August 30, 2023 • 51 mins
Born into a rural North Carolina farming family, Ed Mitchell started slow-cooking whole hog pit-cooked barbeque at his family's store to help support his widowed mother. It became Mitchell’s Ribs, Chicken & B-B-Q. Mitchell is one of the nation's leading whole hog BBQ pitmasters and an inductee into the Barbeque Hall of Fame.” The family's story and recipes are documented in the book, “Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque” (2023, HarperCollins) written by Ed with his son, partner and pitmaster, Ryan Mitchell.
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The Connected Table Radio Show is broadcast on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
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Radio. Well, hello, andwelcome to the Connected Table Live. We're
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your hosts, Melanie Young and DavidRansom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple.
We enjoy bringing you interviews with themost amazing people who work front and center
and behind the scene in wine,food, spirits and hospitality. We're talking
about leaders and legends and legacies,people that we admire, and today is
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a really good example. As manyof you know, I am a born
and bred Southern Tennessee girl, soI grew up with the ABC's of q
as in barbecue. But many ofour listeners, who include some of our
friends overseas, may be less familiarwith this very special all American tradition that
dates back not to America but backto the native land of Africa, and
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it has a rich tradition and weare going to talk to Ryan Mitchell about
this. I'm going to set itup this way. Hero and legend are
two words that can be overused,but not when it comes to Ed Mitchell,
who was known as the pitmaster andthe rip king in the barbecue community.
These words are so comfortable for him, like well worn shoes, or
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maybe as slices of barbecue pork withthe side of fry green tomatoes. Ed
has been inducted into the Barbecue Hallof Fame and his son, Ryan Mitchell
is joining us. They're the Popeand Prince of barbecue Pitmasters and the author
of a book that details the richfamily story growing up in rural North Carolina
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and the road to becoming a famedbarbecue legend. Ryan left his career in
Wall Street to join his dad.He's really helped expand the business and we
are so excited to share the storywhich they share in the book, Ed
Mitchell's Barbecue. Ryan Mitchell, Welcometo the Connected Table. Thank you,
Thank you so much. That wasan amazing uh, a full word there
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for the interviews, so thank youso much for that. Well, I
have to say, if there's threeletters I love the most, it's B,
at, B and Q. SoI'm just a huge fan, even
though even though I'm from the Northand we didn't grow up with you know,
real bit style barbecue up there wheregrillas more more than anything else up
in the North. But I lovebarbecue, especially after marrying Melanie and moving
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down here and spending a lot oftime down here. So welcome to the
show. Thank you so much,Thank you for having me so Ryan,
your family. We always love tostart with family, and boy did we
learn a lot about your family readingEd Mitchell's Barbecue and many many articles and
seeing videos. Your family has deeproots in rural North Carolina. Well,
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first of all, let's talk aboutyour family and it's ancestors, and then
we'll talk about the Carolina region whereyou live, which is you know,
it's a big state, Yes,yes, you know, I think you
know people. I think the biggestquestion I've gotten throughout the you know,
the book process is hey, whatdoes barbecue mean to you? You know,
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especially for me being you know,of the next generation and you know,
experiencing some things from my parents andgrandparents and great grandparents, you know,
throughout my life, you know,growing up in in the Carolina and
you know, just seeing this craftin its in its most authentic form.
So I always start with, uh, my great grandfather, Uh, my
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great grandfather, Lauria Sanders, who'sis the first name? Uh? And
our dedication page on the book,well he uh he fathered thirty five children,
okay, and so uh uh andI think the most amazing part of
that story is that you know,he's it was only with two wives,
so you know, the first wifehad sixteen and his second wife had twenty.
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And you know from that lineage,uh came my grandmother who was featured
throughout the cookbook, mister Rita Mitchell. Uh. She was the last of
his three children. And you know, my grandmother sets the tone for what
hospitality and food and beverage means toour family and inside of our household.
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But I always referenced, you know, those times here is because you know,
as a kid, I think youknow, I you know, I
was like one of my only friendswho had like great aunts and uncles who
were like literally born in the eighteenhundreds, you know that to actually hold
them and speak to them and stuff. So that was a you know,
our home and how we looked atfood, how we looked at hospitality,
how we looked at you know,the the types of food that we were
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eating and what it meant to ourdinner table was was really unique. And
so barbecue, you know, barbecuehad a special place, uh around our
family, around our city because mygreat grandfather and uh pitmasters before me learned
the craft, you know, vialworking from on plantations and share cropping and
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you know during those times, youknow, cooking barbecue or cooking you know,
in the ground was more of ait was a skill set and it
was a labor. You know,it was a labor intense a way to
a food prep that sometimes you knowwasn't wasn't in you know, the best
conditions, you know, so tobe able to keep it going and turn
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it into you know, something thatwe love to do and turn it into
a family tradition more so than itwas a you know, a job,
you know, that was that's beenthat's been the secret ingredient for us to
keep going. Well, you know, first, you know, what we
learned reading through the book at Mitchell'sBarbecue, which is published by HarperCollins and
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reading about barbecue and in North Carolina, there's a interesting relationship. But North
Carolina for a listeners who don't notaware, is known for tobacco. It's
the biggest tobacco producing site, Ithink, or one of them. And
there's a very interesting connection between tobaccoand smoking tobacco and the process of hohog
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smoking barbecue. And this is avery specific way of preparing the pig.
Right, what is that connection?Uh? Well, the agricultural uh connection
is that you know, at theend of har harvest season, you know,
barbecue and cooking the whole hog wasalways used to kind of you know,
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symbolize maybe the the end of theharvests and or it was also used
to feed the the large groups ofof working class that was doing the sharecropping.
Whole hog barbecue and its entirety,you know, it's it's it's food
designed to feed you know, largenumbers of people, and so the hog
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maintained its it it's position as youknow, the most h barbecued whole animal,
you know, inside of inside ofthe barbecue community, and so as
you you know, as as atobacco was cured, you know, in
the barns, and you know,and throughout that whole process, oakwood and
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and the fire and and smoking wasused to kind of cure the tobacco.
And then we would take that woodalso and use it, you know,
to cook our food with. Soyou know, the connectivity between this area,
you know, pork and tobacco whereyou know, the two main economic
engines of you know, the easternpart of North Carolina and you know ultimately
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the state as well. So youknow, it has a special place for
us here. It's interesting. It'salmost like in Texas it's beef and beef
is the king in Texas, andin Tennessee it's pork and tends to be
ribs. Memphis style ribs barbecue hasa lot of regionality and even in the
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state of North Carolina, Eastern styleand Western style are very different. Would
you like to share the nation?Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a
lot of you know, you know, there's a lot of healthy competition that
goes on between what type of barbecueyou choose to decide with. But you
know, for context, whole hardbarbecue in eastern North Carolina's specifically based with
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apple cider vinegar. So our saucesthat we use on our cuts of meat
and on the entire entire animal.It's based with apple cider vinegar, crush,
red pepper, and hout sauce.Now, uh, as you kind
of divide the state up, you'llsee, you know, tomato sauce,
and then you get down the SouthCarolina area, you'll see a mustard mustard
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based sauce as well. But eachcut of meat. Uh, you know,
as you get different sides of thestate, well they don't, you
know, do the entire animal anymore. And so you know, tomato based
sauces tend to pair well with smallercuts of meat. Now you have to
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understand apple cider vinegar was more thanjust a condiment, and its original usage
here in the Carolina's right off ofyou know, right off of the share
cropping and the plantation areas, barbecueand apple cider vinegar was paid because it
was also a preservative, so itwas used to keep It was used to
keep the once a cooked animal wasdone, you know, apple cider vinegar
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was placed on it to kind ofgive it an extra three or four days,
you know, of of preservation.It was also like an insect repellent
and you know, an antibiotic.Apple cider vinegar became kind of, you
know, the the condiment of choiceper se for a whole hog barbecue because
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it paired well with you know,you know, a larger you know,
cooking of larger cuts of meat likethat barbecue help you know, cut the
acidity and kind of make it easierto chop. You know, it was
like a tender riser as well,if you want to look at it that
way. So there were so manydifferent things, but apple cider, vinegar,
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crushed red pepper, you know,that's how we do it here in
eastern North Carolina. Well, let'stalk about eastern North Carolina a bit as
well, and your family's history there, because we've talked about tobacco, we've
talked about obviously hull hoog versus thecuts that they do in the western part
of the state. But your familyhas a long history in eastern North Carolina.
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You're based in Wilson, North Carolina, which is a little bit east
of Raleigh about now or east ofRaleigh, I think, And and it's
a beautiful part of the state.It's not the mountainous part that people think
about when they think of think ofgoing to places out west like Asheville and
things like that. It's fairly flatgood obviously tobacco growing there. But your
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family has a long history there.Tell us about your family history in the
region. Well, my family historyin the region again kind of you know,
if we can start back, uh, you know with the story of
my great grandfather, you know,you know, he had a very large
presence and our family had a verylarge presence here in this area for you
know, for for decades and soyou know, cooking barbecue was kind of
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you know, that was what wedid as a as a family tradition.
But we've been connected to agriculture andor food and beverage and hospitality, uh,
in this area for over a hundredalmost one hundred and fifty years.
So my grandparents founded a small cornermarket grocery store in the late eighties called
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Mitchell Supermarket, and that was kindof our entry into the the entrepreneur side
of being in the in the foodand beverage and grocery and restaurant business.
And so they were pioneers, youknow, ahead of their time. We're
even just trying to trying to dosomething like that because you know, the
opportunities for African Americans to be blackman business ownership it was fear and far
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between. So you know, theywanted to leave something to their to their
kids and you know, starting alegacy that was you know, inspiring,
and so that's how we you know, it's how we kind of moved from
one business to the next and tocontinue and to be able to pay continue
you know, our passion. Youknow, inside the barbecue business, it's
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all been one one big giant circleof love as it pertains to you know,
just the land and the farming andthe connectivity between those those two things
and the people. You know,so you know, we're proud to be
able to kind of keep that going. Well. Speaking of circle of love,
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there are several intertwined circles in thestory shared in Ed Mitchell's Barbecue and
Your Family, which it's this bookis like a memoir, it's also a
bit of a cultural social statement anda lot of great recipes. The first
circle is when your grandfather passed,he had terminal cancer. He died in
nineteen ninety one, and your grandmotherwas and I think about that time and
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her and the South and a blackwoman trying to run a store in a
rural part of the South, andthere was a point where she had only
brought in seventeen dollars one day,and she was struggling, and your dad
had a second. First of all, your dad is a Vietnam Vet.
We want to Ed Mitchell is aVietnam vat. We want to thank him
for his service. My dad wasvery West Point grad so we love our
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vets. And he had a careerat the Ford Motor Company, so he
was doing well. But he camehome, yes, and their grief brought
them together. And what did hedo to help your mom? How to
tell us that story, because that'sreally the beginning of Ed Mitchell's barbecue.
It is. It's it's kind ofit's it's our entry point, you know,
I tell people all the time wewe we entered the barbecube business,
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you know, from a place ofpainting therapy, uh and not the competition
circuit, you know. So that'sa unique piece to our story. Once
my grandfather passed away and we wereyou know, trying to figure out just
where uh, you know, ourincome you know, as a breadwinner,
it was the you know, thesupermarket as a former upreneurship was one thing,
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but it was it was also hisyou know, his retirement income,
his ownership of property. You knowthat was really kind of you know,
holding the family together. I meanlike back in those days, man,
you could uh, you know,a couple you know with a nice retirement
income could could you know, almostput some dreams together, you know.
So that's you know, they werein their sixties, you know, when
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they began their path their entrepreneurship.Wow. So my grandfather when he passes
away, you know, my grandmother'suh, you know, we we're trying
to figure out how we were gonnayou know, maintain and the business was
was getting slow, and the groceriesyou know, and the the the inventory
you know, was running thin becausehe would always go get all the inventory
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and keep the shells stock and atall those types of things. So the
business of running the supermarket, youknow, was was missing. It's it's
leader. So my dad comes homeand soon after he soon after he gets
in my other my two uncles youknow, come off the road because they
were driving trucks uh at the time, and you know, we go inside
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the supermarket and you know what wasmeant to be family dinner. You know,
my grand my grandmother requested uh,you know, a small pig to
be cooked for family dinner because shewas just trying to continue her her you
know, her her way of justkind of you know, putting some normalcy
back into the family. So cookingand feeding everyone was a routine that we
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did, you know, a coupleyou know, once a couple of times
a week. So she requested asmall hog. And uh, you know,
my dad comes home and he's like, all right, Mom, we're
gonna you know, have a littlefamily barbecue here and and just kind of
get our thoughts together, you know, about how we're gonna try and keep
these doors open and cook a smallpig and and you know, get it
chopped up and done and sitting onthe counter in the supermarket for dinner.
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And so we we closed the doorsand locked the door, and we began
to kind of just wrap up andand you know, have a little session
as a family. And but beforewe locked the door, a customer comes
in getting his last you know abit of juices and groceries and he sees
the food, uh sitting on thetable, and so he uh asked,
hey, uh, you guys sellhim barbecue. Uh what's that? That
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smells good? And so my dad'slike, nah, man, that's that's
family dinner, you know, likewe're not even you know, we don't
we don't we don't even sell themcooked food in here. And so he
was like, oh, man,I should would like to have a sandwich.
And so my grandmother, you know, being who she is, she
stands up and said, just giveshim the sandwich, please, he can
have it. And so the guy, she she gets him two pieces of
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uh wonder bread and puts him somebarbecue in the sandwich, and he pays
for his groceries and kind of justgoes on out the door. And uh
so we locked the door and getback to eating, and about ten minutes
later, there's another you know rattleat the door because we had these bars
on it, you know, soit really made a lot of noise for
someone who was trying to get in, you know, right, So he
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was rattling the door, ratting thedoor, and you know, we get
to the door and he's like,man, who is this? You know,
I was just looking out even thinkingsomebody trying to break into place or
something. Right, So my dadand Uh. My dad opens the door
and he's like, you know,we're closed, man, he was like.
And then it was two customers thereand they said, oh, man,
well we heard y'all was selling barbecue, and you know, we just
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came up here to buy something.Good news travel to fast, right right,
And so my grandmother jumps up,she said, just tell him we'll
have some tomorrow. And my dadlooks at it. Guy, he's like,
man, yeah, come back tomorrow, man, we'll have something.
Like I'll give you something just toget him out, you know. So
when the first customer had went andtold the neighborhood that we were selling barbecue,
and as you just said, goodnews travel fast. And so that
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next day left the three four customers. The day after that led to five
and ten customers, and the dayafter that led to twenty customers. And
so we just kind of, youknow, entered in this business just from
uh uh a form of just hospitalityand just you know, feeding people,
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you know, with no intent onturning into a business or having a business
plan or having an opportunity. Butthat connection to again, that connection,
that that that family connectivity that wasrunning through my my grandmother's DNA of just
taking care of people and using foodas a medium to do that. You
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know, it's how we actually justyou know, begin to make our way
and make our name in the business. And that is that is the birth
you know of Ed Mitchell as thethe pitmaster in that very moment because from
their own you know, he committedto cooking the whole heart if we were
gonna do this. He was like, there there's no other way, but
we're going to learn and we're goingto master the craft of cooking the whole
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hall commercially and that's going to beour calling card if we're going to try
to do this. And so thatwas that's how it began. It's amazing.
You know, food is survival inevery aspect of life, and it
really helped your family survive a verydifficult time. The second full circle and
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then we'll get into the rust ofthem, is when you as many young
African American boys and non African Americankids from rural areas, let's just say,
any background they want to leave.I was that girl too, Ryan.
I was in chattanoog at a timewhen it was called the dirtiest city,
when of the dirtiest cities in theUnited States and we all want to
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leave and go and spread our wings. You did that with considerable success,
as I did in New York City. You worked in finance, you got
degrees, you did really great andyou were too And Grant, I remember
reading somewhere. You were looking ata spreadsheet about it in the pork industry,
and you're like, there's some seriousand in your own home state,
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and you're realizing the size and volumeof the pork business. Yeah, and
then the recession hit. You gota severance package and you came home.
I did I did? You know? That was my full circle moment as
well, kind of you know,similar to my dad. It's amazing,
you know how all these stories kindof intertwined. And but like you said,
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you know, I grew up inthe restaurant business. I grew up
in a rural area where if youwanted to try and make something of yourself,
well, the blueprint was to gooff to you know, get educated,
and then go find the big cityand then go dream chase. You
know, that was the blueprint thatthat's all we knew and uh, but
when you do that, you oftentimesleave, uh, some of the most
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valuable resources unprotected, and a lotof times those are right there under your
was in your own and the environmentsthat that you grew up in and the
people that you grew up around.And so, you know, I graduated
from ECU, got my degree ineconomics, went on to work for uh
uh Credit Suites and a couple ofother uh investment banks, and but yes,
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I was home. I was atthe office one day reading a dividend
statement from a port producer that wehad ironically, you know, had invited
us to do a catering for thema couple of weeks earlier. Now,
mind you, I'm still here,you know, at that time, I'm
traveling back and forth between the Carolinasand New York. But I'm I'm based
now back up in Raleigh. Soyou know, I still have one foot
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in the business and one foot out, but not you know, just kind
of helping, you know, onthe weekend and doing whatever my dad needed.
But I really wasn't trying to beyou know, working, you know,
like like like uh making a businessout of it just yet. And
so uh, you know, wewe I called him and told him about
you know, that was happening,and I was like, man, mister
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you know such and such. Imean, these guys are getting you giving
the statements are unreal, you know, based on the stuff that they're doing
and what they're telling us in thisindustry and this kind of cre I was
just like, man, we justuh, it was just mind blowing for
me because all we knew was,you know, trying to make a couple
of dollars on selling plates and sandwichesand so that's you know, the but
the trickle, the the upward uh, the upward effect of what you know,
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the the agriculture and pork industry isis a whole other world. So
I get laid off again, youknow, twenty in financial crisis happens,
and you know, I get laidoff, and you know, that was
kind of just very tough period andawakening for me because I prepare myself and
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educated myself to to not have thathappen. So to have your livelihood just
kind of taken away and you've donenothing wrong, you know, you can
there's a couple of different directions youcan go with that, you know,
with that uh type of you know, uh, I call it tragedy.
You know, in a moment,it is because you're young, and you
don't know anything about you know,companies being able to do that. So,
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you know, I turned my interestback towards the family business. My
dad was simultaneously kind of taken offat you know, Food Food Network had
been you know, floating around andwe had done a show or two,
and it was like, well,man, you know, I think,
you know, if I put allmy energy and love back into this,
I think this might be a betterway for us. And you know,
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as my dad is, you know, it was getting older. You know,
it was necessary for me to kindof you know, push us over
the mountaintop, so to say.You know, fame has a Fame has
its benefits, and it also hasa price. It does. And you
and your father very honest in thebook about the cost of fame. Uh
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you went to the Big Apple Barbecue. We I was. I actually worked
that event with and did a video. I probably interviewed you guys I was
doing asking people to do swee hogcalls. But I remember, I remember,
and I used to work with theJames Spear Foundation, and I always
heard it there's a significant cost todo these events. And what was interesting
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is often it comes out of yourcompany, your family, your whatever,
personal pocket. And some people aresponsored and having people helping them and others
don't. How did that? Whatwas the positive side of all that?
But what were the challenges as well? As you suddenly burst into this another
level with this rabbit food fame.Yeah, you know, to my dad,
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you know, my father man,he has he's always had like the
unique ability to tend to stand stillbut see around the corner at the same
time. And so when we gotinto this, you know again, we
got into this visions you know,you know, from a different side than
than most people. But food networksstarted coming around and and and visiting,
(26:07):
uh, visiting us in Southern foodWays Alliance and all of these foodies and
and and you know that when thatidea started to swirl around barbecue in the
early two thousands, in late nineteennineties, you know, my dad was
always adamant about you know, they'relooking for something and we have to be
ready, you know, to figureout what it is because you know,
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all of these well to do peopleare are having interests in what we're doing,
you know, out of nowhere.And it's not for nothing, trust
me. And so you know,I would always hear that But the challenges
of of these festivals and like theApple, is that you have a decision
to make as a business owner becauseyou don't have you know, extra income
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oftentimes to travel and do these things. You're running up running a business,
you know, uh oftentimes in acompletely different location uh than where the festival
there's. But New York is special. You know, New York is nitty.
Uh New York is are different,uh in it's in its unique place
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to really highlight your brand, giveyou an opportunity, give your stage to
stand on, give you u apeople and a culture to impress. And
you know it's it's Madison Square Park, New York City. So we get
there the first year, you know, every year pretty much on our own
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dime. But the invitation to gopresent our craft uh to New York City
was unmatched, and you know,uh my dad was very adamant about not
losing that opportunity now for us andfor everybody in our area. You know,
it sounded kind of crazy because itwas like, hey, those customers
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aren't up the street, you know, those customers aren't around the corner.
Those aren't the customers that are gonnacome in here. And you know,
pay for or you know, helpyou pay your bills. You know,
it's you know, it's a localmentality if you if you allow it to
be. But the Big Apple BlockParty gave us an opportunity to you know,
showcase our our culture and our historythat we were creating, you know,
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to the world. And so forseventeen years, you know, we
did just that and some of themost interesting, some of the most you
know, affluent people from all overthe world would come by and they have
a chance to experience, you know, your hospitality and your brand, and
so it sounds you know, likea no brainer, you know for most
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people, uh, you know thatgo do these things. But again,
you know, we're traveling from theCarolinas. It's a nine I would drive
and we travel. The thing thatmade us a little bit more complicated than
everyone else is that we you know, uh my dad and my family,
he's a stickler, like he's itto all every aspect of the old school
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process. You know, he's gonnado that. So we didn't have any
special equipment. We weren't you know, putting together any you know, twenty
thousand dollars you know, smoking contraptions, any of that stuff. We put
barrels in a in an eighteen wheelerand eight eight eight smokers, individual barrel
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smokers and an eighteen wheeler, andwe drove up and we set up shop
right there on the corner on thestreets in New York City, and we
cooked almost an we cooked an averageof about seventeen whole hogs per weekend,
hand shopped, you know, rightthere on the streets in New York City.
(29:47):
And we gave them the show thatthey were looking for, and that
that is what separated us, andthat really is what kind of kept our
name in the spotlight. But youknow, there was no shortcuts, you
know. So you were a minority. And I remember this because believe or
not, Ryan David av Our apartmentwas not too far down on Lower Fifth
(30:08):
Avenue. We get to smell it, and we remember going in addition to
the video we produced, we wentand there were a lot of uh,
I mean, you were still aminority and African American cooking barbecue. As
I recall, it was a lotof white folk in that group. Yeah,
yeah, we were the only wewere the only uh. You know.
The first year started out with fouruh special invites and we were my
(30:32):
Dad was the only African American therethen and then we remained the only African
American family there for uh most ofthe seventeen years. Uh Ronnie Scott got
added to the roster a few yearsin, but he didn't you know,
he wasn't cooking you know, awhole heart barbecue. Then you know,
it was just invited for you know, something else, and then we gave
(30:53):
a pathway to to doing that.But you know, our those and mister
Scott and you know, that wasthe the you know, we really were
the only two to be there foryou know, for the duration of the
festival. It's one of the largestrunning festivals you know barbecue fessels in the
(31:14):
in the country at that time.But that kind of speaks to the you
know, the relationships that you know, you have to kind of create or
have the ability to create with differentsponsors and different corporations and and different you
know, different you know people thathelp you kind of stay in that travel
circuit and stay in that you know, stay on stage in some of those
(31:38):
environments. So the difficulty for usis that it was always on our own
time and we had to make adecision, you know, every year whether
and he is like every year,all right, then we're gonna go here.
And my Dad's like, Okay,this is gonna be the year somebody
gonna see us that's gonna help uschange our trajectory. And this is gonna
be the year we're gonna meet onecustomer, you know, like it's going
(32:00):
to be one customer that you don'tknow. It's going to be somebody you
don't know that you're going to givea sandwich to. Who is going to
to to be you know, apivotable moment, pivotable, pivotal moment in
our careers, in our lives.One day you just watch, you just
watch. You know, it's seventeenyears he's saying the same thing. So
lord behold, you know that pivotable, that pivotal customer had happened to be
(32:24):
an agent from uh from ICM atthe time, who you know, uh
put us in position to get getthis book deal. So you know it
wasn't it was not all or notso. And you were featured in Anthony
Bergaines a cook's tour and Michael Collinsuh cooked fired. You got some you
(32:44):
know that kind of publicity. Uh, you can't buy Okay, money can't
buy it. So you you definitelyyour investments to you know, your investment
to go up there paid off,even though it's just it's all those seventeen
years. But what's amazing is barbecueis so clearly tied to the African American
(33:06):
culture, down to when the pitboys cooked for the plantation, to enslaved
pit boys cooked for the plantation.Understand, that's where the high on the
hog term because the plantation owners atethe better meat, the high on the
hog meat, and the slaves gotthe bits and pieces that they masked.
You know, the mother's mastered incooking. But it's it's incredible when you
(33:28):
describe being one of two African Americanpit masters in a very large festival of
white barbecue pit masters who clearly alot of them because I know some of
them had a lot of money behindthem. It's quite remarkable that which you've
achieved, what you have achieved.Thank you, Yeah, I mean,
(33:49):
you know that was always for me. The hardest part. You know,
my dad, you know, he'slike son, you know, don't worry
about it. You know, no, I don't count everybody else po gets
you worry about ours, you know, and it's like, I's like,
but Dad, you know, it'slike, you know, it's not fair,
you know, like we we andand and the thing is, you
know, popularity in this barbecue world, it comes, you know, oftentimes
(34:15):
it comes with you know, whois connected the most, but not just
connected, but what business has beenaround the longest. And so sometimes you
know, that's not always inclusive ofAfrican Americans because a lot of the really
great guys in a how to CookBarbecue aren't running restaurants, so they aren't
chefs, you know, so theydon't do those jobs and they don't have
(34:37):
businesses that are on that platform.That's why we always try to pay homage
in every ounce of you know,what it is we do and when we
talk about cooking barbecue, because weknow we learned from guys who didn't want
anything to do. We're like runninga business, you know. So uh,
but that's what happens around the barbecuecircuit and gaining sponsors and gaining you
(35:01):
know, gaining people who you knowhave backing behind them. It's it's just
a little bit different quite so.I mean, we drive around Shattanooga and
we see people with their pits out, you know, just outside of their
little ranch house or their station,and that's like what we're used to exactly,
you know. And I think thesponsorship thing is all very interesting to
(35:21):
me because just because your sponsor doesn'tmean you get money for it. They
may sponsor you with products with maybea free plane ticket or something like that,
but you're still not earning money.So there's a long road to how
the product has a price. Becauseone of the things your dad at Mitchell
is recognized for is being committed toonly using pasture raised pork in the business
(35:43):
where the Pork Producers Council has lotsof money. And we know this,
We know certain named, well namedbrands, so a lot of product out
in their mass produced but your dadsand the Mitchell family stayed the course with
pasture raised, right, yeah,we did. Back then, you didn't
you know, we didn't even knowthat that was you know, you didn't
have to call stuff organic and passerraise and all that kind of stuff.
(36:04):
Back then. We just wanted itfrom the small farmer who was raising it
on the you know, a noncommodity diet, and so uh that you
know that ended up you know,getting us in a little bit of trouble
that we didn't even know it wastrouble. But that was our commitment because
you know, that's you know,from my my dad and my grandparents and
(36:27):
my my uncles, you know,and my great uncles was working in the
in the pitch at that time too. At the restaurant we first opened,
like these were the type of animalsand that was the type of farming that
gave them the best chaste, youknow, and they remembered and they knew
the practices that it took to getthe best tasting animal, and so we
(36:49):
were committed to buying you know,our product from farms. Farmers who were
doing that had no we don't ay, you know, if there's large farm
arms and large firms, who areyou know, there's a place for the
you know, Cammadie raised animals thatare feeding the world. You know,
we understood that. But you know, our commitment to our restaurant as as
(37:12):
chefs and pit masters were we weregoing to try to give the customer,
you know, as authentic game quoteunquote organic form of barbecue that we possibly
could. Well. Thank you fordoing that, and let's talk about the
book. You know, what's greatis all the family recipes in there.
(37:32):
There's you know, Deretha has somerecipes. There's looking at ed shin Dick's
Law. Last night we made theRawleigh Country Cup Hellwig tomato pie. Yes,
that was our dinner. Last wasour dinner. We followed it to
the tape. Well, actually actuallywe didn't. We didn't and we got
we got yelled at for it onFacebook by somebody from the South who said
we added corn to it, calledYankee tomato pie, and we were told
(37:58):
never add corn to it. Tomatoblind the South. It's created some debate.
Somebody somebody called me a yankee,a yankee, which is even more
I'm from the South. That's hilarious. It was a delicious tomato. Are
there recipes in there? You know, why don't you share some recipes and
the story behind them from the familymember? Yeah, you know, there's
(38:19):
a you know, what we tryto do is is a pair of recipes
with certain moments and certain stories offamilies, so we can kind of explain,
you know, why we like whatwe like and what the history is.
We didn't really want to just rattleoff a bunch of stuff without some
contexts. But the potato salad isnear died. In my heart, the
(38:40):
Charies mac and cheese is near anddear in my heart. That's my sister's
recipe. But I don't eat everybody'spotato salad. You know. My grandmother
again was uh she was, youknow, the lead of the hospitality board
at our church. And so,you know, not everybody was allowed to
(39:02):
make the potato salad, you know, for a guess and special clergy,
you know. And so our pastorwould get up and you know, he
would make it known that you know, well the Mitchell, you know,
she's in charge of the potato saladand she made it. And you know,
I don't we don't need everybody's potatosalad, you know. And so
but it was a kind of anunspoken Uh. It was like a culinary
(39:24):
badger and honor because, uh,the potato salad was often handed to,
you know, the the the personwho had who had a reputation for having
to clean this home. Now thatshould be for anybody to bring in food,
but the potato salad just gets itsreputations because of how it looks and
(39:45):
the way it's made that you know, you know, your your counter and
your process at home has to betotally sanitary and flawless, you know,
to bring in the potato salad orelse, you know, and they can
they can get a little trouble.So you know, that's a special story.
Uh. My sister's uh series macand Cheese is another one of my
(40:06):
favorites. You know. She shepassed away, uh over six years ago.
But she was kind of like thefirst member in our family to kind
of you know, be able totravel and go uh experience different different forms
of southern Southern pairings from in DC. She graduated from George from Howard and
(40:27):
uh, but she lived in downtownGeorgetown, DC. And but she had
all of these experiences with different typesof cheeses and wines and he would bring
him home for the holidays and kindof you know, jazz up the macaroni
and cheese and it just kind ofbecame a family favorite, you know,
with her for her life her lifeexperiences. Uh. So that's your favorite,
(40:50):
you know. The bake uh fakeBeings is a favorite. And the
recipe you mentioned earlier, the HellwiTomato pie. That's a nod to our
you know, very first executive chefthat we had at our restaurant and Raleigh
you know, he was able topair some of those things with our barbecue
and kind of kind of went overthe city with a you know, a
(41:10):
scale slash down scale type of amenu choice. Well, I think Chariz's
recipes would be special because she's nolonger with you, and so every time
you eat one of her dishes,you think of her. She sounds like
an amazing person and we'd love tohave known her. The interesting thing about
that potato salad, which is theI don't eat everybody's potato salad, is
(41:32):
it's got heart bold eggs in it, which is a little unusual. Of
course, it's got the Duke's mayonnaiseand the rusted potatoes and then some bacon,
which is always great to add andis definitely a pork theme throughout the
book, but that heartbowled eggs isan unusual addition to It's kind of like
a potato egg salad. Yeah,yeah, it's you know, that was
(41:54):
something you need My grandmother used todo. You should add the hard boiled
eggs to it because it was kindof like, you know, a similar
recipe was used for the deviled eggs, and so it's for the people who
would eat deviled eggs and always lovethe deviled eggs. You would just put
the hard boiled eggs too in thepotato salad to kind of give a like
(42:15):
a parallel feeling that of you havinga deviled egg too. So that was
unique. Well, the recipes areyou know, obviously you have the whole
hog and how to prepare it,and it's quite uh detail and and wonderful.
Uh. We settled on the tomatopie because we had all these tomatoes
(42:37):
and the tomato season and we're justfeeling, I'd love a good tomato pie.
I can't get enough of it.And it was really terrific. And
we like beans, so we're lookingat some of the bean recipes to try.
And what's nice is these are humblefoods. I mean, these are
not dishes and that are expensive tomake when you're you know, not buying
the meat, uh, and youcan do a lot. There are a
(42:57):
lot of flavorings in them. Iam curious. I am Your dad has
had health problems, and before wewent on air you assured us that he's
doing better, but he has hehas a diabetic and sugar is an important
part of many of the recipes andespecially desserts. But you have helped him
and brought your business acumen with youbecause you helped him develop some sugar free
(43:20):
options. How is that going foryou with the sauces that you've created.
It's been going, It's been goingreally well, and I'm appreciate you bringing
it up. I mean, yes, he was. He was diagnosed with
diabetes in twenty seventeen, and soyou know, we just decided to use
our platform to create a line ofno sugar, no added sugar barbecue sauces
(43:42):
and rubs. Now, the ironyof all that is, these recipes that
we use in our products are reallyjust my you know, great grandmother's old
recipes of you know, taking veggiesor butternut squashed carrots, apples, and
she would stew them down and tolike a serum, and then that is
what she would use to sweeten youknow, a lot of the foods around
(44:05):
the house. So you know,there would be these Mason jars you know
of of you know, preserved fruitsand stuff like that, but we would
just use that particular fruit to forfor for a sweetness. And so we'd
put that same kind of thought processinto our barbecue sauces. And we've created
uh seven barbecue sauces and one hotsauce, and we've been able fortunate enough
(44:30):
to get national distribution with uh Walmart, Harris Teeter, Whole Foods, Sprouts,
and just to name a few.So we're you know, true Made
Foods is the name of our barbecuesauce company. And uh, we've been
we've been fortunate enough to really it'sit's really been picking up. You know,
(44:50):
it's been it's it's been a youknow something that more and more customers
are looking for a way to kindof enjoy barbecue sauce without drowning, and
you know the sugar ridden sauces thatare on the market now. So you
know, I tell people this isthe way barbecue was really meant to enjoy,
to be enjoyed. The original barbecuesauce in this in our state,
(45:15):
in this in this industry, youknow, way back in the eighteen hundreds,
it was not designed to be somesort of sweetening, uh dessert.
It was actually a way to addanother nutrient to the plate, you know.
And so you know, the originalbarbecue sauces uh pioneered from Gola guiche
culture really uh down in South Carolina, was really just like, uh,
(45:37):
a smoothie. You know. Itwas like a h authentic way to kind
of drink your veggies, you know. So, but that's that's how it
started. Well, it's it's goodthat you're doing that for so many reasons
because it is a challenge. Obesityand diabetes is up and in a huge
way around the country. So it'snice to have that option. Because I'm
(45:59):
still thinking about the apple cider vinegarand the whole log because we we I
drink a lot of apple cider vinegarand learned not to put it in sala
addressing, but it can be usedfor other things. We've learned. I
tried it in sala addressing last night. It was an epic fail. So,
David, you want to have thingsI wanted to add is that obviously,
(46:21):
this is a book, and thehistory of this book, but the
history behind this book is whole cooking. But there's a lot in this book
that is stuff that you don't haveto dig a fire pit and wait twenty
four hours to create the meal.There's stuff you can roast a pork shoulder
in the oven and get the sameeffect almost you can. You have some
fish dishes, you have beautiful spatchcockedchicken recipes in this book. It's really
(46:44):
a wonderful book for people want toembrace the cooking of this region yet not
wanting to have to wait too longto make it. And you know the
best part I made that we weremaking the tomato pie. Yeah, and
in the back of the book,you got everybody buys this book, you
got to go to the back ofthe book because there's a playlist family playlist.
(47:06):
It's like a couple of pages.I was like picking, you know,
it's like Alexa play Muddy Waters,Alexa play Mahelejo. I was going
through the playlist while we were cookingthe the pie. I'm like, this
is the best playlist. It's aSpotify. It's like awesome. Yes,
yes, that was that was thegreat child of our covert in the kitchen.
I was, I just love MuddyWaters. I mean, it's like
(47:27):
the best music. I was,that's ye know what, that's what that's
what we were going for. That'swhat she said. What happened. But
I co writer Mizella Palmer, shewas adamant about, you know, completing
it with a playlist. She's like, this is gonna be you know,
what seals the deal for a lotof people. And I was like,
all right, you know, let'sdo it. But a lot of people
don't read to the end of thebook. So everybody knews Tosizella Palmer,
(47:51):
who was a she's a food historianand a collaborator on the book, who
did the amazing photos which are somewherein black and white, and it shows
it was the tradition of cooking.And some are of your The one of
your dad with your mom consoling himwas incredible. Yeah. Backs Miller,
out of out of North Carolina inamazing. They are responsible for the photography
(48:15):
session for the even historical ones.Well the historical ones we got from the
NT archives, uh, and thenall the all the others we you know,
we were produced in Newbern, NorthCarolina, from their studio. You
know, I love the historical photos. It's yeah, it's just amazing.
You know. As I was readingthrough doing my research, I realized I
(48:37):
found out that the tobacco harvest andthe whole hog cooking was the one time
that the African Americans and the whitescame together to eat all at one table
during that time. And that's andthat's just an amazing testament to the power
of food and coming together for aharvest. Totally agree. That was the
(48:57):
one time. And that's that's whywe try to all always talking. You
know, we always try to spendthe craft and position the whole hog.
And you know, and and andmore than just the food, you know,
it was it was really a lynchpin. You know, they've brought different
cultures and races together. You know, even in peril times. You know,
it was used to you know,everyone's gonna eat, We're gonna have
(49:22):
nourishment, and nourishment even at leastfor a moment, you know, the
opportunity to be nourished, can youknow subside all differences. And it still
does because people flock to eat atbarbecue restaurants like your families and and you
see people from all walks of life. That's what makes them classic restaurants.
(49:43):
Yes, totally agree. It's sogreat we uh for our listeners. How
can they learn more about visiting UHand and and eating UH your wonderful barbecue.
Well, for the time being,if you go to true Makefoods dot
com and or the pitmaster Ed Mitchelldot com, you can find out products
(50:04):
and within that website. You canalso just type in your zip COO area
code uh and it will give youthe stores that are closest to you to
have the products. And then fromas far as the color from the culinary
piece from the restaurant side, weare planning a grand opening for our new
barbecue restaurant here in Raleigh, NorthCarolina. It's going to be called The
Preserve, and we're shooting for uhfirst second quarter of twenty twenty four.
(50:30):
And so road trip. We havereally good friends at Raleigh who own Liberty
and Plenty Distillery and Durham. Theyjust open with the friends and so let's
road trip. Yep, yep,absolutely absolutely. But you can find us
the stores you can and we'll we'llbe open pretty soon. Uh. And
(50:50):
and it's if and it's not.You can just grab this cookbook and try
to and uh give me a callor shoot me an email and then we
can I'll walk you through some recipes. Well that's hospitality at its best.
A phone call away, Ryan Mitchell, We have loved speaking with you.
Give our best to your dad.The book is Ed Mitchell's Barbecue. You
(51:12):
can find it anywhere. Ryan gaveout the website this is a great book
about family, tradition, faith,love, and of course some really great
recipes. So thank you for joiningus on the Connected Table, Thank you
for having me, and we hopeall our listeners around the world have enjoyed
learning about barbecue in North Carolina andthe Mitchell family. You know this is
(51:35):
all about traveling or traveling in yourkitchen, and our messages always stay insatiably
curious. Thank you,
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(00:21):
Radio. Well, hello, andwelcome to the Connected Table Live. We're
(00:44):
your hosts, Melanie Young and DavidRansom. You're insatiably curious culinary couple.
We enjoy bringing you interviews with themost amazing people who work front and center
and behind the scene in wine,food, spirits and hospitality. We're talking
about leaders and legends and legacies,people that we admire, and today is
(01:07):
a really good example. As manyof you know, I am a born
and bred Southern Tennessee girl, soI grew up with the ABC's of q
as in barbecue. But many ofour listeners, who include some of our
friends overseas, may be less familiarwith this very special all American tradition that
dates back not to America but backto the native land of Africa, and
(01:33):
it has a rich tradition and weare going to talk to Ryan Mitchell about
this. I'm going to set itup this way. Hero and legend are
two words that can be overused,but not when it comes to Ed Mitchell,
who was known as the pitmaster andthe rip king in the barbecue community.
These words are so comfortable for him, like well worn shoes, or
(01:56):
maybe as slices of barbecue pork withthe side of fry green tomatoes. Ed
has been inducted into the Barbecue Hallof Fame and his son, Ryan Mitchell
is joining us. They're the Popeand Prince of barbecue Pitmasters and the author
of a book that details the richfamily story growing up in rural North Carolina
(02:17):
and the road to becoming a famedbarbecue legend. Ryan left his career in
Wall Street to join his dad.He's really helped expand the business and we
are so excited to share the storywhich they share in the book, Ed
Mitchell's Barbecue. Ryan Mitchell, Welcometo the Connected Table. Thank you,
Thank you so much. That wasan amazing uh, a full word there
(02:42):
for the interviews, so thank youso much for that. Well, I
have to say, if there's threeletters I love the most, it's B,
at, B and Q. SoI'm just a huge fan, even
though even though I'm from the Northand we didn't grow up with you know,
real bit style barbecue up there wheregrillas more more than anything else up
in the North. But I lovebarbecue, especially after marrying Melanie and moving
(03:05):
down here and spending a lot oftime down here. So welcome to the
show. Thank you so much,Thank you for having me so Ryan,
your family. We always love tostart with family, and boy did we
learn a lot about your family readingEd Mitchell's Barbecue and many many articles and
seeing videos. Your family has deeproots in rural North Carolina. Well,
(03:25):
first of all, let's talk aboutyour family and it's ancestors, and then
we'll talk about the Carolina region whereyou live, which is you know,
it's a big state, Yes,yes, you know, I think you
know people. I think the biggestquestion I've gotten throughout the you know,
the book process is hey, whatdoes barbecue mean to you? You know,
(03:46):
especially for me being you know,of the next generation and you know,
experiencing some things from my parents andgrandparents and great grandparents, you know,
throughout my life, you know,growing up in in the Carolina and
you know, just seeing this craftin its in its most authentic form.
So I always start with, uh, my great grandfather, Uh, my
(04:11):
great grandfather, Lauria Sanders, who'sis the first name? Uh? And
our dedication page on the book,well he uh he fathered thirty five children,
okay, and so uh uh andI think the most amazing part of
that story is that you know,he's it was only with two wives,
so you know, the first wifehad sixteen and his second wife had twenty.
(04:32):
And you know from that lineage,uh came my grandmother who was featured
throughout the cookbook, mister Rita Mitchell. Uh. She was the last of
his three children. And you know, my grandmother sets the tone for what
hospitality and food and beverage means toour family and inside of our household.
(04:57):
But I always referenced, you know, those times here is because you know,
as a kid, I think youknow, I you know, I
was like one of my only friendswho had like great aunts and uncles who
were like literally born in the eighteenhundreds, you know that to actually hold
them and speak to them and stuff. So that was a you know,
our home and how we looked atfood, how we looked at hospitality,
how we looked at you know,the the types of food that we were
(05:23):
eating and what it meant to ourdinner table was was really unique. And
so barbecue, you know, barbecuehad a special place, uh around our
family, around our city because mygreat grandfather and uh pitmasters before me learned
the craft, you know, vialworking from on plantations and share cropping and
(05:47):
you know during those times, youknow, cooking barbecue or cooking you know,
in the ground was more of ait was a skill set and it
was a labor. You know,it was a labor intense a way to
a food prep that sometimes you knowwasn't wasn't in you know, the best
conditions, you know, so tobe able to keep it going and turn
(06:09):
it into you know, something thatwe love to do and turn it into
a family tradition more so than itwas a you know, a job,
you know, that was that's beenthat's been the secret ingredient for us to
keep going. Well, you know, first, you know, what we
learned reading through the book at Mitchell'sBarbecue, which is published by HarperCollins and
(06:32):
reading about barbecue and in North Carolina, there's a interesting relationship. But North
Carolina for a listeners who don't notaware, is known for tobacco. It's
the biggest tobacco producing site, Ithink, or one of them. And
there's a very interesting connection between tobaccoand smoking tobacco and the process of hohog
(06:54):
smoking barbecue. And this is avery specific way of preparing the pig.
Right, what is that connection?Uh? Well, the agricultural uh connection
is that you know, at theend of har harvest season, you know,
barbecue and cooking the whole hog wasalways used to kind of you know,
(07:15):
symbolize maybe the the end of theharvests and or it was also used
to feed the the large groups ofof working class that was doing the sharecropping.
Whole hog barbecue and its entirety,you know, it's it's it's food
designed to feed you know, largenumbers of people, and so the hog
(07:35):
maintained its it it's position as youknow, the most h barbecued whole animal,
you know, inside of inside ofthe barbecue community, and so as
you you know, as as atobacco was cured, you know, in
the barns, and you know,and throughout that whole process, oakwood and
(07:56):
and the fire and and smoking wasused to kind of cure the tobacco.
And then we would take that woodalso and use it, you know,
to cook our food with. Soyou know, the connectivity between this area,
you know, pork and tobacco whereyou know, the two main economic
engines of you know, the easternpart of North Carolina and you know ultimately
(08:20):
the state as well. So youknow, it has a special place for
us here. It's interesting. It'salmost like in Texas it's beef and beef
is the king in Texas, andin Tennessee it's pork and tends to be
ribs. Memphis style ribs barbecue hasa lot of regionality and even in the
(08:41):
state of North Carolina, Eastern styleand Western style are very different. Would
you like to share the nation?Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a
lot of you know, you know, there's a lot of healthy competition that
goes on between what type of barbecueyou choose to decide with. But you
know, for context, whole hardbarbecue in eastern North Carolina's specifically based with
(09:07):
apple cider vinegar. So our saucesthat we use on our cuts of meat
and on the entire entire animal.It's based with apple cider vinegar, crush,
red pepper, and hout sauce.Now, uh, as you kind
of divide the state up, you'llsee, you know, tomato sauce,
and then you get down the SouthCarolina area, you'll see a mustard mustard
(09:28):
based sauce as well. But eachcut of meat. Uh, you know,
as you get different sides of thestate, well they don't, you
know, do the entire animal anymore. And so you know, tomato based
sauces tend to pair well with smallercuts of meat. Now you have to
(09:48):
understand apple cider vinegar was more thanjust a condiment, and its original usage
here in the Carolina's right off ofyou know, right off of the share
cropping and the plantation areas, barbecueand apple cider vinegar was paid because it
was also a preservative, so itwas used to keep It was used to
keep the once a cooked animal wasdone, you know, apple cider vinegar
(10:11):
was placed on it to kind ofgive it an extra three or four days,
you know, of of preservation.It was also like an insect repellent
and you know, an antibiotic.Apple cider vinegar became kind of, you
know, the the condiment of choiceper se for a whole hog barbecue because
(10:31):
it paired well with you know,you know, a larger you know,
cooking of larger cuts of meat likethat barbecue help you know, cut the
acidity and kind of make it easierto chop. You know, it was
like a tender riser as well,if you want to look at it that
way. So there were so manydifferent things, but apple cider, vinegar,
(10:52):
crushed red pepper, you know,that's how we do it here in
eastern North Carolina. Well, let'stalk about eastern North Carolina a bit as
well, and your family's history there, because we've talked about tobacco, we've
talked about obviously hull hoog versus thecuts that they do in the western part
of the state. But your familyhas a long history in eastern North Carolina.
(11:13):
You're based in Wilson, North Carolina, which is a little bit east
of Raleigh about now or east ofRaleigh, I think, And and it's
a beautiful part of the state.It's not the mountainous part that people think
about when they think of think ofgoing to places out west like Asheville and
things like that. It's fairly flatgood obviously tobacco growing there. But your
(11:33):
family has a long history there.Tell us about your family history in the
region. Well, my family historyin the region again kind of you know,
if we can start back, uh, you know with the story of
my great grandfather, you know,you know, he had a very large
presence and our family had a verylarge presence here in this area for you
know, for for decades and soyou know, cooking barbecue was kind of
(11:56):
you know, that was what wedid as a as a family tradition.
But we've been connected to agriculture andor food and beverage and hospitality, uh,
in this area for over a hundredalmost one hundred and fifty years.
So my grandparents founded a small cornermarket grocery store in the late eighties called
(12:18):
Mitchell Supermarket, and that was kindof our entry into the the entrepreneur side
of being in the in the foodand beverage and grocery and restaurant business.
And so they were pioneers, youknow, ahead of their time. We're
even just trying to trying to dosomething like that because you know, the
opportunities for African Americans to be blackman business ownership it was fear and far
(12:43):
between. So you know, theywanted to leave something to their to their
kids and you know, starting alegacy that was you know, inspiring,
and so that's how we you know, it's how we kind of moved from
one business to the next and tocontinue and to be able to pay continue
you know, our passion. Youknow, inside the barbecue business, it's
(13:05):
all been one one big giant circleof love as it pertains to you know,
just the land and the farming andthe connectivity between those those two things
and the people. You know,so you know, we're proud to be
able to kind of keep that going. Well. Speaking of circle of love,
(13:26):
there are several intertwined circles in thestory shared in Ed Mitchell's Barbecue and
Your Family, which it's this bookis like a memoir, it's also a
bit of a cultural social statement anda lot of great recipes. The first
circle is when your grandfather passed,he had terminal cancer. He died in
nineteen ninety one, and your grandmotherwas and I think about that time and
(13:52):
her and the South and a blackwoman trying to run a store in a
rural part of the South, andthere was a point where she had only
brought in seventeen dollars one day,and she was struggling, and your dad
had a second. First of all, your dad is a Vietnam Vet.
We want to Ed Mitchell is aVietnam vat. We want to thank him
for his service. My dad wasvery West Point grad so we love our
(14:13):
vets. And he had a careerat the Ford Motor Company, so he
was doing well. But he camehome, yes, and their grief brought
them together. And what did hedo to help your mom? How to
tell us that story, because that'sreally the beginning of Ed Mitchell's barbecue.
It is. It's it's kind ofit's it's our entry point, you know,
I tell people all the time wewe we entered the barbecube business,
(14:39):
you know, from a place ofpainting therapy, uh and not the competition
circuit, you know. So that'sa unique piece to our story. Once
my grandfather passed away and we wereyou know, trying to figure out just
where uh, you know, ourincome you know, as a breadwinner,
it was the you know, thesupermarket as a former upreneurship was one thing,
(15:01):
but it was it was also hisyou know, his retirement income,
his ownership of property. You knowthat was really kind of you know,
holding the family together. I meanlike back in those days, man,
you could uh, you know,a couple you know with a nice retirement
income could could you know, almostput some dreams together, you know.
So that's you know, they werein their sixties, you know, when
(15:26):
they began their path their entrepreneurship.Wow. So my grandfather when he passes
away, you know, my grandmother'suh, you know, we we're trying
to figure out how we were gonnayou know, maintain and the business was
was getting slow, and the groceriesyou know, and the the the inventory
you know, was running thin becausehe would always go get all the inventory
(15:48):
and keep the shells stock and atall those types of things. So the
business of running the supermarket, youknow, was was missing. It's it's
leader. So my dad comes homeand soon after he soon after he gets
in my other my two uncles youknow, come off the road because they
were driving trucks uh at the time, and you know, we go inside
(16:11):
the supermarket and you know what wasmeant to be family dinner. You know,
my grand my grandmother requested uh,you know, a small pig to
be cooked for family dinner because shewas just trying to continue her her you
know, her her way of justkind of you know, putting some normalcy
back into the family. So cookingand feeding everyone was a routine that we
(16:33):
did, you know, a coupleyou know, once a couple of times
a week. So she requested asmall hog. And uh, you know,
my dad comes home and he's like, all right, Mom, we're
gonna you know, have a littlefamily barbecue here and and just kind of
get our thoughts together, you know, about how we're gonna try and keep
these doors open and cook a smallpig and and you know, get it
chopped up and done and sitting onthe counter in the supermarket for dinner.
(17:00):
And so we we closed the doorsand locked the door, and we began
to kind of just wrap up andand you know, have a little session
as a family. And but beforewe locked the door, a customer comes
in getting his last you know abit of juices and groceries and he sees
the food, uh sitting on thetable, and so he uh asked,
hey, uh, you guys sellhim barbecue. Uh what's that? That
(17:22):
smells good? And so my dad'slike, nah, man, that's that's
family dinner, you know, likewe're not even you know, we don't
we don't we don't even sell themcooked food in here. And so he
was like, oh, man,I should would like to have a sandwich.
And so my grandmother, you know, being who she is, she
stands up and said, just giveshim the sandwich, please, he can
have it. And so the guy, she she gets him two pieces of
(17:47):
uh wonder bread and puts him somebarbecue in the sandwich, and he pays
for his groceries and kind of justgoes on out the door. And uh
so we locked the door and getback to eating, and about ten minutes
later, there's another you know rattleat the door because we had these bars
on it, you know, soit really made a lot of noise for
someone who was trying to get in, you know, right, So he
(18:10):
was rattling the door, ratting thedoor, and you know, we get
to the door and he's like,man, who is this? You know,
I was just looking out even thinkingsomebody trying to break into place or
something. Right, So my dadand Uh. My dad opens the door
and he's like, you know,we're closed, man, he was like.
And then it was two customers thereand they said, oh, man,
well we heard y'all was selling barbecue, and you know, we just
(18:33):
came up here to buy something.Good news travel to fast, right right,
And so my grandmother jumps up,she said, just tell him we'll
have some tomorrow. And my dadlooks at it. Guy, he's like,
man, yeah, come back tomorrow, man, we'll have something.
Like I'll give you something just toget him out, you know. So
when the first customer had went andtold the neighborhood that we were selling barbecue,
and as you just said, goodnews travel fast. And so that
(18:57):
next day left the three four customers. The day after that led to five
and ten customers, and the dayafter that led to twenty customers. And
so we just kind of, youknow, entered in this business just from
uh uh a form of just hospitalityand just you know, feeding people,
(19:17):
you know, with no intent onturning into a business or having a business
plan or having an opportunity. Butthat connection to again, that connection,
that that that family connectivity that wasrunning through my my grandmother's DNA of just
taking care of people and using foodas a medium to do that. You
(19:41):
know, it's how we actually justyou know, begin to make our way
and make our name in the business. And that is that is the birth
you know of Ed Mitchell as thethe pitmaster in that very moment because from
their own you know, he committedto cooking the whole heart if we were
gonna do this. He was like, there there's no other way, but
we're going to learn and we're goingto master the craft of cooking the whole
(20:03):
hall commercially and that's going to beour calling card if we're going to try
to do this. And so thatwas that's how it began. It's amazing.
You know, food is survival inevery aspect of life, and it
really helped your family survive a verydifficult time. The second full circle and
(20:25):
then we'll get into the rust ofthem, is when you as many young
African American boys and non African Americankids from rural areas, let's just say,
any background they want to leave.I was that girl too, Ryan.
I was in chattanoog at a timewhen it was called the dirtiest city,
when of the dirtiest cities in theUnited States and we all want to
(20:45):
leave and go and spread our wings. You did that with considerable success,
as I did in New York City. You worked in finance, you got
degrees, you did really great andyou were too And Grant, I remember
reading somewhere. You were looking ata spreadsheet about it in the pork industry,
and you're like, there's some seriousand in your own home state,
(21:07):
and you're realizing the size and volumeof the pork business. Yeah, and
then the recession hit. You gota severance package and you came home.
I did I did? You know? That was my full circle moment as
well, kind of you know,similar to my dad. It's amazing,
you know how all these stories kindof intertwined. And but like you said,
(21:30):
you know, I grew up inthe restaurant business. I grew up
in a rural area where if youwanted to try and make something of yourself,
well, the blueprint was to gooff to you know, get educated,
and then go find the big cityand then go dream chase. You
know, that was the blueprint thatthat's all we knew and uh, but
when you do that, you oftentimesleave, uh, some of the most
(21:55):
valuable resources unprotected, and a lotof times those are right there under your
was in your own and the environmentsthat that you grew up in and the
people that you grew up around.And so, you know, I graduated
from ECU, got my degree ineconomics, went on to work for uh
uh Credit Suites and a couple ofother uh investment banks, and but yes,
(22:15):
I was home. I was atthe office one day reading a dividend
statement from a port producer that wehad ironically, you know, had invited
us to do a catering for thema couple of weeks earlier. Now,
mind you, I'm still here,you know, at that time, I'm
traveling back and forth between the Carolinasand New York. But I'm I'm based
now back up in Raleigh. Soyou know, I still have one foot
(22:41):
in the business and one foot out, but not you know, just kind
of helping, you know, onthe weekend and doing whatever my dad needed.
But I really wasn't trying to beyou know, working, you know,
like like like uh making a businessout of it just yet. And
so uh, you know, wewe I called him and told him about
you know, that was happening,and I was like, man, mister
(23:02):
you know such and such. Imean, these guys are getting you giving
the statements are unreal, you know, based on the stuff that they're doing
and what they're telling us in thisindustry and this kind of cre I was
just like, man, we justuh, it was just mind blowing for
me because all we knew was,you know, trying to make a couple
of dollars on selling plates and sandwichesand so that's you know, the but
the trickle, the the upward uh, the upward effect of what you know,
(23:26):
the the agriculture and pork industry isis a whole other world. So
I get laid off again, youknow, twenty in financial crisis happens,
and you know, I get laidoff, and you know, that was
kind of just very tough period andawakening for me because I prepare myself and
(23:47):
educated myself to to not have thathappen. So to have your livelihood just
kind of taken away and you've donenothing wrong, you know, you can
there's a couple of different directions youcan go with that, you know,
with that uh type of you know, uh, I call it tragedy.
You know, in a moment,it is because you're young, and you
don't know anything about you know,companies being able to do that. So,
(24:11):
you know, I turned my interestback towards the family business. My
dad was simultaneously kind of taken offat you know, Food Food Network had
been you know, floating around andwe had done a show or two,
and it was like, well,man, you know, I think,
you know, if I put allmy energy and love back into this,
I think this might be a betterway for us. And you know,
(24:32):
as my dad is, you know, it was getting older. You know,
it was necessary for me to kindof you know, push us over
the mountaintop, so to say.You know, fame has a Fame has
its benefits, and it also hasa price. It does. And you
and your father very honest in thebook about the cost of fame. Uh
(24:57):
you went to the Big Apple Barbecue. We I was. I actually worked
that event with and did a video. I probably interviewed you guys I was
doing asking people to do swee hogcalls. But I remember, I remember,
and I used to work with theJames Spear Foundation, and I always
heard it there's a significant cost todo these events. And what was interesting
(25:18):
is often it comes out of yourcompany, your family, your whatever,
personal pocket. And some people aresponsored and having people helping them and others
don't. How did that? Whatwas the positive side of all that?
But what were the challenges as well? As you suddenly burst into this another
level with this rabbit food fame.Yeah, you know, to my dad,
(25:45):
you know, my father man,he has he's always had like the
unique ability to tend to stand stillbut see around the corner at the same
time. And so when we gotinto this, you know again, we
got into this visions you know,you know, from a different side than
than most people. But food networksstarted coming around and and and visiting,
(26:07):
uh, visiting us in Southern foodWays Alliance and all of these foodies and
and and you know that when thatidea started to swirl around barbecue in the
early two thousands, in late nineteennineties, you know, my dad was
always adamant about you know, they'relooking for something and we have to be
ready, you know, to figureout what it is because you know,
(26:27):
all of these well to do peopleare are having interests in what we're doing,
you know, out of nowhere.And it's not for nothing, trust
me. And so you know,I would always hear that But the challenges
of of these festivals and like theApple, is that you have a decision
to make as a business owner becauseyou don't have you know, extra income
(26:49):
oftentimes to travel and do these things. You're running up running a business,
you know, uh oftentimes in acompletely different location uh than where the festival
there's. But New York is special. You know, New York is nitty.
Uh New York is are different,uh in it's in its unique place
(27:11):
to really highlight your brand, giveyou an opportunity, give your stage to
stand on, give you u apeople and a culture to impress. And
you know it's it's Madison Square Park, New York City. So we get
there the first year, you know, every year pretty much on our own
(27:32):
dime. But the invitation to gopresent our craft uh to New York City
was unmatched, and you know,uh my dad was very adamant about not
losing that opportunity now for us andfor everybody in our area. You know,
it sounded kind of crazy because itwas like, hey, those customers
(27:52):
aren't up the street, you know, those customers aren't around the corner.
Those aren't the customers that are gonnacome in here. And you know,
pay for or you know, helpyou pay your bills. You know,
it's you know, it's a localmentality if you if you allow it to
be. But the Big Apple BlockParty gave us an opportunity to you know,
showcase our our culture and our historythat we were creating, you know,
(28:18):
to the world. And so forseventeen years, you know, we
did just that and some of themost interesting, some of the most you
know, affluent people from all overthe world would come by and they have
a chance to experience, you know, your hospitality and your brand, and
so it sounds you know, likea no brainer, you know for most
(28:41):
people, uh, you know thatgo do these things. But again,
you know, we're traveling from theCarolinas. It's a nine I would drive
and we travel. The thing thatmade us a little bit more complicated than
everyone else is that we you know, uh my dad and my family,
he's a stickler, like he's itto all every aspect of the old school
(29:03):
process. You know, he's gonnado that. So we didn't have any
special equipment. We weren't you know, putting together any you know, twenty
thousand dollars you know, smoking contraptions, any of that stuff. We put
barrels in a in an eighteen wheelerand eight eight eight smokers, individual barrel
(29:25):
smokers and an eighteen wheeler, andwe drove up and we set up shop
right there on the corner on thestreets in New York City, and we
cooked almost an we cooked an averageof about seventeen whole hogs per weekend,
hand shopped, you know, rightthere on the streets in New York City.
(29:47):
And we gave them the show thatthey were looking for, and that
that is what separated us, andthat really is what kind of kept our
name in the spotlight. But youknow, there was no shortcuts, you
know. So you were a minority. And I remember this because believe or
not, Ryan David av Our apartmentwas not too far down on Lower Fifth
(30:08):
Avenue. We get to smell it, and we remember going in addition to
the video we produced, we wentand there were a lot of uh,
I mean, you were still aminority and African American cooking barbecue. As
I recall, it was a lotof white folk in that group. Yeah,
yeah, we were the only wewere the only uh. You know.
The first year started out with fouruh special invites and we were my
(30:32):
Dad was the only African American therethen and then we remained the only African
American family there for uh most ofthe seventeen years. Uh Ronnie Scott got
added to the roster a few yearsin, but he didn't you know,
he wasn't cooking you know, awhole heart barbecue. Then you know,
it was just invited for you know, something else, and then we gave
(30:53):
a pathway to to doing that.But you know, our those and mister
Scott and you know, that wasthe the you know, we really were
the only two to be there foryou know, for the duration of the
festival. It's one of the largestrunning festivals you know barbecue fessels in the
(31:14):
in the country at that time.But that kind of speaks to the you
know, the relationships that you know, you have to kind of create or
have the ability to create with differentsponsors and different corporations and and different you
know, different you know people thathelp you kind of stay in that travel
circuit and stay in that you know, stay on stage in some of those
(31:38):
environments. So the difficulty for usis that it was always on our own
time and we had to make adecision, you know, every year whether
and he is like every year,all right, then we're gonna go here.
And my Dad's like, Okay,this is gonna be the year somebody
gonna see us that's gonna help uschange our trajectory. And this is gonna
be the year we're gonna meet onecustomer, you know, like it's going
(32:00):
to be one customer that you don'tknow. It's going to be somebody you
don't know that you're going to givea sandwich to. Who is going to
to to be you know, apivotable moment, pivotable, pivotal moment in
our careers, in our lives.One day you just watch, you just
watch. You know, it's seventeenyears he's saying the same thing. So
lord behold, you know that pivotable, that pivotal customer had happened to be
(32:24):
an agent from uh from ICM atthe time, who you know, uh
put us in position to get getthis book deal. So you know it
wasn't it was not all or notso. And you were featured in Anthony
Bergaines a cook's tour and Michael Collinsuh cooked fired. You got some you
(32:44):
know that kind of publicity. Uh, you can't buy Okay, money can't
buy it. So you you definitelyyour investments to you know, your investment
to go up there paid off,even though it's just it's all those seventeen
years. But what's amazing is barbecueis so clearly tied to the African American
(33:06):
culture, down to when the pitboys cooked for the plantation, to enslaved
pit boys cooked for the plantation.Understand, that's where the high on the
hog term because the plantation owners atethe better meat, the high on the
hog meat, and the slaves gotthe bits and pieces that they masked.
You know, the mother's mastered incooking. But it's it's incredible when you
(33:28):
describe being one of two African Americanpit masters in a very large festival of
white barbecue pit masters who clearly alot of them because I know some of
them had a lot of money behindthem. It's quite remarkable that which you've
achieved, what you have achieved.Thank you, Yeah, I mean,
(33:49):
you know that was always for me. The hardest part. You know,
my dad, you know, he'slike son, you know, don't worry
about it. You know, no, I don't count everybody else po gets
you worry about ours, you know, and it's like, I's like,
but Dad, you know, it'slike, you know, it's not fair,
you know, like we we andand and the thing is, you
know, popularity in this barbecue world, it comes, you know, oftentimes
(34:15):
it comes with you know, whois connected the most, but not just
connected, but what business has beenaround the longest. And so sometimes you
know, that's not always inclusive ofAfrican Americans because a lot of the really
great guys in a how to CookBarbecue aren't running restaurants, so they aren't
chefs, you know, so theydon't do those jobs and they don't have
(34:37):
businesses that are on that platform.That's why we always try to pay homage
in every ounce of you know,what it is we do and when we
talk about cooking barbecue, because weknow we learned from guys who didn't want
anything to do. We're like runninga business, you know. So uh,
but that's what happens around the barbecuecircuit and gaining sponsors and gaining you
(35:01):
know, gaining people who you knowhave backing behind them. It's it's just
a little bit different quite so.I mean, we drive around Shattanooga and
we see people with their pits out, you know, just outside of their
little ranch house or their station,and that's like what we're used to exactly,
you know. And I think thesponsorship thing is all very interesting to
(35:21):
me because just because your sponsor doesn'tmean you get money for it. They
may sponsor you with products with maybea free plane ticket or something like that,
but you're still not earning money.So there's a long road to how
the product has a price. Becauseone of the things your dad at Mitchell
is recognized for is being committed toonly using pasture raised pork in the business
(35:43):
where the Pork Producers Council has lotsof money. And we know this,
We know certain named, well namedbrands, so a lot of product out
in their mass produced but your dadsand the Mitchell family stayed the course with
pasture raised, right, yeah,we did. Back then, you didn't
you know, we didn't even knowthat that was you know, you didn't
have to call stuff organic and passerraise and all that kind of stuff.
(36:04):
Back then. We just wanted itfrom the small farmer who was raising it
on the you know, a noncommodity diet, and so uh that you
know that ended up you know,getting us in a little bit of trouble
that we didn't even know it wastrouble. But that was our commitment because
you know, that's you know,from my my dad and my grandparents and
(36:27):
my my uncles, you know,and my great uncles was working in the
in the pitch at that time too. At the restaurant we first opened,
like these were the type of animalsand that was the type of farming that
gave them the best chaste, youknow, and they remembered and they knew
the practices that it took to getthe best tasting animal, and so we
(36:49):
were committed to buying you know,our product from farms. Farmers who were
doing that had no we don't ay, you know, if there's large farm
arms and large firms, who areyou know, there's a place for the
you know, Cammadie raised animals thatare feeding the world. You know,
we understood that. But you know, our commitment to our restaurant as as
(37:12):
chefs and pit masters were we weregoing to try to give the customer,
you know, as authentic game quoteunquote organic form of barbecue that we possibly
could. Well. Thank you fordoing that, and let's talk about the
book. You know, what's greatis all the family recipes in there.
(37:32):
There's you know, Deretha has somerecipes. There's looking at ed shin Dick's
Law. Last night we made theRawleigh Country Cup Hellwig tomato pie. Yes,
that was our dinner. Last wasour dinner. We followed it to
the tape. Well, actually actuallywe didn't. We didn't and we got
we got yelled at for it onFacebook by somebody from the South who said
we added corn to it, calledYankee tomato pie, and we were told
(37:58):
never add corn to it. Tomatoblind the South. It's created some debate.
Somebody somebody called me a yankee,a yankee, which is even more
I'm from the South. That's hilarious. It was a delicious tomato. Are
there recipes in there? You know, why don't you share some recipes and
the story behind them from the familymember? Yeah, you know, there's
(38:19):
a you know, what we tryto do is is a pair of recipes
with certain moments and certain stories offamilies, so we can kind of explain,
you know, why we like whatwe like and what the history is.
We didn't really want to just rattleoff a bunch of stuff without some
contexts. But the potato salad isnear died. In my heart, the
(38:40):
Charies mac and cheese is near anddear in my heart. That's my sister's
recipe. But I don't eat everybody'spotato salad. You know. My grandmother
again was uh she was, youknow, the lead of the hospitality board
at our church. And so,you know, not everybody was allowed to
(39:02):
make the potato salad, you know, for a guess and special clergy,
you know. And so our pastorwould get up and you know, he
would make it known that you know, well the Mitchell, you know,
she's in charge of the potato saladand she made it. And you know,
I don't we don't need everybody's potatosalad, you know. And so
but it was a kind of anunspoken Uh. It was like a culinary
(39:24):
badger and honor because, uh,the potato salad was often handed to,
you know, the the the personwho had who had a reputation for having
to clean this home. Now thatshould be for anybody to bring in food,
but the potato salad just gets itsreputations because of how it looks and
(39:45):
the way it's made that you know, you know, your your counter and
your process at home has to betotally sanitary and flawless, you know,
to bring in the potato salad orelse, you know, and they can
they can get a little trouble.So you know, that's a special story.
Uh. My sister's uh series macand Cheese is another one of my
(40:06):
favorites. You know. She shepassed away, uh over six years ago.
But she was kind of like thefirst member in our family to kind
of you know, be able totravel and go uh experience different different forms
of southern Southern pairings from in DC. She graduated from George from Howard and
(40:27):
uh, but she lived in downtownGeorgetown, DC. And but she had
all of these experiences with different typesof cheeses and wines and he would bring
him home for the holidays and kindof you know, jazz up the macaroni
and cheese and it just kind ofbecame a family favorite, you know,
with her for her life her lifeexperiences. Uh. So that's your favorite,
(40:50):
you know. The bake uh fakeBeings is a favorite. And the
recipe you mentioned earlier, the HellwiTomato pie. That's a nod to our
you know, very first executive chefthat we had at our restaurant and Raleigh
you know, he was able topair some of those things with our barbecue
and kind of kind of went overthe city with a you know, a
(41:10):
scale slash down scale type of amenu choice. Well, I think Chariz's
recipes would be special because she's nolonger with you, and so every time
you eat one of her dishes,you think of her. She sounds like
an amazing person and we'd love tohave known her. The interesting thing about
that potato salad, which is theI don't eat everybody's potato salad, is
(41:32):
it's got heart bold eggs in it, which is a little unusual. Of
course, it's got the Duke's mayonnaiseand the rusted potatoes and then some bacon,
which is always great to add andis definitely a pork theme throughout the
book, but that heartbowled eggs isan unusual addition to It's kind of like
a potato egg salad. Yeah,yeah, it's you know, that was
(41:54):
something you need My grandmother used todo. You should add the hard boiled
eggs to it because it was kindof like, you know, a similar
recipe was used for the deviled eggs, and so it's for the people who
would eat deviled eggs and always lovethe deviled eggs. You would just put
the hard boiled eggs too in thepotato salad to kind of give a like
(42:15):
a parallel feeling that of you havinga deviled egg too. So that was
unique. Well, the recipes areyou know, obviously you have the whole
hog and how to prepare it,and it's quite uh detail and and wonderful.
Uh. We settled on the tomatopie because we had all these tomatoes
(42:37):
and the tomato season and we're justfeeling, I'd love a good tomato pie.
I can't get enough of it.And it was really terrific. And
we like beans, so we're lookingat some of the bean recipes to try.
And what's nice is these are humblefoods. I mean, these are
not dishes and that are expensive tomake when you're you know, not buying
the meat, uh, and youcan do a lot. There are a
(42:57):
lot of flavorings in them. Iam curious. I am Your dad has
had health problems, and before wewent on air you assured us that he's
doing better, but he has hehas a diabetic and sugar is an important
part of many of the recipes andespecially desserts. But you have helped him
and brought your business acumen with youbecause you helped him develop some sugar free
(43:20):
options. How is that going foryou with the sauces that you've created.
It's been going, It's been goingreally well, and I'm appreciate you bringing
it up. I mean, yes, he was. He was diagnosed with
diabetes in twenty seventeen, and soyou know, we just decided to use
our platform to create a line ofno sugar, no added sugar barbecue sauces
(43:42):
and rubs. Now, the ironyof all that is, these recipes that
we use in our products are reallyjust my you know, great grandmother's old
recipes of you know, taking veggiesor butternut squashed carrots, apples, and
she would stew them down and tolike a serum, and then that is
what she would use to sweeten youknow, a lot of the foods around
(44:05):
the house. So you know,there would be these Mason jars you know
of of you know, preserved fruitsand stuff like that, but we would
just use that particular fruit to forfor for a sweetness. And so we'd
put that same kind of thought processinto our barbecue sauces. And we've created
uh seven barbecue sauces and one hotsauce, and we've been able fortunate enough
(44:30):
to get national distribution with uh Walmart, Harris Teeter, Whole Foods, Sprouts,
and just to name a few.So we're you know, true Made
Foods is the name of our barbecuesauce company. And uh, we've been
we've been fortunate enough to really it'sit's really been picking up. You know,
(44:50):
it's been it's it's been a youknow something that more and more customers
are looking for a way to kindof enjoy barbecue sauce without drowning, and
you know the sugar ridden sauces thatare on the market now. So you
know, I tell people this isthe way barbecue was really meant to enjoy,
to be enjoyed. The original barbecuesauce in this in our state,
(45:15):
in this in this industry, youknow, way back in the eighteen hundreds,
it was not designed to be somesort of sweetening, uh dessert.
It was actually a way to addanother nutrient to the plate, you know.
And so you know, the originalbarbecue sauces uh pioneered from Gola guiche
culture really uh down in South Carolina, was really just like, uh,
(45:37):
a smoothie. You know. Itwas like a h authentic way to kind
of drink your veggies, you know. So, but that's that's how it
started. Well, it's it's goodthat you're doing that for so many reasons
because it is a challenge. Obesityand diabetes is up and in a huge
way around the country. So it'snice to have that option. Because I'm
(45:59):
still thinking about the apple cider vinegarand the whole log because we we I
drink a lot of apple cider vinegarand learned not to put it in sala
addressing, but it can be usedfor other things. We've learned. I
tried it in sala addressing last night. It was an epic fail. So,
David, you want to have thingsI wanted to add is that obviously,
(46:21):
this is a book, and thehistory of this book, but the
history behind this book is whole cooking. But there's a lot in this book
that is stuff that you don't haveto dig a fire pit and wait twenty
four hours to create the meal.There's stuff you can roast a pork shoulder
in the oven and get the sameeffect almost you can. You have some
fish dishes, you have beautiful spatchcockedchicken recipes in this book. It's really
(46:44):
a wonderful book for people want toembrace the cooking of this region yet not
wanting to have to wait too longto make it. And you know the
best part I made that we weremaking the tomato pie. Yeah, and
in the back of the book,you got everybody buys this book, you
got to go to the back ofthe book because there's a playlist family playlist.
(47:06):
It's like a couple of pages.I was like picking, you know,
it's like Alexa play Muddy Waters,Alexa play Mahelejo. I was going
through the playlist while we were cookingthe the pie. I'm like, this
is the best playlist. It's aSpotify. It's like awesome. Yes,
yes, that was that was thegreat child of our covert in the kitchen.
I was, I just love MuddyWaters. I mean, it's like
(47:27):
the best music. I was,that's ye know what, that's what that's
what we were going for. That'swhat she said. What happened. But
I co writer Mizella Palmer, shewas adamant about, you know, completing
it with a playlist. She's like, this is gonna be you know,
what seals the deal for a lotof people. And I was like,
all right, you know, let'sdo it. But a lot of people
don't read to the end of thebook. So everybody knews Tosizella Palmer,
(47:51):
who was a she's a food historianand a collaborator on the book, who
did the amazing photos which are somewherein black and white, and it shows
it was the tradition of cooking.And some are of your The one of
your dad with your mom consoling himwas incredible. Yeah. Backs Miller,
out of out of North Carolina inamazing. They are responsible for the photography
(48:15):
session for the even historical ones.Well the historical ones we got from the
NT archives, uh, and thenall the all the others we you know,
we were produced in Newbern, NorthCarolina, from their studio. You
know, I love the historical photos. It's yeah, it's just amazing.
You know. As I was readingthrough doing my research, I realized I
(48:37):
found out that the tobacco harvest andthe whole hog cooking was the one time
that the African Americans and the whitescame together to eat all at one table
during that time. And that's andthat's just an amazing testament to the power
of food and coming together for aharvest. Totally agree. That was the
(48:57):
one time. And that's that's whywe try to all always talking. You
know, we always try to spendthe craft and position the whole hog.
And you know, and and andmore than just the food, you know,
it was it was really a lynchpin. You know, they've brought different
cultures and races together. You know, even in peril times. You know,
it was used to you know,everyone's gonna eat, We're gonna have
(49:22):
nourishment, and nourishment even at leastfor a moment, you know, the
opportunity to be nourished, can youknow subside all differences. And it still
does because people flock to eat atbarbecue restaurants like your families and and you
see people from all walks of life. That's what makes them classic restaurants.
(49:43):
Yes, totally agree. It's sogreat we uh for our listeners. How
can they learn more about visiting UHand and and eating UH your wonderful barbecue.
Well, for the time being,if you go to true Makefoods dot
com and or the pitmaster Ed Mitchelldot com, you can find out products
(50:04):
and within that website. You canalso just type in your zip COO area
code uh and it will give youthe stores that are closest to you to
have the products. And then fromas far as the color from the culinary
piece from the restaurant side, weare planning a grand opening for our new
barbecue restaurant here in Raleigh, NorthCarolina. It's going to be called The
Preserve, and we're shooting for uhfirst second quarter of twenty twenty four.
(50:30):
And so road trip. We havereally good friends at Raleigh who own Liberty
and Plenty Distillery and Durham. Theyjust open with the friends and so let's
road trip. Yep, yep,absolutely absolutely. But you can find us
the stores you can and we'll we'llbe open pretty soon. Uh. And
(50:50):
and it's if and it's not.You can just grab this cookbook and try
to and uh give me a callor shoot me an email and then we
can I'll walk you through some recipes. Well that's hospitality at its best.
A phone call away, Ryan Mitchell, We have loved speaking with you.
Give our best to your dad.The book is Ed Mitchell's Barbecue. You
(51:12):
can find it anywhere. Ryan gaveout the website this is a great book
about family, tradition, faith,love, and of course some really great
recipes. So thank you for joiningus on the Connected Table, Thank you
for having me, and we hopeall our listeners around the world have enjoyed
learning about barbecue in North Carolina andthe Mitchell family. You know this is
(51:35):
all about traveling or traveling in yourkitchen, and our messages always stay insatiably
curious. Thank you,
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