Roger Mooking starts at Comfort Farms in Milledgeville, Ga., a nonprofit organization where retired veteran Jon Jackson helps fellow vets adjust to civilian life; a whole mutton seasoned with garlicky rosemary paste and slow-roast cauliflower.
Roger Mooking cruises the Florida coastline looking for two fiery cookouts that bring the heat; he visits chef Marcel Vizcarra, owner of modern Peruvian eatery Llama Restaurant in St. Augustine, Fla., to check out an ancient Peruvian-style pit roast.
Smoke signals lead Roger to two popular food trucks in Texas that serve delicious ethnic eats; Roger meets pitmaster Trey Sánchez of Vaqueros Bar-B-Q and Justin and Lakana Trubiana of DEE DEE.
Roger visits two caterers in the South who specialize in live-fire cookouts; Argentinian grill master Mariano Cebrián in Chattanooga, Tenn.; Roger meets Chef Kristian Niemi of Honey River Catering in Columbia, S.C.
Roger visits two Texas pitmasters who give breakfast a wake-up call by adding barbecue; Guess Family Barbecue restaurant in Waco and Derek Allan's Texas BBQ in Fort Worth.
Roger Mooking meets two barbecue brainiacs, helps season a whole hog with Puerto Rican flavors, and then smokes it using coals made from pecan, hickory and cherry woods.
Roger Mooking goes hog-wild at two legendary barbecue restaurants located in America's Barbecue Belt; racks of St. Louis-style ribs in custom wood-fired pits; barbecue spaghetti; chopped pork sandwiches and massive ice cream sundaes.
Roger Mooking heads to the South to visit two family-run barbecue joints that have been passing down recipes for generations; barbecue chops; briskets and pork butts.
Roger Mooking meets up with a few culinary titans in Tennessee who are swinging for the fences with outrageous rigs; meat, fish and vegetables are hung at varying heights around a metal cylinder filled with hot coals.
In Fort Worth, Texas, chef and restaurateur Lou Lambert invites Roger to his ranch to slow-roast whole hogs over oak coals in a massive, custom-built metal rig; dessert is a sweet treat inspired by Lou's chuck wagon cooking days.
In Pearland, Texas, Roger Mooking helps Ronnie Killen season and smoke brisket and ribs at Killen's Barbecue; Khoi Barbecue co-owner Don Nguyen holds Asian-influenced barbecue pop-ups in Houston.
Roger is in Austin and helps Banger's Sausage House and Beer Garden pitmaster Ted Prater season a whole hog and smoke it for 10 hours for Carolina-style sandwiches; Roger and Pieter Sypesteyn stuff a wild hog.
Roger helps roast whole young goats on asado crosses, hang sweet tea-brined Cornish hens and steam whole red snappers stuffed with aromatics.
Roger Mooking visits the Louisiana bayou for barbecue, brunch and a crawfish boil; baby back ribs, brisket and 200 pounds of live crawfish; pork butts and beef cheeks on biscuits with fried eggs, cheese and bacon.
Roger Mooking meets up with two couples making fiery feasts and creating sparks in California; Mediterranean farm-to-table feasts cooked with a live fire; legs of lamb and vegetables; lamb shoulders for sandwiches.
North Carolina-style smoked whole hog in po' boy sandwiches; smoked buffalo chicken wings; sausages, tasso, pork belly, turkey wings and drumsticks; a family recipe for Cajun brown gravy.
Roger Mooking helps guest chef Jeremy Conner prepare a fish roast; marinated whole red fish and pompano on sugar cane poles; ribs al pastor and fry tilapia.
Roger Mooking makes a pit stop at The Box Street Social food truck to hang chickens and racks of ribs over a live fire; roasted pumpkins topped with goat cheese and arugula; another food truck with a penchant for central Texas-style 'cue.
Texas barbecue and Mexican barbacoa; pitmaster Adrian Davila of Davila's BBQ; the secrets to their legendary brisket and spicy beef sausages that the locals call hot guts; a Texas favorite, frito pie; traditional Mexican barbacoa.
Two Southern California barbecue joints that serve smoked meat; a husband-and-wife team running a pop-up restaurant called Moo's Craft Barbecue; Texas brisket and pork butt for tasty tacos; Mexican street corn and coleslaw with tequila.
Roger Mooking tames the flames in outdoor kitchens fueled by wood-burning fires; Alisal Guest Ranch and Resort is home to 10,000 acres of land with horses, cattle and a bevy of fiery cooking contraptions; juicy beef ribs and grilled chickens.
The Pit Room in Houston, where special events call for 600 pounds of meat; Oak Avenue Catering's custom-made asado grill that can cook a huge side of beef; fermented cabbages are hung on the grill to cook low and slow with the meat.
Traditional Texas-style barbecue; pitmaster Travis Heim and his wife, Emma, the power couple behind the popular restaurant Heim Barbecue; Roger and Travis fill a giant steel rotisserie smoker with slabs of briskets.
A whole pig on a metal cross to cook over hot coals; the pig roast drippings fall into a potato-filled cast iron pan set over the hot coals; whole onions and squash are nestled directly in the embers.
Bludso's Bar and Que in Los Angeles, where owner Kevin Bludso brings meat and heat to Tinseltown in a big way; Kevin loads up his massive smoker with brisket, pork ribs, and chicken to cook low and slow in oak and pecan smoke.
Three different rigs to cook a whole hog; racks of ribs and bushels of oysters for the ultimate South Carolina-style surf and turf; Home Team BBQ restaurant in Charleston, S.C.; a burn barrel to make mountains of coals for the pig cooker.
Texas-style barbecue; Fox Bros. Bar-B-Q, which is owned by twin brothers Jonathan and Justin Fox; a 1,000-pound rotisserie smoker with briskets and house-made pork and beef bologna; the Texacutioner and the Bologna and Cheese.
Roasting whole lambs and vegetables for an Argentinian cookout; in Smyrna, Ga., Roger hangs out with chef Andre Gomez, the owner of Porch Light Latin Kitchen, who cooks up Puerto Rican classics in his backyard when he's off the clock.
Mrs. Peters Smokehouse, a smoked fish institution thriving in Jensen Beach, Fla., since 1958; giant 100-year-old oven smoking hundreds of pounds of fish, some of which will be used in a special seafood chowder, in Loxahatchee, Fla.
Carolina-style barbecue is all about pork and Rodney Scott is the whole hog boss; Roger checks out Rodney's impressive new pit room where whole hogs get cooked low and slow; Rodney hits the hogs with his secret.
Roger visits Liberty Kitchen in Houston, Texas, where Chef Lance Fegen has built a wood-fired Argentinian grill; they prepare a traditional Balinese pig roast and enjoy Mexican pork asado tacos; Roger visits Hickory Nut Gap Farm in Fairview, N.C.
Roger visits Burns Original BBQ in Houston, Texas, and meets Grandpa Roy Burns, who started the business in 1973 to help support his nine children, and his family, who welcome Roger with open arms.
Roger meets a pit master with a PhD who cooks Carolina-style whole hog barbecue in Louisiana; Dr. Howard Conyers is an engineer for NASA by day, but a pit master at night, on weekends, and every moment in between.
Roger visits the Lone Star State, and visits Grant Pinkerton to sample some one-of-a-kind cuts, including seasoning and barbecuing two whole goats; Roger meets up with chef Andrew Wiseheart, who slow-spins whole seasoned chicken over coals.
At Bin Tapas Bar in San Antonio, Texas, Roger and Chef Jason Dady cook paella flavored with Thai ingredients and cooked over a wood burning fire; they also grill up chicken and eggplant marinated in lemongrass, ginger, Thai chilis and fresh herbs.
Roger heads to Hoodoo Brown Barbeque in Ridgefield, CT, where owner Cody Sperry serves up monster-sized meaty masterpieces; Roger is introduced to Hogzilla, a towering sandwich with BBQ ranch dressing, fried green tomato and coleslaw.
At Urban Grub, Roger witnesses as Chef Edgar Pendley fans the flames in a massive 18-foot-tall hearth and hangs a wall of house-made andouille sausages and pork ribs; Whole hog barbecue is the main attraction at Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint.
Roger meets up with two chefs who show off their radical rigs on opposite ends of the country; in Great Barrington, Mass., Roger puts the pedal to the metal on Jeremy Stanton's Rotisserie Bike, a stationary bike that can turn up to 12 spits at once.
In Algoma, Wis., Roger meets the Schmiling brothers, who use a cinder block pit and metal grates to roast a whole steer; Roger meets Jason Elvis Heard, an engineering consultant who built a record-breaking rig called Mega Pit.
Roger goes coast to coast to check out crazy custom contraptions; Roger gets to play with a custom-built meat swing set in West Sacramento, Calif.; Roger and Beau slow-cook a whole hog and vegetables over a 12-foot-long wood fire.
Chef Roger Mooking highlights the inventive ways Americans cook with fire; from small campfires to custom-made grills and smokers, he visits the home cooks, pitmasters and chefs who are fascinated by fire and food.
Roger visits a church picnic serving nearly four tons of meat; Roger stops by a Wisconsin winery, where they've built a contraption to roast a steer; Roger visits a New England fish festival, where they scorch 300 pounds of shad on upright boards.
One chef shows Roger how to hang up and hand-spin chickens with a special device; a Carolina legend dips barbecued birds in an out-of-this-world white sauce; Roger savors Jamaican jerk chicken loaded with Caribbean heat.
Roger learns an ancient Argentine method of roasting lamb; he catches a six-foot sturgeon and stuffs it to the gills with fresh veggies for an outdoor feast; a pitmaster shows Roger his new high-tech rigs, capable of cooking a room full of hogs.
Chief Don Ivy of the Coquille Indian Tribe shows Roger how to roast 200 pounds of salmon on sticks; Roger visits Old Post Office Restaurant, where they cook fish in a cauldron; Roger helps a father-daughter team bake whole fish in a huge salt bed.
A San Francisco chef shows Roger her rig made from plumbing pipes, which she uses to roast her Salpicao chicken; a Tennessee queen of the 'cue shows him how she smokes a meat more likely to be found in a lunchbox than in a smokehouse.
Roger visits pitmasters cooking meat in massive quantities; Roger heads to San Antonio to fire up an altar of meat in over 600-degree heat; he skewers a deep green chorizo verde and Mexican-style cabrito -- an entire milk-fed goat.
Roger is going hog wild for insane pig roasts across the country; Roger is in Hawaii to roast a whole pig in a traditional underground oven called an imu; the community comes together to cook the pig with lava rock and a layer of local vegetation.
A Miami chef shows Roger a unique rig he built himself that allows him to roast, grill and saute over hot coals; Roger helps him grill juicy pork packed with adobo-inspired flavors and prepare a seafood-studded paella in a party-sized pan.
No cookout is complete without some outrageous side dishes and crave-worthy desserts; Roger Mooking is putting the main course aside to honor everything that tops off the best barbecue meals.
Roger Mooking is letting barbecue pork sandwiches hog the spotlight; Hoodoo Brown Barbeque in Ridgefield, Conn., where they serve a meaty masterpiece loaded with pork belly and pulled pork; Bigmista's Barbecue and Sammich Shop.
Roger Mooking heads just outside Death Valley to cook on a true, fire-breathing barbecue pit; Roger lands in Kansas City, Mo., for a test flight in Swine Flew, an airplane converted by two mechanics into a fully functioning barbecue grill.
Roger Mooking is honoring the legendary pitmasters who make some of the country's best barbecue; Roger gets cooking with the man who brought barbecue to Brooklyn at Hometown Bar-B-Que; cooking Jamaican jerk baby back ribs and sticky Korean ribs.
Roger Mooking joins the team at Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams, a famous smokehouse shipping nationwide from Madisonville, Tenn., to help prepare huge hams for a three-day cold smoke before they're cured for up to two years.
Roger meets two chefs who own unique outdoor cooking rigs; Aaron Brooks uses a coal-fueled contraption called the Cross Table and he and Roger roast butterflied pork and seafood paella; Roger visits chef Chris Hastings at his restaurant OvenBird.
Roger heads to Hamaknockers Bar-B-Que, where he is introduced to the Hamaburger, and watches a pitmaster pull pork with a power tool; Steve Melton is a farmer preserving the tradition of making cane syrup in a 100 year-old kettle over an open fire.
Roger samples the smoked ribs at Mary's Old Fashioned Pit Bar-B-Que; Roger meets legendary pit master Helen Turner of Helen's Bar-B-Q in Brownsville, Tenn., and helps her cook pork shoulders, pork ribs and a whole stick of bologna.
Roger visits chefs who use unusual tools over live fires; Erik Niel cooks rabbits rotisserie-style with bamboo poles; Chef Tim Byres of Smoke cooks flank steak and whole chickens on swords.
Roger cooks up two whole hogs in two different ways; Roger visits MOPHO restaurant for a Southeast Asian spit-roasted pig that is a twist on a classic tradition; Chef Miles McMath hinges two steel troughs together to make a quick-cooking oven.
Chef Rob McDaniel at SpringHouse restaurant in Alexander City, Ala., roasts legs of lamb in a self-designed fire-fueled contraption; Cypress owner Craig Deihl prepares wood-fired food.
Roger Mooking travels to North Bend, Ore., and meets up with Don Ivy, Chief of the Coquille Tribe for a traditional tribal feast; in Los Angeles, Roger visits Andy Ricker of Pok Pok La, who divulges the secrets to his famous whole roasted chicken.
Ben Jacobsen, owner of Jacobsen Salt Co., takes Roger on a tour of the facility and shows him how to smoke sea salt; Roger meets with chef Carlo Lamagna and helps him stuff a 20-pound halibut, encrust it in salt and roast it over a wood-burning fire.
Chef Roger Mooking meets pit master Levi Goode at Armadillo Palace in Houston and roasts a 250-pound side of beef; at Cured in San Antonio, Roger and owner Steve McHugh slow-roast a 230-pound hog in a large outdoor cinder block pit.
Roger meets Josh Pollack, owner of Rosenberg's Bagels & Delicatessen in Denver, whose 8-foot steel contraption cooks up to 1,000 pounds of food.
Roger goes to work lighting burn barrels for metal pits at Perini Ranch Steakhouse for owner Tom Perini; owner of Pitchfork Fondue Western Cookout, Matt David, invites Roger for steaks skewered onto pitchforks and deep-fried in cauldrons.
Smoked chicken bathed in white sauce at Big Bob Gibson B-B-Q in Decatur; "The Big Red" pulled pork sandwich at The Brick Pit in Mobile.
Roger visits South Carolina for two country cookouts: a traditional backyard pig pickin' in the town of Beaufort, and a classic oyster roast on Bowen's Island.
Ronnie's BBQ in Johnson City for smoked brisket, pork steaks and sausages; Pecan Lodge restaurant in Dallas for brisket and pork shoulders.
Chef Johnny Hernandez of El Machito skewers various meats and completes the meals with housemade salsas and warm corn tortillas; Roger and Chef John Russ of Vintage Heart Farm roast quails and sausages over a wood fire on a 7-foot steel tree.
Roger meets Chef Ben Ford in Tarzana for a unique style of clambake using a wine barrel as the cooking vessel; Roger meets Francisco Paco Perez in Chula Vista for traditional Mexican barbacoa which is whole lamb cooked in an underground brick pit.
Smoked meat in Long Beach, Calif.; beef brisket and pork butts in the smoker; barbecue sandwiches; legendary fish boil.
The 100 year anniversary of St. Mary Magdalene's Church Picnic with several thousand pounds of meat being cooked.
A pig roast and a surf and turf grill-out; onions and sweet potatoes; Dungeness crabs with chili pepper sauce.
The Green Menace Wrap from the Pit Stop in Grand Rapids, Mich.; classic BBQ pork sandwich from Top Hat Barbecue in Blount Springs, Ala.
A whole lamb roasted slowly; grilled boar steaks; fried pig skins with smoky Mexican chocolate glaze.
Grilling steaks and chickens in California; smoking seafood; Santa Maria-style barbecue; Cajun tri-tip steaks and chicken.
Pork at a former gas station; an outdoor kitchen with a smoker and grill; a whole pig with spices; stuffed chickens.
The Barbecue Exchange's sandwiches - Heaven and Hell, made with pulled pork and bacon; Papa KayJoe's BBQ for pork, pickles, slaw and hot sauce sandwiched in corn cakes.
Chef Johnny Hernandez cooks in an outdoor kitchen; Lamb Barbacoa; branzino wrapped in banana leaves; corn tortillas toasted on a clay griddle.
Coffee roasted the old fashioned way; Andouille sausages; tasso.
Sweatman's in Holly Hill, South Carolina cooks whole hogs and pulls and chops them; Stamey's Barbecue in Greensboro, North Carolina serves pork shoulders and slaw.
Smoked European-style sausages; Mexican-style short ribs; cabrito.
Roger visits Sam Edwards, a third-generation ham master; Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams.
Pork shoulder with spices; carne adovada; carnitas.
Paso de Record Vineyard in San Miguel serves deep-pit barbecue; Argentine Asado in Santa Barbara.
Roger visits a fish farm at Passmore Ranch in Sloughhouse; has a taste of Santa Maria barbecue at the Elks Lodge.
Jack Mountain Bushcraft School in Masardis, Maine; roasting chickens and fresh-caught Brook Trout; sourdough biscuits.
Roasted racks of ribs in indoor fireplace at Salem Cross Inn; lobster clambake steamed in outdoor fireplace at Foster's Clambake.
Custom-made outdoor grill modeled after those in Uruguay; Corn on the cob with coconut oil and spices; strawberry rhubarb cobber; wood-burning ovens.
Barbecue destinations in Charleston, S.C.
Traditional Hawaiian imu; smoker built from a cargo container, airplane food cart, and computer fan.
Big fires, big feasts, and custom grills in Hawaii.
Wood-fired Mediterranean seafood feasts; fish, potatoes and onions are encased in salt before they're baked in an enormous oven.
Two unique pig roasts in Napa Valley featuring very different one of a kind roasters.
Two legendary BBQ places in Texas; a third-generation pit master.
Tink Pinkard helps Roger build a barbecue pit, season and roast a pig, and fly-fish.
Roger travels to Texas and Louisiana for classic Cajun cooking, including red beans and rice, and Cajun pig roast.
Roger travels Massachusetts for fire-roasted rotisserie chicken, discovers new ways to roast chickens, and indulges in a New England dinner party of chickens, lobsters and whole fish cooked over a wood fire.
Three hundred pounds of fish are nailed to oak boards and cooked around a ring of coals; Mexican dishes include goat barbacoa and masita.
Roger visits a campground with an outdoor kitchen where a feast of lobsters, steamers, mussels and corn is prepared; a family-run lobster pound boils thousands of pounds of lobster over a wood fire; cracking lobsters; lobster salad sandwich.
Roger heads to Jamaica; a restaurant cooks jerk pork and chicken over pits filled with coals; Roger and a local fisherman start a campfire on the beach and grill the catch of the day.
Hog-style BBQ in North Carolina; two-day meat fest in South Carolina; surf and turf paella.
Two Texans display their fierce BBQ talents using their homemade grills and fire pits.
Cowboy cuisine in a rustic chuck wagon; Santa-Maria style barbecue in California.
A 77-year-old woman grills for Texans; Hawaiian style bbq in California.
Smokers come in all shapes and sizes; in Grain Valley, mechanic Bill Rousseau transforms a retired Cessna airplane into a smoker.
Roadside eatery in Connecticut with a 20-foot grill is used to cook lobster and clams.
Wine barrels are transformed into smokers in Seattle for a summertime feast.
Outdoor smoker; lamb rotisserie; coal-baked potatoes.
Custom earthenware bakers; 50-gallon metal-barrel oven.