- 3 hours ago
Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with Eric Hastings of Fiasco BBQ in Austin, Texas. Eric made his name in the culinary world as Beverage Director at the world-renowned 3 Michelin star-winning Jean-Georges New York - but left it all behind to pursue his passion from inside a BBQ truck.
Fiasco BBQ's new home is Rosewood Social Club 1309 Rosewood Ave, Austin TX 78702
Director: Ian Stroud
Director of Photography: Alex Le
Editor: Rob Malone
Talent: Eric Hastings
Line Producer: Jamie Rasmussen
Associate Producer: Justine Ramirez
Production Manager: Janine Dispensa
Production Coordinator: Jeanne Tirro
Camera Operator: Ian McGar
Assistant Camera: Ana Lorant
Sound Recordist: Will Short
Production Assistant: Emily Berk
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Santamaria
Supervising Editor: Brandon Henninger
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Director of Content; Production: Ali Inglese
Senior Director; Creative Development: Dan Siegel
Senior Director; Programming : Jon Wise
VP; Head of Video: June Kim
Fiasco BBQ's new home is Rosewood Social Club 1309 Rosewood Ave, Austin TX 78702
Director: Ian Stroud
Director of Photography: Alex Le
Editor: Rob Malone
Talent: Eric Hastings
Line Producer: Jamie Rasmussen
Associate Producer: Justine Ramirez
Production Manager: Janine Dispensa
Production Coordinator: Jeanne Tirro
Camera Operator: Ian McGar
Assistant Camera: Ana Lorant
Sound Recordist: Will Short
Production Assistant: Emily Berk
Post Production Supervisor: Alexa Santamaria
Supervising Editor: Brandon Henninger
Assistant Editor: Andy Morell
Director of Content; Production: Ali Inglese
Senior Director; Creative Development: Dan Siegel
Senior Director; Programming : Jon Wise
VP; Head of Video: June Kim
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:01Fiasco BBQ is my barbecue food truck and I'm the owner and pit master. I am
00:08literally the only employee. I'm the only one who works here. The vast vast
00:12majority of my career is on the wine side and the beverage side and it turns
00:17out I could make it all the way to the top becoming the beverage director for
00:20three-star Michelin restaurant called Jean-Georges and then I took a step away
00:24from hospitality then when we moved to Austin that's where I started teaching
00:28myself how to smoke meat. I opened Fiasco BBQ because number one I love
00:32barbecue, number two I love cooking barbecue for other people, number three I
00:36love a challenge, and number four I'm not afraid of it.
00:43Good morning it's 425 my name is Eric and this is Fiasco BBQ my food truck in
00:48East Austin. First thing we have to do is get the fire lit so we can get the meats
00:52on the smoker by five o'clock. Let's go!
01:07So I use post oak which is very traditional in Central Texas. Little tip and
01:13trick for you folks at home if you're having a hard time getting your fire lit
01:16you get a leaf blower because you're adding oxygen to the firebox which is
01:21what fire needs and as you can see right now this fire is going it is 439 a.m.
01:27and the current temperature is 80 degrees 81% humidity yeah I'm already sweating.
01:33I could start a little bit later but then I'd be here later and I've got kids at
01:36home and I already get up at 3 30 in the morning to get here and get this started
01:40at 5 so I'd rather just get it over with I want to make sure that I keep this
01:43door closed so I don't lose all the heat definitely still plenty enough space to
01:47get oxygen coming in to keep that fire going. Now we're gonna go pull the meat out of
01:51the refrigerator and we're gonna get ready to put on the smoker brisket number
02:03one brisket number two so these briskets will be for tomorrow I'm also cooking one
02:09rack of pork ribs for today I never really have any way to know when people
02:13are coming so I just make sure I got everything ready to go at 11 o'clock. I've
02:17got clean smoke coming out of my chimney the smoke that you can barely see lets
02:21you know that you've got good smoke they call it blue smoke right now you can't
02:25tell that it's blue but later today you'll be able to see it I'm gonna give
02:28a quick check on the temp just to see what it's at right now we're sitting at
02:32250. I'm ready to put meat on now even if it was under 250 as long as I've got
02:36that clean smoke I'm good to go. Yesterday I trimmed and seasoned the briskets to dry
02:43brine overnight they really take on a lot of flavor. The longer you can season
02:47these things the better off you are. This is the second brisket going on the
02:51smoker. We moved to Austin in 2020 that's where I started teaching myself how to
02:57smoke meat was in the parking lot of our apartment on a Weber kettle. If you look
03:02back in my Instagram you can see untrimmed briskets and meat pointed in the
03:07wrong direction but you know I just kept going and going and going and trial and
03:11error and research and asking questions and brisket was not something I did a
03:15lot at home because I would have to start at basically 3 o'clock in the
03:18morning with my smoker right outside the bedroom window and last but certainly not
03:25least probably my favorite the ribs. They're the first ones that I was able to
03:30do well consistently first. I like cooking them, I like eating them. So this is the pit
03:35at Fiasco. It's a big offset smoker. The fire is in the firebox here. Gets pulled
03:40through the smoker by the chimney. That's what makes this the warmest part of the
03:45smoker. I was incredibly lucky to find this smoker on Facebook Marketplace
03:49because it is in a trailer fully enclosed which is a requirement of the city of
03:54Austin so the general public can't come up and touch it and get hurt. So in the
03:58warmest chamber right here I've got the briskets and in the middle chamber I
04:04have the pork ribs. This chamber is more consistent in temperature. This chamber
04:10it's hotter towards the back than it is towards the front. Every smoker is
04:14different. They all have their own idiosyncrasies, warm spots, cool spots.
04:19Very common practice is to get some Pillsbury biscuits in the can, pop it open
04:24and fill your smoker with biscuits and that will tell you where the warm spots
04:29are in the cool spots depending on how those biscuits rise and if they start to
04:33burn. I'm going to head into the smoker trailer and then we'll continue on with
04:36our day.
04:39All right it's just after seven o'clock so we're in the Fiasco barbecue food
04:43trailer. As you can see it's not very big. It's big enough for me. Once I have
04:48another employee we'll have to see how that works. When I got this food trailer
04:52this was the only shelf in here. So I added these shelves here, I added this
04:57shelf here and I added this shelf here. So right here is my protein
05:01refrigerator. All my protein goes in here and then this is my basically produce
05:05cooler over here where the sides and the pickled things come from. The warmer is
05:10one of the most important pieces of equipment for barbecue because what it
05:14does is it allows you to hold the meat at 140 to 150 degrees. That way it keeps it
05:21out of the temperature danger zone for bacterial growth but it doesn't continue to
05:24cook the meat. The only downside is this door swings this way but I've been able
05:31to navigate that without any real issue. At this point what I'm going to do is pull
05:35the turkey out of the refrigerator, get it seasoned and ready to go on the smoker in
05:39about 10 minutes.
05:44I love having turkey on my menu because it smokes really well. It's probably the most
05:50popular meat that I serve. I think that turkey is gaining a larger footprint in
05:56barbecue. It's great to have a lighter option for a smoked meat. It is great to
06:01have something that is just jam-packed with protein and very lean for people
06:05that are more conscious about what they're ingesting. I just love how tender
06:10it is, how great it takes smoke flavor but never seems overwhelmingly smoky and how
06:16it absorbs the flavor of the rub. Proteins with low fat content will tend to cook a little
06:21bit faster because we don't need to worry about rendering the fat. So what we're going
06:25to do now is season the turkey. This is a fairly simple rub. Salt, pepper, onion
06:29powder, garlic powder, cayenne, a couple of other ingredients I won't share. The purpose
06:34of the rub on the turkey is not to create a bark. What it is is just to provide some
06:38seasoning for the turkey itself. A bark on proteins takes hours of smoke contact. This
06:44is only going to get an hour and a half and then it's going to get wrapped up basically
06:48like finishing in the oven at a low temperature. Because it's a little bit cooler I want to
06:52put the turkey on the middle chamber. This also gives us our opportunity to look at our
06:56ribs and brisket for the first time today. And I see that the ribs are looking really
06:59good. I'm going to hit it with a little apple cider vinegar just to keep the top moist,
07:04keep it from drying out. And I'm now, oh these are heavy. I'm going to check those briskets
07:09for the first time. I can see that our temperature is dipped a little bit so I need to add
07:13some more fuel to the fire. But these are looking really good for only two and a half hours.
07:18There is some thought that adding apple cider vinegar helps develop the bark because the
07:24smoke will stick to it. So the downtime is starting to reach its end for the day. We're
07:29going to start getting some of the sides prepped and we're going to get going and ready for service
07:33at 11.
07:38All right, 840 in the morning. I'm going to start prepping my potato salad. For all of
07:42you actual chefs and line cooks out there, avert your eyes. And these are sides that are built
07:47on lightness, freshness, and acidity. Instead of using mayonnaise or sour cream, we dress it
07:53with Greek yogurt. These recipes were developed over weeks of tinkering and trial and error and
08:00what was going to be something that would be reasonable for a one-person barbecue food truck
08:07to execute on a daily basis because these are made fresh every day. So basically how
08:12I get my supplies right now for the most part is by shopping on my own. I have a larger
08:19vendor
08:19that I use, but the order minimums are oftentimes larger than what I require. My brisket, I buy
08:27it at Costco. It's less expensive than what you can find from a food vendor. Literally
08:32everything for this business, I do by myself. Because not only am I the pit master and the
08:39prep cook and the cashier and the dishwasher and the porter, I'm also the purchaser. I'm
08:45also the accountant. What happens on Monday is I got to balance my books. Tuesday, I am
08:50back at the truck to see what I need to order for the weekend. And then on Wednesday, I'll go
08:55pick up my briskets. And then on Thursday, I'll get everything else, whether I'm picking
08:59it up or it's delivered. And then I start prep for the weekend. There's no rest for the
09:04wicked in this business. All right, it's 9 a.m. now. It's a perfect time to put a pin
09:08in a potato salad. We're going to go wrap the ribs in the turkey.
09:16So now the turkey's been on for an hour and a half. I'm going to wrap it up right now.
09:19It's taking on about as much smoke as it's really going to take on. And I don't want
09:23the exterior of the turkey to get too firm. So I'm going to wrap it. When it's wrapped,
09:28it retains moisture so it doesn't start to dry out. This turkey is not going to take
09:32on any more smoke. It's just basically going to finish like it's cooking in an oven.
09:37And now we'll get set up to wrap our rack of ribs. So the ribs take a few more steps
09:42to
09:42wrap because we're going to add a glaze to them. I'm going to pull the rack out. I'm going
09:49to lay down some brown sugar. The brown sugar will caramelize and add a really nice texture.
09:53It'll give it a little more sweetness, but that's not really what it's for. And then using
09:57the barbecue sauce will enhance the color of the rack of ribs as well. So it's going to
10:03give it more concentrated sort of deep red color with the glaze. It is a ketchup based
10:08sauce like most barbecue sauces with black pepper, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, again
10:16a little cayenne because I like a touch of heat. I don't want the meat to pull too far
10:20from the bone, but I want that process to have started because if it's pulling too far back,
10:25that means it's getting really close to being done. And at that point, I might have to make
10:28the decision to just finish the ribs unwrapped. But that also means that at least for today,
10:33I don't have the glaze that I want to use because I didn't have the time to do it. So
10:37that's
10:37wrapped up ready. You can see it's already starting to bend. That's a good sign that it still
10:41has more cooking time to go. And I'm just going to put it back in the smoker, meat side down.
10:48All right, it's 10 o'clock. Time to get the burgers on the smoker. There's five of them.
10:53I make them by hand every day. I only make five every day. They're magically delicious,
10:59but I'm not trying to be a burger joint. What I love about a smoked burger is just the absolute
11:04juicy, tender, smoky flavor and texture. It's not grilled over high heat or
11:11seared. It's definitely going to be much softer and more tender than anything like a smash burger,
11:16because the idea behind that is sear the outside so you don't lose the fat. Whereas what I'm trying
11:22to do is render some of that fat out and keeping it well integrated throughout all of the meat.
11:28Burger is not something you're going to find in every barbecue joint in Austin,
11:32but you can find them. I want to give somebody an option of something that's not barbecue. If they're
11:38in the neighborhood, they want to get a quick lunch. I can bang out a burger from the food truck
11:43in no time. So they're still getting a great lunch, but it's not necessarily barbecue. So the burgers
11:49will smoke for about 45 minutes at 1030. I'm going to flip them and then I'll pull them at 1045
11:54and
11:54they'll go in the warmer. All right, it's 1015. Now I got to write my menu on my butcher paper
12:03so I can get it
12:04posted up to social media so people know what I got today. I don't have the same menu every weekend
12:08because one of the sides changes. I always have the potato salad. Sometimes on Friday I have brisket,
12:14sometimes I don't. So if I don't have brisket, I need to have something else. A lot of times I'll
12:19do beef
12:19back ribs, but I'm fortunate enough to have some brisket today. So we're just going to get it set up.
12:26If I misspell any of these words, I've got bigger problems. High tech, real high tech.
12:34Like this is a legit fiasco. This guy's writing the menu every day. What a mess. It's not so much
12:39that things could go wrong at any moment, though of course they can. It's just more of it being a
12:44one-man operation and everything that you've seen throughout the day. It's just kind of a fiasco
12:51doing it by yourself. But I love it. All right, now I got to get a photo of that so
12:58I can get it posted.
13:01All right. All right, 1030. Time to start getting some meat off the smoker.
13:12You've never seen me with a tray that doesn't have a foil wrap. That's because it saves a ton of
13:15time
13:15on warewashing at the end of the day. You don't want to be humped over a kitchen sink at the
13:20end of a
13:20long day scrubbing pans when you can just wrap them in foil and then throw that foil out. I am
13:25also the
13:26dishwasher. That is correct. First thing we're going to do is flip our burgers. Also gives me
13:31an opportunity to check on the briskets, which looks good. So as you can see, you do start to
13:34get some grill marks on there just because this grate has been sitting in the heat all day long.
13:39It's in no way caramelizing the meat. It's just some grill marks. All right, I know these are done.
13:44Ribs are off. They're right here. Turkey's not quite ready yet, so we're going to leave that on the smoker
13:48for a little bit longer. The distance between the wood and the smoker is a new phenomenon,
13:55but that's where my wood's going to live for now. I bought a little cart to haul it back, but
14:00obviously I forgot about that. Now I'm going to build my workstation. So for most of this day,
14:06this has been a prep kitchen, but at this point we're 20 minutes from opening. I got to have everything
14:11ready to go at 11 o'clock. Always thinking about working as cleanly as possible and having as little
14:17breakdown. So I will line this with plastic before I put the cutting boards on. It doesn't prevent me
14:22from having to wash it, but it generally prevents juices from soaking into the cutting board.
14:28All right, 1045. Time to pull the burgers off the smoker and get the cheese on them, get them in
14:33the
14:33warmer so that cheese gets nice and melty. After 45 minutes between 265 and let's say 280, they come out
14:39about medium. They're going to go in the warmer, so they're going to cook up a little bit more, but
14:43they'll
14:43never get to well done. Good old American cheese. The best for cheeseburgers because it melts without
14:49splitting. All right, it's 11 o'clock. We're going to pull that turkey off the smoker. It's where I
14:54want it to be at 150 and put it into the warmer. Well, if your turkey is dry, it's one
14:59of three things.
14:59You either cooked it too long, you cooked it too hot, or you didn't wrap it. All the prep is
15:05done. The
15:06meats are off the smoker and in the warmer. Briskets are still cooking for tomorrow. I'll keep an eye on
15:10that. Keep an eye on the fire. We'll wrap those a little bit later this afternoon, but as of now,
15:15I'm hoping for business. All right, let's get some tunes.
15:25Just some blues rock and roll all day long.
15:45All right, y'all. The lunch rush is over, but I still got a lot of work to do. I
15:49got briskets
15:49on the smoker for tomorrow. I got to clean this place up. Thanks for spending the day with me. Now
15:54y'all got to go.
Comments