Paris Frederick

Born to Grill™ With Paris Frederick

Man, I nearly made a decade without stepping in front of the screen!

Well, heya folks! I’m Paris, a digital media producer for BBQGuys since 2012. Back in those days, it was just Chef Tony and me — making product videos with his crazy MacGyvered camera rig of PVC pipe! (If you ask me, I think the man was just going nuts from isolation.) For nearly 10 years, I’ve planned, filmed, edited, and produced our video content for in-depth product reviews and grilling advice. Nowadays, I still do all of that as an on-camera producer, but I’m involved in voiceover and recipe development. That’s a fancy way of saying the 2020 Quarantine disrupted our workflow, we needed more recipe content folks on camera, and I had time and a backyard.

But why BBQ? Well, I got a real Louisiana upbringing! Grandma grew up in Cajun country, and Dad got me into hunting young. He learned all his cooking from her; he knows meat and flavor, which means he can make an incredible gumbo or deer stew. When the weather was nice, he’d fire up the faithful grill he knew like the back of his own hand — charcoal fuel, classic steel construction, not a true offset but could double as one — and grilled up some tasty venison or duck meat. Now, I get the appeal of “Go to the store, pick up some burgers,” but that just wasn’t Dad. He hunted our meat and was occasional with the grill. Made it more of a treat.

After enough time hip-deep in the barbecue world here at BBQGuys, I had to make one of those worlds marinate the other. Dad still has that steel grill, and I’ve got my trusty ceramic kamado. It’s a great excuse to be outside in the shady backyard for these hot Louisianian summers. Kamados are really all about the experience of cooking, and that’s my jam. And here behind the lens (and on it now, too), my job is all about framing that experience for as many people as I can. Hope you like your grub spicy!

Q & A With Paris Frederick

What BBQ flavors really drive your tastebuds wild?

Heat! I love a bit of heat in there — like those smoked orange chicken lollipops we filmed recently, those were delicious. Hot and sweet’s my favorite. Dad used to bring the butcher his deer spoils to make into jalapeno deer sausages. I’d dip them in honey… so tasty! Speaking of, I love how varied jalapenos are in spiciness. Wonder what does that? (We’ve got you, Paris. A pepper’s soil nutrition, interior width, rainfall conditions, age, and overall “stress” spices up its heat.)

Could you tell us about your earliest food memory?

Like, in general? Oh, that’s probably the tradition of going to my grandmother’s house in Abbeville, Louisiana for Thanksgivings and Christmases. Stuffed turkey and seafood gumbo, with stock from scratch with all the shrimp shells… So good! I’ve got so much respect for how much she could put together for everyone and get it all out, hot and tasty at the same time. Pretty much all my early memories are that food.

Let’s say you’re cooking to impress. What’s your favorite BBQ dish?

This isn’t traditional barbecue, but pizza is really versatile for this because you can grill all the stuff before you put it on there. Everyone knocks okra and zucchini for being mushy, but if smoking and drying ‘em out makes them amazing. Then there’s flank steak. Marinate it overnight, throw on a little cilantro, a little lime… make some steak tacos! Flank steak grills more evenly because it’s thinner. Less work, more taste. That’s my favorite beefy taco cut!

Everyone’s got their go-to grilling style. What’s yours?

Charcoal kamado, all the way. Pretty much anything we’ve run through their paces are comparable in performance, and I love how efficient kamados are with fuel. Everyone I talk to seems to think pellet grills are the way to go — not knocking that, but people don’t seem to realize how easy kamados are. Get a load of charcoal in a kamado, and it’ll go 10-plus hours. They’re built like tandoori pizza ovens!

What’s your favorite style of BBQ?

Texas-style, probably. I like my barbecue more focused on the meat flavors, so I go drier and less sauce-based. Sometimes salt and pepper really is all you need! Especially for brisket, which really is the heart of BBQ for me. Maybe I’ll take a touch of Memphis in there, since I love a little bit of heat with my dry rubs. Sauces just usually overdo it for me, you know? I’d rather save them for chicken wings. I already know what chicken tastes like!

If you had to pick one, which category of BBQ meat would you live without?

Easy. Poultry, hands down. It’s just so accessible that I think people just get burnt out on chicken quicker. Not that I don’t like chicken, but that one doesn’t feel as BBQ to me, you know what I mean? That’s kind of the thing I’ve had the most of. Beef just gives you way more possibilities, like a nice marbled ribeye cut… I mean, who wakes up and says, “Man, I want some prime chicken!”