Thursday, February 26, 2009

My road into Barbecue......

For those of you who don't know me my name is Chris Jones and I am the owner and pitmaster for Colin's Creek Barbecue. Colin's Creek Barbecue is a private catering company and competition barbecue team based out of Midland, TX. My road into barbecue has been fast, furious and surprisingly filled with many blessings. I would not necessarily say financial blessings however if I was in this for the money I would not have the relationships that I have and the patience to learn and try new things that may or may not work out. I would also probably not know what I know about barbecue. Since barbecue for me is a passion and something I love to improve upon each day I now constantly find myself reading, asking questions, researching, practicing, and talking about BBQ all the time. I have filled my shelves with books upon books about barbecue and cowboy cooking. I think to date I currently have in the neighborhood of 38 books and 13 DVDS that are all about BBQ. I no longer can purchase book's at stores because I have all the ones they sell. I pretty much have to look on-line to see when the next one's will be coming out by publisher date. One piece of advise I will give you is that all the books and DVDs are useless unless you make the effort to go outside and practice what you learn and apply it to your own style of cooking. Take notes and record what you do and why or why you don't like it. After a while you will see what I mean. Don't be afraid to make changes or get in the kitchen and add things or take them away. I do not cook to please others I cook for my family and friends and what I like. If other people like it than that just adds to the overall experience. If you never practice and just go by what someone says you never learn anything or develop your own style of cooking . You may be in for a long ride. My neighbors think I am crazy because they don't understand why I would cook all the time and never have anyone over to eat all the food. They did not know that barbecue enthusiasts practice cooking like piano lessons. Finally last year we had everyone in the neighborhood get together for a block party. We didn't know how well it would go over since they had not had one in over 20 years and everyone seemed to be new to the neighborhood. If you have never seen over a hundred perfect strangers get together and have the time of their lives then I encourage you to come out to "Party on the Gulf" next year.


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