AUTHOR: Brittany Brothers, The Mind of a Chef
EPISODE: LOWCOUNTRY
CHEF: SEAN BROCK

When I first started working in travel TV, I dreamed that one day my job would take me to faraway places like the Amazon rainforest, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, or the temples of Myanmar.

I found it quite funny, then, that my first on-location shoot sent me back to my hometown of Charleston, SC to assist on Season 2 of The Mind of a Chef with Sean Brock of Husk and McCrady’s. No matter. Not only was it an opportunity for me to explore a whole new side of the Lowcountry, a side I’d never before experienced, but it was also my chance to prove to my family that, hey, I really do have a job, and you can come see me do it!

On the schedule for our trip was a whole-hog BBQ scene out on Wadmalaw Island, and part of my duty as the hometown crew member was to wrangle up as many guests as I could for the party. Seems simple enough, right? What self-respecting Southerner wouldn’t show up to a party with free booze and BBQ cooked by one of the best pit masters in the Southeast?

The morning of, Farmer Celeste Albers dropped off a 100-pound Ossabaw pig from her farm. Celeste puts a lot of love into these pigs, and you can see (and taste) it!

One item every proper Southerner should have in the back of their truck: a flame-thrower!

Sean helps Rodney Scott of Scott’s Bar-B-Que prep the hog for the smoker. Rodney’s been cooking pigs since he was 11 years old and hasn’t changed a thing about the way he cooks it.

The pig won’t be ready for at least another 7 hours. So what now? Nothin’ else to do but break out some ice cold beer while the camera crew gets their B-Roll. What a life the pitmaster lives.

What better way to pass the time than pluckin’ out a few tunes? A self-taught musician, Adam Musick runs a farm of his own up in Virginia but never passes up an opportunity for an ol’ fashioned Lowcountry BBQ.

Living on the coast in the South, you get summer storms coming out of nowhere. Today is no different. Not long after noon, the sky ripped open and started pouring buckets. Nevertheless, the show must go on. And the coals must be tended to — in a highly flammable rain jacket, no less.

Rain delays everything. Camera crews delay everything. So what was supposed to be a 6pm hog dinner turned into a 9pm hog dinner. And the longer you make people wait, the more beers they start knockin’ back, and the more rowdy and ravenous they get — particularly after watching Mike Lata of Fig and The Ordinary pour out a big pot full of Frogmore Stew onto the table.

Like wolves, the guests swarmed the table and sank their teeth into plump, in-season roe shrimp, Andouille sausage, and sweet, juicy corn — all sprinkled with Old Bay seasoning. Northerners, take note: This is what a real Southern meal is all about… local catch boiled with fresh, locally grown veggies, seasoned to all hell with Old Bay and some freshly squeezed lemon, and spread out on a cardboard platform. No utensils necessary but the ones God gave you!

No sooner did everyone begin stuffing themselves with Frogmore Stew, then it was time for … the hog. The crowd fell silent as Rodney and Sean muscled the hog from the pit to the table. Sausage grease and bits of yellow corn dribbled down guests’ mouths as Rodney patted down the hog with a household mop dunked in homemade BBQ sauce. It was all we could do to keep the crowd at bay while we got this shot.

Though the weather called for sun, we had prepared by ordering a large party tent just in case. But instead of housing party guests, it ended up housing all of our camera gear. We were left with no place to stick the guests but under a 15×30 ft. awning. Now, a 100-pound whole hog is supposed to feed about 100 people, but that awning could accommodate no more than 25 or so. Luckily, as you can see, it all turned out OK (with plenty of leftovers to go around).

Photography by Zero Point Zero, from The Mind of a Chef.