BBQ schmo to BBQ pro

Hill Country

While the country is dotted with a handful of cities and regions that could rightfully emerge victorious from a barbecue cage match, Texas’ hill country (roughly located outside Austin and San Antonio) is considered one of the top places to get your hands on some authentic smoked meat. So to kick off my quest to find the secret behind great barbecue, I headed to year-old smokehouse Hill Country.

Pete Daversa, the newly appointed pitmaster who cut his teeth at Danny Meyer’s Blue Smoke, told me to show up Saturday morning at 7 a.m. in jeans and a T-shirt, and after watching him clean the ash pit up-close, I could see why pitmasters favor overalls rather than Tom Wolfe whites.