Chef's Table: BBQ

During the week, I work as a custodian.

I try to stay busy with manual things that I have to do.

I'm just one little peon, but I try to help the school along.

When I go to bed on Friday nights, my alarm is set for 1:00 a.m.

And I get to Lexington at two.

I put the meat on...

so eight o'clock we're ready for business.

Barbecuing, working at the school,

it keeps me young, it keeps me thinking, "What next?"

I do the best I can at the age that I am, and I keep rolling.

Texas has a lot of iconic foods.

Chili is actually our state food...

but nobody goes on chili road trips.

In Texas, it's barbecue that... that brings that out in people.

We have this shared love of barbecue that makes you want to go travel around...

visit these different restaurants,

try the different styles.

You drive three hours,

you show up at eight o'clock in the morning,

the people are already in line.

People who drive all that way,

they aren't doing it so they can get the same

they can get in Austin or Houston.

They're getting something different.

The first time I went, all that way to Snow's BBQ,

it... it really just blew me away.

This is special.

Appreciate everybody.

If we can get you anything, don't hesitate to holler.

Men's bathroom's here against the fence, ladies' in the building.

Ice chest full of beer there, y'all help yourself.

There's an energy about coming to Snow's.

Kerry Bexley, he's the owner, he's walking around

-handing out cold beers... -Whoo!

...calling out raffle ticket numbers.

Fifty-four.

You can have a trip to the front of the line.

You can have a T-shirt or cap, 10% off or bottle of sauce...

Getting the food and coming back,

the tables look right over the pit area.

And soon you realize that really part of the whole event

of going to Snow's is...

the famous pitmaster,

Tootsie Tomanetz.

Tootsie's been cooking for over 50 years.

She's an icon in the barbecue community.

And she is one of the hardest working people I've ever met.

At 85 years old,

standing next to a giant fire,

scooping those coals with a shovel, sweating like crazy...

it's a process that is just incredibly painful for a 35-year-old to do,

let alone an 85-year-old.

This is a woman who is at the top of her craft.

In 2008, Snow's was named the number one spot in Texas barbecue.

And I think a lot of that is the fact that so many cuts of meat that she cooks

are not just good, but, like, special.

And when you know how much effort went into that barbecue,

there's no greater reward for taking a long trip to a barbecue joint

than a hug from Tootsie.

Growing up in a small town...

one day a year

we would have a community picnic.

Everybody fried up chicken,

and they had potato salads and dewberry cobblers.

And in the afternoon, we'd play baseball.

To think back, the fun that we had...

I miss that.

Nowaday, we've moved too far away from each other.

It seems like everybody's too fast,

in too big a rush, and don't have time.

Barbecue brings people together.

It gives the people time to visit with each other more.

People just kind of slow down to speak to one another

and look at the bright side of life.

A lot of people don't realize what a wonderful feeling that is.

So, you think the idea of coming out this early in the morning

for barbecue is ridiculous,

you sit down, take a couple bites, and you're like,

"This all makes sense."

Let me get ten pounds.

Forty-four pick up. Forty-four pick up.

- How are you? - Good, you?

All right.

I ain't gonna make it to church tomorrow.

- Oh, okay. -

If you go back in the 1800's,

Texas barbecue wasn't so much a food, it was an event.

If you talked about a barbecue,

the whole town was gonna come together to celebrate.

They were gonna celebrate the Fourth of July,

sometimes even Christmas.

A rail line might finally make it to a town.

That would be their celebration, a big barbecue.

Here in Central Texas, that tradition has gone on and on.

Barbecues on a Saturday, it's totally a Texan thing.

It's just a weekly event around the area.

Anytime you barbecued, it's just another reason

to bring friends and family together.

That's what it's about.

For us, that's Tootsie's cooking, part of the whole experience.

I remember as a kid going and having lunch at Miss Tootsie's.

I remember her coming out of the cooler

carrying a quarter side of beef on her shoulder,

and throwing it down, going to cutting.

That was a part of my life growing up,

and it's still the same today.

People know who she is.

They know how long she's been doing it and the things she's seen.

And that's the legacy of Miss Tootsie.

I was raised on a farm just at the end of the Depression,

the oldest of three children.

We lived out in the country,

and times were tight.

We didn't go to town and buy groceries.

The money was just too short for that.

It was just us five doing all the work.

The clothing was home sewn.

We had peach trees, so we canned a lot of peaches.

Wintertime, we butchered our own hogs.

We learned how to make things work without help.

We were taught to handle the situation ourselves.

It was my training, I guess.

It gave me the fullness of knowing that I can handle

quite a bit of stuff.

I can take care of myself.

So, I have always felt very, uh...

independent.

I'm gonna shut that top to hold that heat in a little bit.

Okay.

With that wind blowing, it's drawing through better.

If you look at the history of Texas barbecue,

it was taking wood and burning them down to coals,

using that direct heat to cook the meat.

Or doing what we now call Hill Country style barbecue.

Snow's is one of those n Central Texas that still does it the old way.

Back in those days, people weren't so selective about meat.

It was, what were the ranchers willing to give up for a big party?

And a lot of the smaller cuts of meat that she cooks,

you have to attend to that meat much more often.

Miss Tootsie's cooking technique, this is kind of country cooking.

Pork steak,

chicken by the half,

two kinds of sausage, turkey breast.

It's all over direct coals.

There's not a lot of room for error when you do that.

Tootsie is touching the meat with a fork,

handling each piece of it to check its done-ness.

There's a... a mop sauce that she adds onto it as well,

and there's no better cut of meat that has been mopped with her mop.

Tootsie's Hill Country barbecue.

Not something you're gonna find hardly anywhere else,

because there aren't a lot of pitmasters looking to burn wood down to coals

and shovel it into pits.

Nobody bothers with that sort of hard work and effort

except for Tootsie and what they do at Snow's.

After I graduated,

a friend of the family's asked me to write this guy

that was in the Army named White,

and one day Daddy waved me to the house.

I walk up and there stands this Army guy in a uniform

and I thought, "God dang, he is nice-looking."

We dated four years

until July of '56 when we married.

So, I felt like that my letter writing might have paid off.

Want the lean or some fat?

Back in 1966,

my husband worked at the City Meat Market in Giddings,

and they were shorthand.

White, he asked me if I would come in and help him.

Silverware and everything's on the table to your right.

I was a mother at home with three children.

I didn't know anything about barbecue,

but, uh, I was willing to try and learn.

When White and I started working together,

I just kind of learned little bits and pieces.

Cutting up the beef and putting it on the counter.

I would season the meat and put it on the pit for him.

Different things that I could do

that helped him get through the day better.

White and I just worked as a team.

How are you doing?

-You? How are y'all? - Tootsie.

-How are you? -Long time no see.

-Hi, sweetie. -Hidee, hidee!

-Deidra, doing okay? - I have been.

- Good. -Good to see you.

Good seeing you. Wish we'd get a little rain.

God, we need it so bad.

Yeah. Good morning.

- How you doing, Tootsie? -What you know, Kiki?

Nothing much. What can we get for you?

Give me pork.