Serious Barbecue in Hollywood: Smoke, No Mirrors

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Food folks get solemn about many things, but few are as fervid as the barbecue-obsessed.  Don’t mess with Texas – or Carolina or Memphis or Kansas City, for that matter.  People have their favorite joints about town, but recently Los Angeles is seeing an influx of new talent at the smoker.  Take Adam Perry Lang – his barbecue tome, Serious Barbecue, was released in 2009 but is already getting a facelift.  To celebrate the relaunch, the chef has taken residency in the back lot of the Jimmy Kimmel Live! studio in Hollywood for lunch and pre-ordered dinner take-out.  Adam and his pit crew are sleeping in an Airstream so they can stoke the fire at regular intervals during the night and treat guests to barbecue that Angelenos haven’t seen the likes of since…well, perhaps never.  Staged on the truck bed that drove out the pecan wood he is using to make his own charcoal, Adam is dishing out beef short ribs, tender pork shoulder, and just about any other carnivorous delight that strikes his fancy.  The set-up is straight out of Owensboro, Kentucky (with a dash of AstroTurf).  And what does he plan to do with the dozen pristine Big Green Eggs on site?  Lang tells me that he anticipates cracking those babies open for a delivery of ivory king salmon in August.

Make the trip before the lines get too long.  Lunch is being carved up 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. on Tuesdays thru Thursdays from July 16 – September 5.  If you do it right, you’ll leave with your hair smelling of smoke.

Below, Lang shares his recipe for Short Ribs with Fleur De Sel.