‘Nice try, sweetheart’: The red-meat obsessed Aussie BBQ queen showing Texans how it’s done

Barbecues might be as synonymous with Australian food culture as Vegemite, but Melbourne-raised “hardcore carnivore” Jess Pryles, the toast of America’s fire-cooking scene, says you ain’t tasted barbecue until you’ve tasted it in Texas. One bite of smoked beef brisket in a classic barbecue joint over a decade ago, and she was hooked.

The TV host and cookbook author now calls Austin, Texas, home. And she’s happily gnawing her way through her adopted state for her new series showcasing innovative pitmasters, Feast By Fire.

“Brisket’s become quite ubiquitous here,” she says. “When you’ve had one good one, they all end up similarly as good. So I wanted to put the lens on less common or more unusual dishes that set each of these barbecue joints apart.

“And then I took inspiration from those dishes and created a dish that people can make at home, that’s much more accessible, and often much faster as well. Not all of us have a good 16 hours to sit by a smoker.”

Pryles grew up in an enthusiastically meat-eating household, looking forward to steak night. “Dad would cook chicken breasts to the point of being drier than the Sahara, and steaks were usually on the side of well done,” she says. “My mum still loves well-done meat to this day because that’s what she grew up with.”

Then came that “life changing” meal in Texas.

“I wanted to eat more and discover how it was made. And then I got curious to give that a shot,” she says. “And I remember going to my Australian butcher and very confidently saying, ‘Oh, I’ll have a brisket, please’. And they handed me this plastic bag with this piece of meat in it. And I thought, ‘Hang on a second – the thing in Texas that is a brisket is five times the size of that. How can I ask for the same thing and get something different?’ And that moment and that frustration led me down this path to seeking answers.”

Pryles, who worked in communications before getting her break through a blog called Burger Mary, completed a graduate certificate in meat science at Iowa State University, and set about honing her craft from pitmasters across Texas. She also founded competition governing body, the Australasian Barbecue Alliance, and operates an online spice store with her Texan husband, Chris.

Pryles has also built a substantial TV profile both here and in the US, judging Seven’s short-lived reality series Aussie Barbecue Heroes, as well as judging on the Food Network series Pitmasters. She was also invited to barbecue on the front lawn of Parliament House in Canberra by the Red Meat Advisory Council.

“I was one of only less than 10 people who had deep knowledge of Texas-style barbecue, and so I sort of commanded respect from the get-go,” she says. “But it certainly is a male-dominated industry … There’s a certain demographic, particularly Facebook users, who, every now and again, when I get a viral recipe that skips my own fan base and goes large, they’ll be like, ‘Nice try, sweetheart. You belong in the kitchen’. And it’s just hilarious, because I’m making a very nice living off of what I do. And so I just laugh that off … But the men of Texas barbecue are extremely welcoming. There hasn’t been much pushback.”

The first pitmaster Pryles visits in the series is Ali Clem of Michelin-starred restaurant La Barbecue in Austin.

“I think women do have to work a little bit harder than men to get the same recognition,” says Pryles. “So I work my ass off. But Ali and I are in the position we’re in based on our knowledge.

“And, look, people have been cooking over fire for a long time. Back in the hunter-gatherer days, the hunter was traditionally the man, which means the one who was staying home and actually cooking the meat was the woman. So I think that we were barbecuers way back.”

In the series, the pair discusses how to cater for non-meat eaters. Clem is accommodating. Pryles has “no patience for vegans in a barbecue restaurant”.

“I had a cousin who visited Texas who was vegetarian and she went and had all the sides in a barbecue restaurant, to have the experience. And I thought, ‘That’s like going to a bar and just ordering a glass of water, but saying you had this great cocktail experience,’” she says. “I have no problem with vegans and vegetarians. They’re welcome to do what they want as long as they are not being militant about pushing their ideals on other people in a rude, confrontational way.”

Pryles hunts her own meat, visits slaughterhouses to learn about best practice, and admires the pioneering work of ethologist and livestock machinery inventor Temple Grandin.

“I feel it’s a responsibility, if you’re going to be a meat advocate, to understand the full process of it all … It doesn’t put me off at all,” she says. “If you can’t handle what it takes to get the meat to your plate, perhaps you shouldn’t be eating meat. There’s a pitmaster here in Austin who always reminds me that, when you see a pit loaded up with 50 briskets, it’s 25 animals.

“You have to keep it in context that these were once living creatures. Anthony Bourdain also has a great quote about the best part about animal welfare and its relation to the meat industry is that both of those are aiming towards the same thing. To get the best quality meat, it often involves a lot of animal welfare, particularly in the pre-slaughter stages as well. So we all work towards the same goals for that.”

These days, when she visits her family in Melbourne, Pryles is the one in charge of the meat. “We are mutually agreed that I’ll be manning the barbecue!”

She tends to get most homesick around Australia Day.

“Whether or not you want it associated with that day, when that ad comes out in January and talks about lamb uniting everybody, I often wonder if we can’t just all get around the table with some great grilled meats and share a similar feast, share some commonalities.”

In the current heated political climate in the US, she finds people yearning for connection. “I think people are getting by, by just trying to focus on still being respectful to your neighbour and finding things that connect commonly. And honestly, from where I sit, I really don’t see Australia being too much far off, in terms of division at the moment, which is pretty sad.”

For anyone thinking of hosting a barbecue in that spirit, she has some hot tips. “If you don’t have enough heat, you’ll never get the sear that you need. So it’s just not worth messing up your steaks to skimp on the coals.”

And don’t “set and forget”. “We all love beers around a barbie. But unfortunately, you do have to pay attention to what you’re doing. If you prefer not to pay attention, I recommend you buy a smoker where you can sit there for several hours and just wait.”

Feast By Fire airs at 8pm on Mondays on SBS Food and streams on SBS On Demand.

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