quality is right.

Steve 16:12

Um, and liam, who is the the guy there that I deal with who deals with all our orders, um, he's really into his barbecue as well. So, so he knew of my social media accounts before I'd met him, which was really cool because we already had that sort of point of contact to speak about things. So much so that he's now open to me suggesting cuts of meat or styles of hot link sausages that he's going to produce and sell in his shop and things like that. And he gives me loads of ideas as well as have you tried this? Have you tried this? Have you tried using pork collar instead of pork shoulder for your pulled pork? And you know, I wouldn't have done that unless he said it, because we do kind of, I think, as barbecues we get stuck in a way like this is how this is done and we don't stray from that lane, how this is done and we don't stray from that lane.

Steve 17:05

But being in the restaurant industry has kind of opened my eyes a bit that you need to and you need to push things and try things. Um, the menu at the restaurant currently, we try and change it as much as we can and we want. We want to change it, not change the whole menu, but change things on the menu at least weekly or fortnightly. But we're just waiting for our smoker to be moved, because that takes up a big chunk of the kitchen at the moment. Um, so the kitchen is quite small. I'm cursed with small kitchens, unfortunately. Um so, yeah, so that's where I get my inspiration from, I think just and it's not the size steve, it's what you do with it.

Steve 17:42

It's not the size of the ship, it's what you do with it. It's not the size of the ship, it's the motion of the ocean out here.

Dan 17:46

Imagine what you do with a girthy kitchen.

Steve 17:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, Instagram is still huge. For me, Instagram is the place that I go when I've got five minutes, whether it's sat on the toilet or I've got five minutes in work before service it's Instagram. I'm flicking through and seeing what other people are doing and just being inspired. Yeah, I think that's one of the positives of social media, and not just in cooking and any hobby that you've got. Social media is a great tool to be inspired and share what you're doing and have feedback on it, because there's a lot of negatives to the internet. Well, I think social media, in this case, is amazing and helps everyone.

Dan 18:29

I think we've talked about it so much that there's something about the barbecue instagram community which is so supportive and you can reach out to so many people and they're not just willing to engage but excited that someone else is talking about barbecue and anyone urging or anyone who's looking at kind of starting urge you to reach out to people because they just want to help. And on that point, going back to when you were first kind of exploring the American style low and slow, I'd love for you if you talk us through either the first or one of your favorite kind of things that you tried from then, how that went, and then take us through to what you know now, being a culinary professional but in a kitchen, and how that's changed and some of the tips that have developed over time to give you what you can do now yeah, so I mean the, the things when you, when you, when you're searching the internet whether it's youtube or instagram, and the big names you know, your Franklins and all that kind of stuff.

Mastering Beef Ribs

Steve 19:26

Or Meat Church, all that kind of the things that they post the most of because they get the most hits from. It is like brisket and things like that. Or beef ribs. So beef ribs have always been my favourite thing and I know you're pretty keen on them as well, dan, I think.

Steve 19:39

I was asking for how you cook yours at one point, but I've always preferred beef ribs over brisket. That might change if I ever go to America get the opportunity to go to America and have their brisket, but for what we can get, I've always preferred beef ribs. I wanted to make sure I could nail beef ribs and I have ruined so many racks of beef ribs in the early days Just too tough and just be and it all. It all it was was being scared to trust your instincts and think, oh, they need another hour, and then you give them the other hour and you've done them in the dry. And that was the thing I wanted to nail. So, yeah, we have beef ribs on the menu at the restaurant and I think, with the amount of beef ribs that I now cook on a weekly basis, I think I've nailed them. I think I've nailed them. So that would be my.

Steve 20:34

The one thing I failed at miserably when I first tried to do a low and slow to now where that's? That's the thing that I think. That's the thing that most of my friends and family know me for. That'll be the thing that if I say if someone's coming for a barbecue or I cook, I cook barbecue a lot now at friends as well, so I've got one on the 10th of August, friend's wife's birthday, or we're having a conversation, we're having a barbecue, you're invited, by the way. Oh, great, station, we're having a barbecue, you're invited, by the way. Oh great, yeah, that'd be, that'd be nice. Um, do you want to help us out with the barbecue? And they've got like a 49.99 b&q tin pot and I'm like I can't cook on that. I cannot cook on that. Um, but with ribs it's great because I can cook them myself at home and just hot, hold them and and bring them with me. And they're even better when you do it that way.

Dan 21:24

so, um, so yeah, I think ribs would be the one for me to me, that's when you know you've nailed something, when you have the confidence that, when they're done, to wrap them and take them with you as they're resting yeah because for ages, even if I was cooking something, I was confident with it. As soon as resting don't touch don't move around, don't do anything if anyone breathes near it oh, look at it then I need to know why.

Dan 21:46

Yeah, exactly right. Whereas, um, when the euros was on recently, I did some pulled pork. Um, I got very lucky with the timings because I thought it was gonna be about eight hours. It took nine and a half but it just hit kind of 96 and was feeling like butter. Finally, literally as I had to wrap it and run down to get the train, I was meeting Owen and one of our other friends, but I never would have had the confidence before to just wrap it multiple times, stick it in a Pyrex dish and think, right, that's going to rest.

Steve 22:13

Yeah, yeah.

Dan 22:15

Jump on the train, go through.

Steve 22:16

Yeah, it's crazy. I remember I did a wrap and this is how frequent it was. It was the Queen's Jubilee. Now I know God rest her soul, she's not here anymore but it wasn't that long ago the Queen's Jubilee and I did a rack of ribs. For where I live, on the front, we've got like a green and all our houses are around the green and in the summer, like we all go out and sometimes we have barbecue, sometimes we just get picnic blankets out and snacks and have a drink, and we decided to have this Queen's Jubilee barbecue. It rained, it was terrible weather, of course, up in Manchester, so we ended up just going in someone's house.

Steve 22:51

But I had this rack of ribs on my smoker and that was the time when I sliced into them and realized that everyone was like, oh, these are so good, and I'm looking at them thinking they are a mess, they're too dry, they're too tough. Uh, but I mean, everyone loved them. Um, but yeah, that was the point when I said I need, I need to be able to do ribs If I can call. If I can't, I can't'm there now. I cooked 18 racks a few weeks ago. I did a pop-up a few weeks ago and I cooked 18 racks in one sitting, so I cooked them in work on the I still was in work, wrapped them, took them out, put them back in to finish them off, took them home in a hot hold in the car, got them in my hot hold ovens that I've got here um and served them the next day and they were next level delicious for beginners talk about that yeah, I'd love.

Dan 23:52

I'd love to know that. Sorry, say that again for any beginners listening yes, talk them through the best way to produce some beef ribs. What would you advise them with it's?

Steve 24:04

the way I do them in work is really simple. When I do them at home it's slightly different because depends. You've got to look what this this is probably a great tip for beginners. Um, don't think that what I tell you or what you guys tell them or what someone on youtube tells them temperatures and times and all that kind of stuff is how you cook a certain thing. You need to learn your barbecue, your smoker, because everyone's different. So my smoker here I can cook at the exact same temps as I do in work and it takes longer to get to the water one. But in work we've got a big cabinet smoker. It's an American Cookshack Fast Eddie FEC 120. It's got about six racks. It's a pellet smoker. It's amazing.

Steve 24:49

But once you shut that door and seal that door I don't know whether it's because it's a sealed environment and I've got all my probes in and everything's tracked and it self-regulates itself. But this is the simplest recipe. So put whatever rub that you're putting on it with whether you're using hot sauce, mustard as a binder. You might not even need a binder if they're tacky ribs already. Put whatever rub you want on them. I cook them for the first hour hour and 20 minutes, about 120, 130 degrees, and then that's centigrade. I always get mixed up still with centigrade and Fahrenheit. It's a shocker For the first hour just to get some smoke into them and then whack it up to 250F and cook it through until it's about 75, 76 degrees centigrade, until I'm bouncing backwards and forwards. I am aware of this. Once they hit around there, I then wrap them and then get them back in and I just consistently 250 degrees Fahrenheit all the way through until you hit depends how you like them. So some people like them to have a bite.

Steve 25:48

We found in work the customers like them almost falling apart. So we take them to about 95, 96, something like that, take them out, let them cool a little bit and then you don't have to do this at home. You can just wrap them in cling film if you want, but we vacuum pack them once they've cooled and then just keep them in a hot hold cupboard at 65 degrees. And yeah, the longer you hold them, the better they get. If you can do it overnight, even better. But at least, at least I would say for best results, three hours, three hour hold.

Steve 26:23

I think we, when I first started doing them I was doing an hour, sometimes not even an hour, because you just want to. You want to see. You want to see if it's worked. You want to see if all that effort has worked and there's nothing wrong with them. But all that'll happen is, as soon as you slice into them, all your juices will just flow out of them, because it's still too tight. The meat's too tight. You just need to let the meat relax it's still too tight.

Owen 26:46

The meat's too tight, so you just need to let the meat relax. Would you say that that's your most?

Steve 26:48

popular dish, or yeah, by far. Yeah, yeah by far. That's what people keep coming to the restaurant we were going to try brisket brisket's really hard to make pay, um, in a kind of a restaurant um environment, just because it's so expensive and the amount, that, how little you would give per portion to actually make money on it, um, I don't think people would want to pay it. It depends what area you're in, the area that the restaurant is in. That I don't think they'd want to pay it. You can have a big fat, juicy beef rib for the same price as maybe two or three pieces of brisket. It's a big difference. But, yeah, that's what people keep coming back for, that's what people keep tagging us in Instagram for. So, yeah, the beef ribs. I do love a smoked chicken, though old chicken spatchcock yeah, spatchcock, I did one yesterday.

Steve 27:41

It wasn't anything special. Liam from Kate and Butcher is going to string me up because it was just an Aldi special. I went to Aldi I was only just feeling better and started to get my taste back yesterday so I thought I'm going to get a BBQ on. I did a spatchcock chicken and one of those big daddy Aldi steaks which looked it actually looked really good when it was vacuum packed and then I opened it and it looked like you know the facehuggers off alien. It was just all bits of flappy bits hanging off it. It was a shocker so it was really hard to cook. It turned out okay. It was only for me, the wife and the kids, so it was all right, yeah.

Owen 28:13

I'd like to go back to one of your earlier comments, I think, when you were kind of introducing yourself and kind of talking about how you got into now being a chef from being a joiner. Do you still do the radio?

Barbecue Pop-Ups and Future Plans

Steve 28:30

Yes, not as regular. I'm finding now that I'm a bit of a busy fool, that I'm a bit of a busy fool. I've got so much on Working at the restaurant Child Food Co which is, I think, there. You can see that's kind of not only my Instagram name, it's a catering business that I've started up so I'll be doing pop-ups and things like that, so my time is less so. There's just not enough hours in the day or days in the week. I've got a young family as well, but two girls, 10 and 12, so any spare time that I get now the whole.

Steve 29:05

One of the one of the reasons for do making the decision to do what I'm doing and come away from tools and being a joiner was, and it was, my own business. I was working all the time. I was out the house at five six in the morning, not getting home till seven, and then you're answering all your emails and customers are ringing you till 10 o'clock at night. That was one of the reasons to walk away from that, so I could have more quality time with the family, because I also have a son who's 26. And when he was young, I was a lot younger then and working, trying to get the business going and I was chasing the money all the time so I missed so much of, you know, like sports days, you know, school days out and just yeah, and I didn't want to do that any longer. I wanted to make this. It was a big chunk of why I did it, so it wasn't just you guys. I won't just blame you guys if it doesn't work there was other reasons.

Steve 29:56

So yeah, Sorry, what was the question? Again I branch off.

Owen 30:01

You've got to keep me on track no no, so I was just well radio talking about food. Yes, Local radio talking about food. Do you still do it? You mentioned not as often?

Steve 30:14

Yeah, so I still do it. It's more of a casual thing now rather than it used to be a fortnightly slot, so it's more now when I get time to come in and sit down and record, um, because it's only. I only need to record about 30 40 minutes, so it's. It used to be a lot of the recipes that were on my um, my blog, my website or on the youtube channel, so it'd be stuff that I was cooking at home. I'd share the recipes on there, talk through them, um, or do interviews and things like that.

Steve 30:41

But then when I started to do this and it was all barbecue, I did discuss that and I felt I don't know if it come across this way, but I felt like every show that I started the last probably 10 shows that I did were all about barbecue and I was thinking I thought maybe these people are not into barbecue like I am. Maybe they're thinking I wish you'd stop harping on about barbecue. We don't care. Show us how to do spaghetti bolognese. You plonker laughter. Well, you can, just on a car side over some, over some hot coals.

Steve 31:15

I get on really well with Rod Rod Maxwell, who was the guy who interviewed me originally and then said do you want to do a regular slot? Because it's part of his show and we still keep in touch and he's a great guy. It's just not as regular as it was. It's something that I hope I can get back to on a more regular basis, because I do enjoy doing it and it kind of keeps my finger on the pulse of what's going on locally, which, um, will obviously help me with any ventures that I've got on my side going forward as well so you mentioned a couple of things I want to kind of touch upon, then, in terms of, as we look to the future, um, chard food company you mentioned you're going to be doing some pop-ups etc.

Owen 31:56

Um, so are you going to be doing that locally to start off with and then start going to the kind of barbecue festivals and events, or you hope? What's your plan?

Steve 32:06

Yeah.

Steve 32:06

So the plan again, the end goal, the goalposts keep moving. So depending which week you catch me on, I'll have a different end goal. I've already done quite a. I think I've done four, four pop-ups locally and they've all gone down really, really well, to the point where people are saying where are you next? I get messages when are you doing a pop-up next? Where is it? I couldn't get to the last one, I want to get to the next one, which again is like what I said earlier on, is it really fuels the fire, and getting feedback like that's amazing. It kind of reassures you that what you're doing is the right thing to do and you're not just doing it half-assed, like people are noticing that there's nowhere else locally that they can get that kind of food.

Steve 32:51

It was possible to get that kind of food from a barbecue because there's a lot of people. I think we take for granted that we we know what low and slow means, we know what smoking means. You say the word barbecue and some people it's a very small subject, but in reality it's huge. But anyone who's not into it doesn't realise. So when you say I kind of thought that when I say no, it's barbecue food. People wouldn't be interested because they'd think it was sausages and burgers. Nothing wrong with sausages and burgers I love sausages and burgers but I didn't think it would grab people's attention. But I think we're in a fortunate position, especially up north, because down south you guys are a bit ahead of us with the barbecue scene. There's far more barbecue restaurants, far more options, far more people doing it as a business catering-wise. But it is starting to spread. So people are starting to realise what it is and it was really nice.

Steve 33:46

The last one that I did. I had quite a few people turn up from the I Can, you Can Cook Facebook group, which is a Facebook group to do with the initial thing that I started to do with the online zoom stuff and all that um, and it's yeah, people are still very active on it. It's great, and people traveled to come to the pop-up, which was really really nice and kind of heartwarming and, um, yeah, I've got plans for it. What the end goal is, I don't know. Do I want to be sweating my back out on a Saturday afternoon in the summer when I'm pushing 50, you know, serving people? I don't know. I don't know, maybe if I can get the business going and get someone else to do that bit. I can just do the cooking the day before, um.

Steve 34:30

But a funny story actually, we had not the last pop-up, the one before it was for the, my wife's gym. The owners would do an annual barbecue for all their members. So she said oh, you know, do you want me to put your name for us? I was like, yeah, yeah, put my name forward. It's a prepaid event. It's great, it's what everyone wants as a caterer. It's guaranteed money and um.

Steve 34:51

So I was chatting to the owner of the gym, um and um, he was like yeah, yeah, I've put the word out on all the whatsapp groups. I thought I need an idea of numbers because it's getting quite close now, mate, I need to know how much meat I'm buying and stuff like that. He's like, yeah, yeah, I think it's about 68 people. I thought that's a nice number, that's a nice number. And I'd roped in Dec from Cheshire Grill. He's on Instagram as well and he started to do the um pop-ups with me. Again, he's another. He was a pretend friend. Now he's a real friend we've actually met and he's not a mass murderer. So that's good. But he said, yeah, that's about 68 people. Um, that's a nice number for us, that.

Steve 35:27

And then, a couple of days before the event, he told me it was 68 names, but it was 68 people with their partners and kids, so it was almost 200 people to serve food to just just me and Dec in a pop-up tent. That was when I had to do the 18 racks of ribs. I think we did something stupid, like 40 chickens which we cut in half, brined, cooked on the day, a lot of burgers pulled pork and it nearly broke me. And halfway through that I was questioning the choices that I'd made. I was like this that I'd made, I was like this is not for me, this is not fun, this isn't fun at all. And then at the end, the elation of handing that last plate of food out and the feedback we got from everyone there was just like actually, yeah, this is what I want to do, this is what I want to do. It's amazing.

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Owen 37:28

so talking about um uh deck from cheshire grill. So we see recently that, uh, there's another instagram that's popped up and, uh, I think you've got some plans in the pipeline to enter the podcasting world.

Steve 37:43

Yeah, so I'm one of those weird guys that I've got quite an addictive personality, so when I start doing something, I do it full throttle. I used to play a lot of Saturday League and Sunday League football until my eldest daughter was born and my wife said you know, this ends now. You know none of this way. I see you on a Saturday morning, I don't see you till Sunday night. That stops now. I took up golf and I just I got all in on golf, spent fortunes on golf clubs and I was playing golf all the time, but that ended up being worse than the football, because a round of golf takes about four or five hours. So, yeah, that was, a round of golf takes about four or five hours. Um, so yeah, that was.

Steve 38:21

I should have known, really, that buying a barbecue was was a bad move, um, but yeah, so I got chatting to deck online because he's fairly local, he's just up the road in windsford, he's in cheshire as well and, um, I can't actually remember how we first got chatting. There's, there's a whatsapp, there's a whatsapp community. Are you in the whatsapp community? I can't. I'm in the northwest group. So there's a whatsapp, there's a whatsapp community. Are you in the whatsapp community. I can't. I'm in the northwest group so there's a whatsapp community for barbecue. I'll add you sneakily. If you're not in, you should be in.

Steve 38:46

Um, and I think it was on there that we actually went backwards and forwards with a few things, and it was actually deck that introduced me to ruben from ruben. Ruben's not introduced me, but I'd already seen this guy and he. He travels a lot, we work, so he goes to London a lot and things like that, and he's mad into his food so he tries all these places, you know, on the company expenses, like you do. And, um, that's how we got chatting and we just got on really well. We kind of just sort of cut from the same cloth. We're into the same stuff, same music, uh, same scenes, and both like barbecue and both like to eat. So we got chatting. I asked him if he was interested in helping with the pop-ups. He was, which meant we were talking a lot more. Then we eventually met and we just talk nonsense about barbecue all the time and I kind of said I've always had it in the back of my mind to do like a podcast or something of that ilk or some some sort of regular series, maybe on youtube or something. And, um, I thought it'd say no, because it he doesn't talk as much as I do.

Steve 39:50

Scott, uh, deck he. Um, yeah, he's quite quiet, you know, I mean, so you get him out of his shell, he's quite quiet. But he was like yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm up for it. So I was like sweet, he come up with a name really good name. He's just had a new. So I was like sweet, he'd come up with a name, really good name. He's just had a new shack built in his back garden.

Steve 40:02

He'd come up with a name and, yeah, it's going to be entirely different. It's not going to be sort of like this, where it's guest driven. We're probably going to cook different things. Try and sort of get people to say, try cooking this and we'll, we'll have a go at cooking it. Um, we're still ironing out the creases, but we'll just, we want to get a few episodes recorded first, as you guys probably know, like, yep, I would rather have stuff in the bank than sort of say, right, let's meet every two weeks and record something, because in reality that just won't happen. Um, so, yeah, I'm excited about that from the, from the chat yeah, I can't wait to hear it's.

Owen 40:51

Um, obviously, when we started, there was a couple, a uk-based yeah uh podcast, and you know, obviously ultimately it's about engaging more people into the uk barbecue. So whether it's our podcast, your podcast, someone else's, it doesn't matter, it's all, it's all beneficial for for uk barbecue. Um, but I think for a while now we've kind of been running solo in terms of of of that, because I think they kind of closed down towards the end of lockdown. But, um, yeah, so it'd be nice, it'd be interesting to you know, kind of again start widening that pool of yeah, I think, I think so.

Steve 41:28

I think I think social media is a weird I've been in a few different um communities outside of the barbecue community on like social media and I don't know I don't know whether it's because I've come from a background of um always working for myself and being self employed that yeah, yeah, your business is built on relationships and speaking to people and helping each other scratch each other's back.

Steve 41:53

I don't know if that's the case, why I feel differently about stuff, but I always think that it depends how. If you look at people as competition, there's such a thing as healthy competition, but then there's another thing of it can be quite negative to look at everyone and everyone's is quite guarded about their secrets and what they do. And I think, actually, because we'll I mean, I know I will, I'll be, I'll try from the rooftops that the reason I'm probably doing the podcast and this is like I said before you guys were a big part of fueling the need for me to learn more and want to do more around barbecue. So you know, you never know we might introduce new people to your podcast. That, because that's another thing as well. It's, I think, the hardest thing with social media and podcasts, and youtube is getting your stuff in front of new eyes yeah once you've got that sort of core group of people, it's quite hard to get past that and keep going.

Steve 42:55

And you need people to talk about it and say, if you've not checked these guys out, go and check them out. And um, I know that's how it works in the construction game. When you're self-employed, you know I always I say, I've got a plumber, here's his number. I've got an electrician, here's his number. They'll say, oh no, a guy who can do your windows and your conservatory is his number. And I think it works like that for everything. It's just that people have this weird outlook that everything's competition and you've got dead secret about everything and also you are completely right about getting some momentum and backing behind you.

Dan 43:26

So you have a number of bits and pieces recorded. I mean peek behind the curtain, but owen and I try to record in blocks where possible and in a perfect world we're not going to tell you whether that's the case now or not. We'd love to have a whole series recorded and edited and dropping. So it all drops. So you know there's no problems coming up, there's nothing you have to worry about. Um, but part of me also worries that towards the end of the block recordings could people potentially tell? So if anyone can go back and listen and tell us if there's any episodes where you think maybe that's towards the end of a run, maybe we're better at the end of the run, maybe we're better at the start. But definitely having a load there takes the pressure off, because you don't want to get the points where you think I've got another episode dropping next Wednesday. It's not recorded. When am I going to edit it, cause editing takes forever as well.

Steve 44:16

It's the worst.

Dan 44:20

Yeah, because editing takes forever as well. Yeah, it's the worst.

Owen 44:22

Yeah, yeah, owen, it's the worst. All right, you do one bit, I'll do everything else. Yeah, that's how we do it. But again, what we found is, I think there's a stat and I can't remember the stat off the top of my head, but we were doing a lot of research when we first started that not many podcasts go past episode six. Right, it's kind of like a there's like a burnout, that happens, and I think we jumped in. It was just a spur of the moment. I think I texted you, dan, didn't I Just go hey, fancy doing a podcast.

Owen 44:53

And it was like a week later we'd ordered mics. You know we were doing it. There was no time to really. But I think we quickly realized when we got between it was a, it was a play, a real uh, I don't, I've got to be careful the way I say it it was. It was really kind of fun, new and exciting to do those first six episodes, but then the actual amount of work.

Owen 45:15

Yeah, that goes in. Just, you know, it's not the record. It's not. The recording is the easy bit. They're having the conversations, the laugh, the yeah, it's all the bits behind that. You know, some days you're just like oh god, I've got a four hour episode to cut down to an hour, or I've got 20 platforms I've got to upload this to or whatever it's um yeah, it's, uh, it takes a while to get into the swing of kind of just streamlining the process.

Steve 45:43

Yeah, and it's really hard to stop something that starts out as a hobby becoming a job and when it becomes a job it's less fun. And I think you guys have mentioned it before, you've mentioned it in a few episodes where you're like burnout and stress. I've not been out and cooked on the barbecue for X amount of time. I think that's, I think that's normal and I think I think I think we can put too much pressure on ourselves that we need, or I should, be out there three, four times a week. Currently I normally am and I'm cooking. I cook as a job now anyway, but before that there were times where I'd go. I might go a month and not like the barbecue. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think I've sometimes gone to type it and, you know, put comments on your things. I thought, no, no, I don't know that well, I think I'm just some weirdo on the internet, but I think, that's all we are.

Steve 46:42

That's all we are, I think sometimes just just, I think sometimes just recording an episode and chatting. I've said to Dec I think you know we're not just going to talk about barbecue. That's going to be the theme of why the barbecue is there. But I think we're both into football, we're both from the Northwest. You know we might touch on stuff like that. I don't know yet, I'm not 100%, but I want to try and keep it as free flowing.

Steve 47:07

I know, when I listen to podcasts, I don't, I don't mind if it goes off topic. I listen to podcasts when I'm in the car. That's when I that's when I listened to you guys, that's when I listened to my Joe Rogan or I listened to a lot of weird culinary stuff. Now I'm like a proper food snob, but yeah, I listened to all sorts, but I don't mind if, if they go off track, I actually quite like it. It's quite refreshing sometimes because you can.

Steve 47:34

You can sort of get yourself stuck in this rut where you're like I need to consume barbecue content, I need, I need ideas, I need this sometimes. Just, you do need a break from it and I think that's. I think that's fine, I think these are not talking about. We're not talking about barbecue now we're talking about podcasts and it's probably interesting. That's when they're listening to it. We'll find it interesting because they might be thinking of doing a podcast about fishing or whatever. I don't know computer games or you know it doesn't have to always. We trick ourselves that. I think I need to tick all these boxes and I don't think you do. People listen to you because you guys are fun to listen to and I think, from my point of view, been on a bit of a barbecue journey with you guys. We've never met, we've never spoke on a few messages before this interview, but I've listened to you loads in the car. I'm like this weird stalker from the North Is that you?

Dan 48:23

I can see out of my window Looks like me. It's the bushes. Is that you? I can see out of my window.

Barbecue Fail Stories

Owen 48:29

It's the bushes, you briefly touched upon it, but the two key things, as we kind of said to you before, steve, before we started recording and by now people are, I'm sure, realise that we don't actually have a clue what we're going to talk about until we start talking but the only two things that we like to do and I want to do them back to back just because I want to make sure that we get them in okay, barbecue fails, barbecue bingo. So there are. There are core things that we've started since launch. So you briefly mentioned about how some ribs have, yeah, not cut, not cut the mustard. Excuse me, but have you got any uh, amusing stories of barbecue fails for us?

Steve 49:08

They might be amusing for you.

Steve 49:09

They weren't amusing for me at the time. The funnier for us the better. There's quite a recent one, actually, which I think just goes to show that you should never get too big for your boots and think that you know everything because you don't. And it was in the restaurant and I think it was a Thursday night. It was a late booking, so the kitchen closes at eight o'clock on a Thursday unless we sell out before. And we got this booking for eight o'clock and it was for eight people, so the number eight was not my favourite number on that night because it's in Stoke.

Steve 49:42

I do like to get cleaned down and you know, get away and try and get back on the M6, back to Altrincham. And they ordered four platters. We do a platter for two which has got beef rib. It's got a beef rib on it, it's got a half chicken on it, it's got pork belly and a hot link sausage and then loads of like garnishes and things like that. So they'd ordered four of these platters for two, for eight of them. So I come in and I was just trying to get through it dead quick and in my head I thought, right, okay, this is what I need to do and the way we do our half chickens. We smoke them in the smoker, uh for about an hour and a half till they hit temp, and then we take them off and we we hot hold them in the hot hold oven. Now it holds them and keeps them nice and moist in there, which is great.

Steve 50:22

But the problem is with chicken, skin doesn't stay crispy as soon as you put it in an environment like that. Steam makes it go, it goes, it's not, it's not not nice, it's just not how you want it. So we have we inherited, uh, in the kitchen where we are used to be a pizza place before it was this barbecue place and we inherited this huge, uh, real sort of pizza oven, which is fantastic oven. I just wish it wasn't there because it takes up half the chicken, but we do use it for this sole intention of we put a cast iron hot plate in there and when you're serving the chickens you take the chicken out the hot hold, we put it skin down, skin side down, on these griddles on the cast iron and it just puts a nice char on them and it makes it skin crispy again great. But it happens in like 15 seconds because it's like 500 degrees or something.

Steve 51:12

So in my head I'd planned out right for four platters got my trays down, got on my paper down, got all my garnishes done, did it at her that I got the pork belly out, the thing you put onto the hot plate. Alright, grab these chickens, but the chickens on, get the ribs out. Put the ribs on. So I do that. I get the chickens out, put the ribs on. So I do that. I get the chickens out, put them on skin side down, get my ribs out, taking them out.

Steve 51:32

And then my mind just went. I think it was because it was tired, I was late. I just started faffing about with all my garnishes and trying to make these ribs look really nice and I could just smell this burning. They were the last four chickens that I had, because I'd saved them, because they pre-ordered, so I knew what they wanted. And I just looked and there was just four half chickens in the pizza oven on fire.

Steve 51:53

I was like oh no, no, no, no, and I had to apologize profusely and say I'm going to have to swap out your half chicken for a bucket load of wings. I do apologize, and I had to just get loads of wings out half chicken for a bucket load of wings I do apologize. And I had to just get loads of wings out and deep fry wings and put the wings on instead. I mean, they were great, they were fine. They were previous customers that had been before and yeah, I just said I'd look after them when they come. But never take your eye off anything, don't get too confident. So yeah, that was a fail. That was my most recent fail. I've had loads of fails, loads of fails in the early days, but that's the most recent one.

Owen 52:34

I don't think I've had any fails recently. Show off.

Steve 52:38

Well, yeah.

Owen 52:39

I don't fail. I don't fail, oh no, I definitely do no, I definitely do. I just lost a few things. You know. Know, when you try and pick up some food and you end up dropping all over the floor. I did some of that recently, but that's pretty, that's pretty vanilla. To be honest, I don't have anything juicy, which is a bit yeah hoping because we haven't podcasted for a while dan that we could have saved some up.

Steve 53:05

I think when you, when you're cooking at home, though, you kind of most of the stuff that you cook at home you're used to cooking and you can sort of do it with your eyes closed. It's only when you try new things, really, or, like me, you get distracted. But yeah, most of the stuff you do at home I think you're pretty safe with if you've done it a few times.

Dan 53:21

Ahem, hold my beer Except you Dan.

Dan 53:25

Yeah, been ages since I used the rock box first time I fired up since um being in the new place and luckily I'd done six dough balls, like 300 grams each. Um, I managed to save two and so I was cooking for myself, my wife and the two little ones, and luckily, you know, being 20 months and seven, they don't have huge appetites compared to what my appetite is. So, second, peter, get the first one done, all sorted, get something out, boil it out with the hands, push it out, get all the air into the crusts, do the toppings and stuff. Shark comes in, wants to help, so I'm not really concentrating what I'm doing. I was like oh yeah, do you want to put on the peel? So she with a disgusting child hands, but it's her pizza, it's fine, gets it on the peel. It's like great, go out, launch it into the rock box.

Dan 54:23

Didn't put any semolina or flour on the peel because charlotte was doing it, and so it just I watched it tumble on toppings down straight into the rock box and then quickly trying to flick it around and create like a calzone which obviously the children will not touch whatsoever. So I obviously ate it, because you know. But um, it's one of those things where, like you said, when you're cooking at home you get into a routine. Yeah, but if anything distracts you from that routine, you almost have to second guess yourself.

Steve 54:56

Yeah.

Dan 54:57

Or if there's grubby hands around doing their own things, that's the other thing, because they'll take a step out they haven't even considered yet and then it all goes to pot, right.

Steve 55:07

My worst thing with pizza, pizzas. I've done this a few times. Um, am I allowed to say second fails, yeah, um, yeah, yeah, of course, one of two things when I fail with pizzas. Because I've got an uni, I use it. I just I, I can't be faffed making the dough the day before. I stopped doing that a long time ago. I just get frozen dough now and defrost it, but, um, when I'm, when I'm getting the dough out and I'm getting all the air out of it and things like that, I either do it too thin or I'll put the tomato sauce base on it and I'll try to be a smart ass and prep two or three at once, but the first one you do the sauce just, yeah, go into mush.

Steve 55:42

So you just I'd like to everything it's the appeal, or you go to get it off and there's just, you can see a hole in the middle of your pizza in the oven, yeah, yeah, and there's dough stuck to your peel. Oh, it's terrible. Yeah, I do love pizzas. I just, I don't know, I ain't got the patience for the dough bit.

Dan 55:58

And it's never as quick as people say.

Dan 56:08

No, maybe on a professional pizza oven. I mean, the rock box is great, the uni is great, but particularly if you've already done two or three and you're trying to knock out six or seven, unless, to be fair, might be different with the gas, and I keep threatening to move across the gas on it, because when you've got kind of the wood burner you've got to be constantly feeding it and keeping an eye on it, but I just, I just like burning things like set and fired stuff. That's why, um, the cooking process does slow down. You can still get the exact same results, but all of a sudden, if it becomes two, three, four, five minutes, and then you're stacking a lot on top of four, five, six pizzas yeah you know you can't get them all out the same time, right yeah, yeah, I've got my hand.

Steve 56:46

I kind of think that's all right you can get two pizzas in it now. Okay, in the new one.

Owen 56:50

Yeah yeah, I kind of think that's all right, dan, though in terms of what you're saying, I think tell it to my wife.

Dan 56:57

Why are we not all eating together?

Owen 56:59

yeah, I think when it's a pizza party though, it's kind of different. Right there you just as and when they come. But also I don't mind. I mean I don't think I've ever had a pizza cook in a minute. There's two reasons. One, I don't think I'm patient enough to get it up to 500 degrees, get it to 200, 300. That'll do for me, because then, but I like to watch the fire and I like to watch it start to cook. I think if it was all done in 90 seconds there's not much theatre for me. Yeah, I actually prefer it to take a little bit longer because I like to watch it rise and cook and all that kind of stuff.

Steve 57:38

I like to watch the fire. Your Honour, yeah, yeah.

Dan 57:45

That's what I'm excited about.

Steve 57:46

I know what you mean, waiting for the stone to warm up is a pick, because you kind of think, oh, we'll have pizzas tonight, it's quick, it's easy, it's great. And then it's like, oh right, I've got to wait for this stone to warm up and if it's if you live up north, it takes longer than it does down south. Let me tell you I did.

Owen 58:06

Actually it was in. I'll say this is a near fail, but um, so I was. I'd had a cat caravan holiday last week, so I took my master built, master built portable grill, um down, popped outside the caravan and we had family come over to us pretty much every night to do the, and I was doing the barbecue, as you would expect, expect, and I just bought some really cheap briquettes proper. I bought my own fire lighters and everything to make sure I don't like the fuel. You know the kind of oil-based ones I always go for natural.

Owen 58:44

Anyway, it took forever and a day to get these briquettes going and it was starting to wind me up. We were talking like it nearly took an hour, whereas everything I'd done on this portable grill would take 15 minutes, as you would expect. So I ended up asking someone to get me some lump wood. Lump wood seems to work better in this particular grill than my experience with briquettes. Anyway, the only ones they had was the old light in a bag.

Owen 59:10

But because I don't know if you've seen the, the portable one, it's kind of like I've got a tiny little fire box yeah, it's fan assisted, etc. So you can't fit a whole light in the bag. So I cut the bag open and just poured some in but still use my fire lighters but forgot that that light in the bag stuff has almost got like a, you know, like a fire coating on it, hasn't it to kind of let it go up quickly. So my fire lighter on top of the lubricated charcoal, on top of the loop, so as I kind of opened it, there was the kind of heat goes through the box, through the manifold and kind of obviously heats everything up. But all you could see it was almost like a, an exhaust pipe backfiring with this fire but it kind of coming across and I was like why did you?

Dan 59:57

burn down the caravan my friend.

Steve 59:59

Oh, your honor. I like watching the fire, yeah exactly it was.

Owen 1:00:04

So it was some uh, it was some boy racer with his backfiring exhaust, right, so barbecue bingo. Yeah, it's been a while since we've spoken about this because of Dan's move. But, dan, do you want to just do a little recap?

Dan 1:00:23

So we ask every guest to leave us an ingredient for our wheel of fame should we call it which effectively is a number of different ingredients that people like to barbecue. Some examples on there might be things like artichoke, beef tongue, beef neck, depending on the guests we've got. Sometimes they're really nice and leave something that's a nice ingredient. Sometimes they're really nice and leave something that's a nice ingredient. Some people don't, but what we'll do shortly is we'll spin the Wheel of Fortune not pantited, of course, that name and it'll land on a barbecue ingredient. So hopefully, by this time, owen has shared his screen and you'll be able to see some of the different ingredients on that wheel. Is that coming across to you?

Steve 1:01:05

Yeah, I can see it. Yeah, there's some absolute rotters on there, isn't there?

Dan 1:01:09

Go on, run us through the rotters.

Steve 1:01:13

I'm not a big fish eater. I mean, I shouldn't have said that, should I? Because now it's going to land on something.

Owen 1:01:21

All of these are leftover ingredients from our last season. The only one that you'll see on there is my signature dish. So, uh, that is ultimately what you're best known for.

Steve 1:01:33

Sounds like it's beef ribs, but you may tell me otherwise um, I think, I think, if you, if it was a case of, what would people ask me to cook? It probably be beef ribs. If it was, what would I like to cook? Um, I'm I'm sort of really basic. It would be steak or burgers.

Owen 1:01:50

Okay, so if it lands on that, your choice essentially yeah Right, and also, just in the back of your mind, have an ingredient ready to leave for the next guest.

Steve 1:01:59

Yep.

Dan 1:02:03

That's an interesting one, artichoke yeah, have you used that in barbecue before?

Steve 1:02:10

Not in barbecue, but I used it when I worked at Linden Stores, the fine dining restaurant. Really nice dish. Actually. I'm not sure how I'd, because we deep fried it, so I'm not sure how. I'm not a fan of putting pans of hot oil over live flames, really Over live flames.

Dan 1:02:27

I'm sure I could think of something. I'm not a fan of putting pans of hot oil over live flames, really Over live flames.

Steve 1:02:30

I'm sure I could think of something. I'm sure I could think of something. I'm quite happy with that. I could have got a lot worse.

Owen 1:02:35

I could have got a lot worse. Yeah yeah, okay. So what are you leaving for the next guest?

Steve 1:02:40

So the thing that I'm going to leave is something that I've never actually eaten. Is that okay? Yeah, yeah of course, but I have a plan to eat it and it's something that I've noticed the last few weeks has been quite popular in other people who are doing pop-ups and things like that, and it's chicken hearts.

Dan 1:02:59

Oh, I have had numerous chicken hearts before and they are an acquired taste and I would say the threshold for mess up is quite high. I've had good ones and I've had horrendous ones, but you'll find they're quite often served in a lot of the Brazilian all-you-can-eat restaurants where you turn the thing over green. Keep bringing me food red, but you've got to request them.

Steve 1:03:27

I always say take them away, just put them in the pecania. Please just keep that coming. Yeah, yeah, I am going to try them. That's why I've suggested, because I'm going to try myself. Um, I've seen some people do some pretty interesting things with them. So, yeah, there we go. But artichoke is my one. I will definitely do something with artichoke yeah, look forward to.

Owen 1:03:50

If you post them on socials, just tag us in and we'll. We'll give them a reach out. Be interested to see what you can do. Artichoke 100 yeah, sounds good. Okay, so we're kind of coming towards the end now, steve, so just wanting to, is there? Is there anything else that we haven't covered yet that you would love to talk to us about? Ask us questions, talk about. Is there anything else that you'd like to cover?

Steve 1:04:18

I think the obvious one is when From the Shack podcast starts up, are we going to flip these roles? Are you guys going to come on as guests? I think not only are we going to flip the roles?

Dan 1:04:29

are you guys going to come on as guests? I think not only are we going to flip the roles, but you might be able to get two episodes out of us if you do us one at a time. That's a good shout, but that's up to you, of course no, that's a good shout. That's double the content for half the effort and we'll tell you that means everything when you're doing this.

Steve 1:04:45

No, I think that's a good shout. I think that's a really good shout we exclusively, actually only, apart from doing this podcast.

Owen 1:04:53

We don't actually ever talk to each other. We don't like each other. We'll only do things separate. We like the Oasis, you know the Gallagher brothers.

Dan 1:05:00

Like if we go in somewhere to do any collaborations. We did one recently with AOS Outdoor Kitchens. We, with AOS Outdoor Kitchens, we take two separate cars and, if anything, I just like to drive up his backside beeping at him the whole way, just in case you have a tiff on site.

Steve 1:05:18

But no, yeah, I mean that's on film now, so you can't get out of that. There's nothing else. Really, I think I don't really want to plug anything, because most of this stuff I spam instagram with everything that I'm doing anyway. So people are probably sick of seeing and hearing from me.

Owen 1:05:35

Um but yeah, tell people, tell people where they can find you on socials.

Steve 1:05:38

Then uh, so on instagram it's charred food, co or one word, um. I have a facebook group called I can. You can cook, um, if you're interested in any that. That's not that themed around barbecue, that's just cooking. In general, it's a really cool group Actually. I've been dead lucky with it. I think there's nearly 4,000 people in there. I've never had to tell anyone off for being a douche or being horrible, so I've been quite lucky. Um, but yeah, I mean on my profile on Instagram. If you click on that, all my links are on there. I've got so many I'm a bit of a weirdo that I just have an account with everything. Like I say, I just go all in, but Instagram is probably the best place. Or TikTok TikTok seems to be doing okay for me for videos, but most of my photographs and things that I'm doing or announcements go on Instagram. That's the most user for me, I think perfect.

Owen 1:06:30

Great to meet you, steve, and look forward to A being on your podcast and seeing what's upcoming soon thanks for having me guys.

Steve 1:06:39

It's been great to be on finally chat to you.

Dan 1:06:43

It's been a pleasure thank you so much for coming on. It's been great speaking to you and you take care. Cheers, steve, bye, bye, it's been a pleasure yeah thank you so much for coming on.

New UK BBQ Podcast Launch

Owen 1:06:49

It's been great speaking to you and you Take care, cheers, cheers, steve, bye-bye, bye. That's it for another episode of the Meat and Greet BBQ podcast. It was great to talk to Steve and find out more about his journey, the fact that he's about to launch a new UK BBQ podcast, which we can't wait to hear, and just about how he's moved into to chefing and pop-up catering around barbecue. Um, as ever, we want to hear from you. So you can now, directly in the episode description there'll be a link to essentially direct message us. So please get in touch. We'd love to hear from you, find out what you want us to talk about, what your thoughts are about this particular episode or anything else. Doesn't even have to be barbecue related. So, uh, make sure you click that link and drop us a text. Until next time, keep on grilling. Today's episode is brought to you by AOS Kitchens, the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.