Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Belson.
Hi Josh, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been BBQ’ing most of my adult life, but nothing big. I started out like many people, with a backyard grill, over marinating steaks and burning chicken. But I was always the guy that brought a grill to tailgate, was in charge of food at campouts, and brought way too much food to a potluck. I worked in a couple of restaurants after high school, most notably Arts deli on Ventura Blvd. That’s where I really had my first glimpse into the culinary world; Pastrami, Corned beef, and smoked lox. Although I was a host, working the front of the house, I found myself in the kitchen a lot with the cooks making all kinds of corned beef tacos and pastrami burritos. It wasn’t until I had kids that my BBQ’ing really took off. When you have babies, your world changes and you find yourself at home a lot more, which is when I got my first smoker: a traeger Pellet grill.
It was a great entry into the world of BBQ, and soon we were always having people over for BBQ’s. Shortly after that, I took a competition BBQ class from the CA BBQ Assoc. which really opened my eyes to delicious BBQ. From there, I took a KCBS BBQ judging class and was amazed at the BBQ world. One thing that’s stood out to me was how happy everyone was, doing something they loved. I was pretty much hooked from then on.
While my kids were in Pre-school, I met Burt Bakman of Slab and Trudi’s underground BBQ. We were the two dads at a kosher pre-school that liked to BBQ, so we bonded quick.
Burt really took his game to the next level when he went to Texas and purchased on offset smoker. I remember being at his house when this massive trailer pulled up with this big ass smoker on the back. I looked at him and said “what the hell did you do?”
Two years later, he needed a place to store his smoker, I suggested my yard on the condition that I can use it. That was three years and 1000’s of pounds of meat ago.
Today, I’m cooking up 100+ pounds on the weekends and putting smiles on all my neighbor’s faces.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
BBQ is not an easy road to go down, it’s a lot of work. Physically, running an offset smoker requires a lot of attention. The fire needs constant maintenance for 16 hours at a time. It’s also attention to detail and making a lot of tweaks. There were many cooks that I just wasn’t happy with the product, not to say it was bad, but I just knew it could be better. That’s really one of the biggest struggles is mental. Every cook is a little different, a lot of influences affect each cook. And when you put so many hours into something, you want it to come outright. And when that doesn’t happen, you tend to beat yourself up over it, at least I do. Most of the time it’s not something others will see, but I see it. I’m my own harshest critic.
Then there are the days when the weather doesn’t want you to cook, but you have too. I’ve cooked in the rain many a times with a flimsy easy-up shade structure blowing all over the place. Not fun. But you do it because it’s what you do.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
BBQ is just one of my creative outlets. I’m a TV editor during the week, meat master on the weekends. But there are a lot of similarities in the two. Editing is taking different elements and putting them together to create a compelling story. BBQ is putting different elements together to create something delicious. What I love about both is that joy and happiness it brings others. When I tell people that I work on a show they watch, the satisfaction comes when they tell me how much they like it. With BBQ it’s the same, but I get that reaction instantly right when they bite in. That’s what makes it worthwhile. What people like about what I’m doing BBQ wise is that I’m not taking any shortcuts, I’m not doing it the easy way. It takes time and the right ingredients. I’m using an all wood smoker, so my fuel is 100% flavor.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Really when you’re just starting out, you need to do it…a lot. They say it takes 10,000 hours to master something. So you just have to do it and watch a lot of youtube videos. It’s amazing the wealth of knowledge that is out there, But the only way to really learn is thru trial and error. I learned a lot more from my mistakes than from someone telling me their mistakes. When you mess up, it really hits home and resonates. You feel it.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: joshbelson.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carnivorekingdom/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/THECARNIVOREKINGDOM
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm2cQgHqHbLgDSyL-zET-ZQ
