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The Emmy award-winning Chef’s Table is back, and this time it’s looking at the smoky world of barbecue.
Cooking with fire is how it was done for thousands of years. Before we developed alternative heat sources and techniques, meat and a flame was what defined our human experience, drawing people to watch it being cooked around the fire. So it’s no surprise that barbecue still holds the same draw for people.
So when the phenomenally popular Netflix show Chef’s Table decided to give BBQ the high-production, slow motion treatment, the show’s success is no surprise.
Chef’s Table: BBQ, a four episode Netflix Original series, features four chefs from four continents. The BBQ premise helps us learn about people and culture through the lens of this ancient cooking technique.
Each episode is crafted by a different director to produce four intertwining narratives that celebrate the different styles and contexts of each gastronomic expression of the barbecue. With a wide-ranging overview of the practice in different settings, we see what BBQ looks like from a Sydney-area fine-dining grill, to a whole-hog specialty location in Charleston, South Carolina.
Barbecuing is an American institution, reflecting the country’s frontier beginnings and love of nature. The US features heavily with Norma Frances 'Tootsie' Tomanetz, an 85-year-old dynamo pitmaster at Snow's BBQ, Texas, and Charleston’s Rodney Scott. Lennox Hastie, who works the BBQ at high-end restaurant Firedoor in Sydney, Australia is also featured.
As always, Chef’s Table tells the story behind the food, from the dedication of farmers, to the inspiration of the chefs. The universality of food and our relationship with it comes through like a flavour that's instantly recognisable. And the whole show is smokin'. Check it out.
