Man Fire Food

In Charleston, SC, Roger Mooking finds a double-decker, 30-foot trailer with two massive smokers cooking pulled pork, ribs and chicken for competitions. Then he visits a food truck in Columbia, SC, pushing the boundaries of South Carolina-style barbecue.

Roger Mooking visits two chefs in Texas who love to play with smoke and fire in their restaurants and in their own backyards.

Deep in the heart of Texas, Roger Mooking finds Sandra Julian preserving the tradition of cowboy cuisine in her rustic chuck wagon. In California, he visits the Righetti family, who continues Santa Maria-style barbecue in their restaurant and backyard.

Roger Mooking investigates smokers and grills in all shapes and sizes. In Missouri, he meets a mechanic who transformed a retired airplane into a smoker and named it Swine Flew. In California, a father and son weld salvaged metal into unusual barbecues.

Seattle chef Renee Erickson celebrates summer with Roger Mooking by smoking lamb, Pacific oysters, spot prawns and Dungeness crabs in wine barrel smokers. Then, Roger heads to New England for a traditional beach seafood boil.

Roger Mooking meets up with Portland, OR, chef Jason French to visit Big Table Farm in Gaston, where friends built a smoker out of a sea buoy. Then Roger heads to Iowa City, IA, where Chef Kurt Friese cooks a whole lamb on an unusual rotisserie.

Roger Mooking ventures to Guilford, CT, to see The Place Restaurant's 20-foot, wood-fired outdoor grill. In Olympia, WA, the Nisqually Tribe teaches Roger two traditional ways of preparing seafood.

Roger Mooking visits a Wisconsin pottery where the kiln's coals are used in an outdoor wood-fired oven and grill for a celebratory feast. In Deadwood, OR, he meets a couple who turned a 55-gallon metal barrel into an outdoor oven.