Man, Fire, Food

Roger Mooking is in Lockhart, Texas, to meet the team responsible for designing and crafting a monster rig that offers seven different cooking contraptions. Brothers Matt and Caleb Johnson create smokers for chefs and pitmasters across the country through their company Mill Scale Metalworks. They collaborated with local chef Arturo Ramon II of Blanco River Meat Co. on an impressive rig, and Roger helps Arturo roast whole young goats on asado crosses, hang sweet tea-brined Cornish hens and steam whole red snappers stuffed with aromatics.

Roger is in Austin and helps Banger's Sausage House and Beer Garden pitmaster Ted Prater season a whole hog and smoke it for 10 hours for Carolina-style sandwiches; Roger and Pieter Sypesteyn stuff a wild hog.

In Pearland, Texas, Roger Mooking helps Ronnie Killen season and smoke brisket and ribs at Killen's Barbecue; Khoi Barbecue co-owner Don Nguyen holds Asian-influenced barbecue pop-ups in Houston.

In Fort Worth, Texas, chef and restaurateur Lou Lambert invites Roger to his ranch to slow-roast whole hogs over oak coals in a massive, custom-built metal rig; dessert is a sweet treat inspired by Lou's chuck wagon cooking days.

Roger Mooking meets up with a few culinary titans in Tennessee who are swinging for the fences with outrageous rigs. At Wedge Oak Farm in Lebanon, Tenn., he joins Chef Trey Cioccia, owner of Nashville's Black Rabbit, to set up the Burn Tower. On this unique rig, meat, fish and vegetables are hung at varying heights around a metal cylinder filled with hot coals. In Nashville, Roger hangs with James Peisker and Chris Carter, the owners of Porter Road Butcher. Chris shows Roger an old swing set that he transformed into a cooking contraption, and they hang meaty rib roasts and fill a basket with chorizo and kielbasa.

Roger Mooking heads to the South to visit two family-run barbecue joints that have been passing down recipes and rigs for generations. At Smokin' Joe's Bar-B-Que in Townsend, Tenn., pitmaster Zack Peabody honed his barbecue chops under the watchful eye of his grandfather, Joe Higgins. Zack and Joe built a smoker that can cook up to 1,000 pounds of meat, and Roger and Zack arrange briskets and pork butts on its shelves. At Shack in the Back BBQ in Fairdale, Ky., Mike and Barbara Sivells converted an old log cabin into a barbecue restaurant. Roger and Mike load pork shoulders and turkey ribs into the smoker to create two popular dishes: The Hump and Turkey Ribs.

Roger Mooking goes hog-wild at two legendary barbecue restaurants located in America's Barbecue Belt. At A&R Bar-B-Que in Memphis, Roger helps owner Andrew Pillard load racks of St. Louis-style ribs into custom wood-fired pits. Andrew also shows Roger how to make Barbecue Spaghetti, a dish created in Memphis in the 1950s. In Lexington, N.C., Roger visits Bar-B-Q Center, a local institution famous for its chopped pork sandwiches and massive ice cream sundaes. Roger and co-owner Cecil Conrad fire up big brick pits with oak and hickory wood and then load salted pork shoulders to cook low and slow for ten hours before they're chopped and piled onto soft buns. And no trip to Bar-B-Q Center is complete without their famous banana split that weighs a whopping four pounds!

Roger Mooking meets two barbecue brainiacs who have mastered the art of marrying heat and meat to turn out top-notch barbecue. Pitmaster Christopher Prieto teaches students the science of smoking and seasoning meats at Prime Barbecue in Knightdale, N.C. Roger helps Prieto season a whole hog with Puerto Rican flavors, and then they smoke it in a North Carolina-style pit using coals made from pecan, hickory and cherry woods. In Glen Allen, Va., Roger meets Tuffy Stone, a classically trained French chef, cookbook author, champion pitmaster and the owner of local barbecue chain Q Barbeque. When Tuffy's not tinkering in the kitchen, he's busy building rigs from scratch, and Roger helps fire up his latest contraption with hickory coals and then hang whole spiced and buttered chickens.

The smoke signals of fiery feasts lure Roger Mooking to the Southwest, where his first stop is West Alley BBQ and Smokehouse in Chandler, Ariz. The hot spot specializes in Tennessee-style barbecue, and Roger helps founder Bardo Brantley and Pit Boss Robert "Jim Dandy" Spann load brick pits with over 300 pounds of pork. The pork butts are piled high in their signature sandwich, The Big Jim Dandy, and their fan-favorite ribs are tossed in a barbecue sauce with a heavy hit of cayenne. For his second stop, Roger gets lucky in Las Vegas, where he meets Chef Justin Kingsley Hall of The Kitchen at Atomic. His portable rig known as "The Swing Set" is anything but child's play. To build this winning jackpot of meat, Roger and Justin suspend Mediterranean spice-rubbed legs of lambs, nestle butternut squash into a bed of coals and grill carrots in a swinging basket.

Roger Mooking visits two spots in the Lone Star State that turn traditional Texas barbecue into crafty culinary creations. In Fort Worth, he makes a brisket burger, and in Tomball, he samples artisanal chocolate and barbecue.

Roger Mooking visits an old-school barbecue institution serving chopped pork in South Carolina and a popular restaurant serving Hill County barbecue classics in Texas.

While road-tripping through Texas, Roger Mooking pulls the car over for some delicious barbecue. In San Antonio, he makes a pit stop at The Box Street Social food truck to hang chickens and racks of ribs over a live fire.

Roger Mooking visits Bludso's Bar and Que in Los Angeles and gets a 70-year-old family recipe for mac and cheese. In San Antonio, he checks out the mashup of Texas-style barbecue with Tex-Mex flavors at a house-turned-restaurant.

Roger Mooking meets a family that specializes in both Texas barbecue and Mexican barbacoa. He learns the secrets to "hot guts" for the legendary Texas favorite, Frito Pie, and fires up their Argentinean grill for lamb barbacoa.

Roger Mooking hunts down impressive barbecue rigs in Houston, TX, and Napa Valley, CA. He helps load six goats onto a custom trailer that can cook up to 600 pounds of meat, and he cooks a side of beef and sides on one asado grill.

Roger Mooking meets San Francisco-based chef Thomas McNaughton for a live-fire feast of epic proportions. They roast a whole pig over hot coals and cook potatoes, onions, squash and black-skinned chickens to go with it.

Roger Mooking visits two Southern California barbecue joints open on weekends only. He meets a couple who runs a pop-up barbecue restaurant in their own backyard, and he helps a caterer cook up a trio of meats in a parking lot.

Roger Mooking tames the flames in outdoor kitchens fueled by wood-burning fires. He helps fire up beef ribs and grilled chickens for a ranch cookout in Solvang, CA, and cooks a hearty soup in an antique cauldron in San Diego.

Roger spends time in Palatine, IL, and Brooklyn, NY, where restaurants are serving up meaty marvels like tomahawk steaks and roasted whole hog with scrumptious sweet potato waffles.

Roger checks out some of the most delicious sausages, pork ribs, crawfish, spice-rubbed chicken and meaty baked beans at barbecue smokehouses in Nashville.

Roger is in Ridgefield, CT, and Nashville trying monster-sized meaty masterpieces that include towering sandwiches, a massive hanging rib roast and a cocktail garnished with smoked meat.

Roger Mooking heads to San Antonio, TX, where he learns how Chef Jason Dady makes paella flavored with Thai ingredients. Then, Roger meets Chef Ted Prater in Austin, TX, to see how he roasts a goat in a Cajun microwave.

Roger Mooking is led back to Texas where he learns how Grant Pinkerton creates his outside-the-box cuts in Houston. Then, Roger meets up with Andrew Wiseheart in Austin to see his one-of-a-kind rig.

Roger Mooking heads to Louisiana to meet Howard, an engineer by day and a pit master by night. Howard shows Roger how he preserves his family's traditions and digs a pit where he cooks the hogs low and slow.

Roger heads to two family-run institutions to see how they've done it for decades. First, he learns the ropes at Burns Original BBQ in Texas, then he samples the legendary barbecue at Poche's Market and Restaurant in Louisiana.

Roger Mooking heads to the Liberty Kitchen in Houston, Texas, where he and Chef Lance Fegen prepare a traditional Balinese pig roast. Then, Roger visits Chef Nate Sloan in Fairview, NC, and gets a fire-roasted farm feast.

Roger Mooking gets schooled by pit masters changing the barbecue game in Charleston, SC. He visits Rodney Scott to see how he cooks hogs low and slow. Then, Roger talks to John Lewis who is beefing up the city's Tex-Mex options.

Roger learns that everything is bigger in Texas. Included: he meets the pit master at "Armadillo Palace" in Houston and gets to see his custom rotisserie trailer in action, when they roast a 250 pound side of beef. Also: Roger helps the chef/owner at "Cured" restaurant in San Antonio slow roast a 230 pound hog in a large outdoor cinder black pit.

Host Roger Mooking tours the facility at Jacobson Salt Co. in Notards Bay, Oregon, and learns how to make sea salt from the owner. Later, he helps a Portland-based chef stuff a 20 pound halibut with lemons and herbs, encrust the whole fish in salt and roast it over a wood-burning fire.

Chef Roger Mooking travels to Llano Soco Ranch in Chico, California, where he helps stew roast a 30 pound porchetta. Later, he offers a hand to caterers in Sandy, Oregon, preparing to serve roasted mussels and a stew made of white bean, chorizo and clams.

A trip to North Bend, Oregon, finds chef Roger Mooking helping to roast a school of salmon for a traditional tribal feast. Then, in Los Angeles, the owner of "Pok Pok La" shares the secrets to his famous whole roasted chicken.

Roger Mooking hang with two chefs, who are putting a whole new spin on rotisserie cooking in the great outdoors. Included: succulent legs of lamb in Alexander City, Alabama; and a Charleston restaurateur's backyard contraption for roasting whole strings of ducks and chicken.

Host Roger Mooking cooks up two whole hogs in two different ways. Included: he visits MOPHO restaurant in New Orleans, where chef Michael Gulotta's Southeast Asian spit-roasted pig is a twist on a classic Southern tradition. Also: Mississippi chef Miles McMath hinges two steel troughs together to make a convenient and quick cooking oven; and fries hand pies for dessert over an open fare.

The owner of a butcher shop in Georgia prepares more than one dozen rabbits, rotisserie-style, with bamboo polex; and in Plano, Texas, Roger visits Smoke to take a stab at cooking flank steak and chicken on swords.

Two Southern ladies famous in the world of barbecue. Included: smoked ribs at Mary's Old-Fashioned Pit Bar-B-Cue in Nashville; and pork shoulders, pork ribs and a whole stick of bologna cooked by a legendary pit master in Brownsville, Tennessee.

Savory and sweet flavors are found in Florida, where Roger meets a young pit-master who pulls pork with a power tool and digs into a sandwich called the Hamaburger. Later, a farmer presenting the tradition of making cane syrup is visited in Dade City.

In the Season 5 premiere, Roger Mooking meets a chef who uses a unique coal-fueled contraption, called the Cross Table, to roast butterflied pork marinated in bold adiote paste; and later, he simmers a seafood paella in a massive pan. Also: a trip to the OverBird in Birmingham features a meat-lover's feast of lamb, rabbit and beef, along with seasonal veggies.

Roger attends the 100-year anniversary of the St. Mary Magdalene Church Picnic in Owensboro, Ky., where he helps hundreds of volunteers load and light three massive barbecue pits. Then, they get to business, preparing several thousand pounds of meat, including mutton, pork butts and chickens.

Like a moth to a flame, nothing grabs Roger's attention like a raging wood-burning fire. After the flames subsides and the smoke clears, there's a spectacular feast that everyone can dive into.

Roger attends two backyard blowouts in Southern California. Included: an old wine barrel is used as a cooking vessel at a New England-style clambake; and a whole lamb is on the menu at a traditional Mexican barbacoa.

Roger's search for delicious barbecue ribs brings him to Hattiesburg, Miss., where he meets a third-generation pit master, who is continuing his grandmother's legacy. Also: a Brooklyn native uses Jamaican grilling techniques and Korean-style flavors.

Roger skewers all kinds of meat to be cooked on a massive grill, built by a chef for his San Antonio restaurant; and meets the designer of a 7-foot stainless steel tree, which they use to roast quails and sausages for an outdoor feast.

Roger fills up on brisket, pork steaks and sausages during a trip to Texas, where he visits "Ronnie's BBQ" in Johnson City and the "Pecan Lodge" in Dallas.

Roger attends two low-country cookouts in South Carolina. Included: he helps build an outdoor pit for a traditional pig pickin'; and pitches in to get ready for a classic oyster roast.

Alabama barbecue is in the spotlight, when Roger visits "Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q" in Decatur, Alabama, and learns how to make their smoked chicken, dunked in a unique white sauce. Also: pulled pork, that cooks for nearly 30 hours, is served at the "Black Pit" in Mobile, Alabama.

In the Season 4 premiere, Roger explores the wonders of smoked pork shoulder as he sinks his teeth into barbecue sandwiches, during trips to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Blount Springs, Alabama.

Roger visits the West Coast for two unique wood-fired roasts. Roger heads to Sloughhouse to visit Passmore Ranch, a freshwater, sustainable fish farm. Sprawling across 86 acres, Passmore Ranch has a variety of open lakes and massive tanks, and raises black bass, striped bass, catfish, silver carp, trout and white sturgeon. Roger is challenged to catch a 6ft white sturgeon-by hand! The catch of the day is then stuffed with aromatics and roasted over a large bed of coals. Roger is on the hunt for Santa Maria-style barbecue and heads to the Santa Maria Elks Lodge where they've been doing it since 1926. In the legendary BBQ Room, Roger helps build a fire in the massive pit and seasons and skewers big hunks of beef. It's a delicious feast that members of the Lodge are sure to enjoy.

Roger cruises through central California for two spectacular, meat-filled cookouts. This area is home to many vineyards, but Paso de Record Vineyard in San Miguel has piqued Roger's interest. The vineyard hosts wine release parties for its customers and serves barbecue prepared in a deep pit built in the picture-perfect property. Roger helps season 100 pounds of chuck roast and wraps them in burlap before setting them into the hot pit. In Santa Barbara, Roger visits a local caterer famous for creating an Argentine Asado. Roger helps prepare beef ribs, sausages and an assortment of vegetables for this ultimate meat-filled backyard barbecue.

Roger heads to the heart of New Mexico where cooking with fire is taken to new culinary heights with mud and steel. Roger visits Comida de Campos in Embudo, a farm and cooking school where delicious feasts are cooked in cone-shaped clay ovens made from mud. He'll help season pork shoulder with spices, wrap it in burlap and then cook it over a bed of corn in the oven. In Bosque, Roger fires up three steel discos and one large jara for two New Mexican pork dishes: carne adovada, which is pork slowly cooked in a red chile sauce, and carnitas where the meat is cooked in cola, citrus and spices.

Good things come in small packages and that's especially true when it comes to artisanal food makers. Roger searches the Gulf States for tasty foods kissed with smoke and fire that deliver big flavors. In Austin, Texas a family roasts coffee the old fashioned way - small batches over a roaring fire without any electricity. Roger savors a cup and also learns how they use coffee in Texas barbecue. Then it's off to LaPlace, Louisiana for amazing Andouille sausages, smoked sausages, and tasso. Roger tastes these Louisiana treats in some New Orleans classics. recipes in this episode

Texas is famous for American barbecue, but today Roger is making his way through the Lone Star state for live-fire Latin American cooking and to savor the flavors of smoked European-style sausages. Class is in session at the Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio and Roger gets a lesson in preparing Mexican-style short ribs cooked in the ground. Also on the menu is Cabrito - goat roasted over coals. Elgin is a town famous for their German-style sausages and Roger visits Meyer's and helps prepare thousands of sausages that get smoked not once but twice. recipes in this episode

Roger loves exploring cuisines from around the world. Mexican food is a favorite because of its complex, earthy flavors and tradition of cooking over a wood fire. Roger meets Chef Johnny Hernandez in San Antonio, Texas and cooks regional Mexican dishes in the ultimate outdoor kitchen. It's a feast of Lamb Barbacoa cooked low and slow in a pit, branzino stuffed with aromatics, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked around coals, and fresh corn tortillas toasted on a clay griddle. It's the ultimate fiery Mexican feast. recipes in this episode

In the Carolinas, barbecue is not just a tradition, it's a way of life. Roger heads to North and South Carolina to visit a couple of old school restaurants that have upheld a long tradition of mouthwatering barbecue for several generations. At Sweatman's in Holly Hill, South Carolina, whole hogs are cooked low and slow and then pulled and chopped into juicy, meaty perfection. In North Carolina, Roger visits Stamey's Barbecue in Greensboro for their Lexington-style barbecue. Succulent pork shoulders are chopped and piled high on a bun, kissed with vinegar sauce, and crowned with slaw. recipes in this episode

Today it's all about Roger's favorite animal - the pig. He's hamming it up at some of the country's best suppliers of cured, smoked and aged pork. Roger heads to Edwards near historic Jamestown, Virginia to visit Sam Edwards, a third-generation "ham master" who pays tribute to old world Europe with his cured, smoked and aged country hams. Roger also stops by Benton's delicious Smoky Mountain Country Hams in Madisonville, TN., where Allan Benton has turned the dry curing of ham and bacon into a culinary art.

Roger loves a great barbecue sandwich and when the meat's cooked low and slow and kissed with just the right amount of smoke, he rolls up his sleeves and digs in. Roger heads to The Barbecue Exchange for two sinfully delicious sandwiches - one is called Heaven and the other Hell. Both are packed with pulled pork and bacon. Then it's off to Papa KayJoe's BBQ in Centerville, Tennessee where pork, pickles, slaw and hot sauce are sandwiched between crispy corn cakes.

Roger heads to the Texas and Louisiana to feast on classic Cajun cooking. In small town Mamou, Louisiana there's a big time smokehouse filled with five hundred pounds of Southern smoked favorites. Roger helps owner T-Boy fill the dark, cavernous room with sausages, tasso, ribs and jerky, and then they fire up the smoker. A selection of smoked meats is then stirred into a pot of T-Boy's famous red beans and served over white rice. In College Station, Texas, a professor originally from Louisiana has transformed a shed into a smoker in order to make Cochon de Lait, a Cajun pig roast.

Roger Mooking takes a trip to West Point, Texas, to meet Tink Pinkard. Tink is an outdoor guide, hunter, fisherman, caterer and all-around nice guy. Together they build a barbecue pit out of cinder blocks and prepare Italian porchetta. While the pig slowly roasts over coals, Tink teaches Roger how to fly-fish and takes him to a neighbor's longhorn ranch. It's a wild and delicious adventure that Roger won't soon forget.

Roger Mooking visits two legendary barbecue joints in Central Texas where just the right amount of smoke and heat transforms the meat into delicious eats. At Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Texas, they have eight pits for cooking, acres of wood for burning and hundreds of pounds of delicious barbecue for stick-to-your-ribs eating. At Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, Texas, third generation pit master Wayne Mueller gives Roger an experience of a lifetime.

Roger meets two chefs celebrating Argentina's Asado and Brazil's Churrasco in northern California. At Farmstead Restaurant in St. Helena, Chef Stephen Barber built a "live fire" cook area, complete with an eighty-five gallon cauldron, planchas, and metal crosses for Argentinian Asado. Roger and Stephen slow cook spring lamb seasoned with Mediterranean flavors. In Healdsburg, Roger and Mateo Granados, chef of Mateo's Cocina Latina, build an outdoor oven out of bricks and cinder blocks. A large pile of local Manzanita wood is piled in the oven, drizzled with pork fat which serves as natural lighter fluid, and then lit to create coals. Marinated whole ducks, pork loins and leg of lamb are placed onto large Brazilian skewers and cooked on top of the outdoor oven.

Roger heads to Northern California for two spectacular wood-fired Mediterranean seafood feasts. In Napa Valley, the Seltzner family is famous for their wines and their towering outdoor oven called the Infiernillo. Hot coals are placed on the top and bottom of the Infiernillo and the food is cooked in between. Roger helps encase whole fish, potatoes and onions in salt before they're baked in the enormous oven. In Tomales Bay, caterer Tom Meckfessel prepares a delicious surf-and-turf Spanish-inspired paella over a wood fire right on the water. Roger harvests local clams with John Finger, owner of Hog Island Oyster Farm, which is one of the key ingredients for the mouthwatering paella.

Roger's first visit to the 50th state promises big fires and big feasts. Right off of Nimitz Highway in Honolulu is family-run restaurant Koala Moa, famous for whole chickens roasted over fire. The parking lot is filled with rotisserie trailers. Roger and owner Chris Shimabukuro burn wood pallets and unopened bags of charcoal in a thirty-five foot rotisserie trailer. One hundred and forty seasoned chickens are secured in metal baskets that slowly spin and move across the trailer filled with hot coals for approximately thirty minutes. At Ma'O Organic Farms in Wai-anae, Roger meets local chef Bob McGee who roasts half a cow over a custom-built six-by-six foot metal grill. Various cuts of beef, hamburgers, and sausages are cooked on adjustable grates over metal drawers filled with local kiawe wood.

Hawaii island Oahu is known as the "gathering place," and Roger is invited to two community gatherings abundant with local foods. On the east side of the island, local chef Mark "Gooch" Noguchi teaches Roger how to prepare a traditional Hawaiian imu. Whole pig, local starches and lau lau (packages of cubed pork and salmon) are steamed in a large underground pit lined with hot lava rocks, topped with layers of burlap and tarp, and sealed with dirt. At the farmer's market located at Kapiolani Community College, Roger meets Scott Shibuya who smokes pork, chicken, and turkey tails with guava and kiawe woods, in a unique smoker he cleverly built out of an Air Force cargo container, an airplane food cart, and a computer fan.

Charleston, South Carolina is one of America's top dining destinations, but for traditional whole hog barbecue and low-country oyster roasts, Roger leaves the city and heads into the country. Hemingway is a small town located about eighty miles from Charleston, and is home to Scott's Bar-B-Q. Roger meets pit master Rodney Scott who has been cooking whole hog since he was eleven years old. The smoke-filled pit room can cook up to fourteen hogs. Rodney's mom Ella is in charge of pulling the pork and seasoning it with their secret sauce. Then in fishing town McClellanville, Roger meets Oliver Thames who invented a unique oyster roaster. Local cluster oysters are piled over a metal sheet positioned over a firebox. Blankets of wet burlap rest on top of the oysters which help them steam open.

Roger Mooking uncovers the most innovative ways to cook with fire, from small pits to giant custom-made grills.