With family roots, hailing from as far away as Mexico, the Philippines and even Sweden, Cattleman’s Pit Master Christian Huerta, born in San Diego, California, but who now makes his home in Centerline, Michigan, continues to have a deep passion for southern barbecue and more specifically, authentic, hard wood smoked barbecue.
A cooking style that he first fell in love with while living in the Dallas, Texas area in his mid-twenties.
“My culinary career actually started here in Michigan when I was 19 at Andiamo’s restaurant in Warren. I even had the pleasure of having Chef Aldo smacking me in the back of the head because I didn’t slice the prosciutto thin enough!
I was there for about a year and a half” Christian said.
After he did his “time” at Andiamo’s, with encouragement from some of his cooking buddies, he decided to leave Michigan for Dallas, Texas.
And it was Dallas, where Christian’s culinary career really took off.
He especially credits his close “band of pit master friends” who all moved to and from different restaurant opportunities like a “band of brothers”, and to a few Chef mentors, including Chef Nate at the Dallas fine dining restaurant, Rapscallion, who really inspired and channeled his passions and skill set while he lived there.
He also spent 3 years as Sous Chef at a Hilton property.
Nowadays, he lives and breathes barbecue, and typically becomes as smoked himself, as the beef briskets, pork butts, ribs and assorted poultry that he lovingly trims, rubs, slow cooks and proudly cares for.
All are caressed by the smoke coming from the locally sourced Hickory and Cherry wood, courtesy of “Lucille”, Cattleman’s affectionally named in-house commercial smoker.
“Barbecue is a culture that you have to buy into. You have to take a lot of pride in what you do”. Christian admitted.
And by the way, Christian has a tip for all of you backyard barbecue smokers, this insider’s tip is to throw a dishwasher tablet and some liquid dish soap into the laundry machine to remove the smoke smell from your cloths.
He swears by it.
And one can’t mention the subjects of barbecue, smoking, and Texas, without paying homage to THE man!
Austin’s own Franklin Barbecue, which is internationally renowned and owned by Pit Master Extraordinaire, Aaron Franklin.
“I LOVE Franklin Barbecue! He is THE MAN! Christian exclaimed, I would love to buy one of his off-set smokers. They’re so cool! The smoke in his smokers don’t roll like so many other smokers do. He shaped the smoker so when that smoke comes out of the box, it dips, hits the water pan, then spins. It kind of corkscrews around the interior of the smoker rather than roll, in a way that no other smokers do.”
“Believe me, he said, somehow, it makes a difference.”
He couldn’t exactly explain how it makes a difference but Christian’s been lucky enough to be one of the many who’ve stood in that long line to enjoy some of Franklin Barbecues famous beef brisket.
“People stand in line there for hours. That’s the kind of product I always strive for here, to have people lined up at the Cattleman’s Smoke House Café for my brisket.”, which Christian also proudly serves up when jumps onto the Café’s “hot line” during the lunch rush.
So, what is Christian’s day in the “pit” like?
“The briskets go into the smoker about 5:00 pm the previous evening so when I get to work, usually around 5:30 to 6:00 am the VERY first thing I do is to check the fire (the smoker, Lucille) to see how things have progressed through the night.
Depending on the weights of the briskets that day, after I check them, I may leave them in the smoker another hour or so to finish. Otherwise, I pull them, “baptize” them with a beef tallow that I render from previous trimmings, wrap them in our special butcher’s paper, and have them rest in our heated holding cabinets.
At the end of the day, the “secret sauce’ to cooking a great brisket begins with its trimming, (as a raw brisket). and ends with the basting of liquid tallow once it’s cooked”. The aerodynamics of how your brisket is shaped, the way your smoke rolls over it, no curled lips, no juice pockets…I can guarantee you those things all make a difference where it happens. No attention to detail… no wham.
Then, I make some heat adjustments to the smoker, add more hard wood to get those coals goin’ and get start loading in the beef ribs, spare ribs and baby back ribs to give the a good 2 to 3 course of cook and smoke before they’re ready for the lunch rush.
When to add wood is important, you want to add new wood to the smoker before you add the meats so it will burn off that initial “green wood” and become more like coals. The smoke has to come from coals, otherwise, you get that “black gasoline effect” I call it, more of a chemically taste on it.
Depending on whether I’m doing some chicken, turkey or our special Pigs Candy (bacon), I’ll work next on that, while also jumping on the line to help out during the busier days.”
After lunch, it’s mainly trimming beef briskets, rubbing them with our Cattleman’s proprietary seasoning rubs and getting them ready for Lucille at about 5:00 pm once again.
There are days where I prep as much as a thousand pounds of meat a day.” He concluded.
If you meet Christian, you may notice he’s very “colorful” both in his affable nature, but also because of his many tattoos, which he proudly wears.
So, we had to ask…. “Christian, when did you get your first “tat”?
He laughed and said, ”When I was 18. My mother paid for it! It’s a spade.”
He went on to tell the stories of some others, but one that was particularly interesting was the one on the back of his hand. “I burnt the top part of my hand off with a dish of salmon” After it healed, I got a tattoo of a salmon right where the burn was”.
I just love this industry. I just really enjoy cooking.” He said.
Christian was brought up by his mother, so we asked, “Did you learn any cooking from your mom?”
“Oh yeah!” Christian immediately said, with excitement in his eyes, “All kinds of stuff, Pilipino food, all kinds of things. Actually, the Goulash we have in our hot case right now, is my mom’s.”
And, what does the Pit Master enjoy doing when he’s not knee deep in barbecue?
“I don’t watch much Food TV.. but there’s a Netflix show called the Chef Show that I kinda like. What’s so great about it is that it’s not scripted. I enjoy watching that once in a while.”
One of his true passions is his home garden, cultivating fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers and whatever else strikes his “green thumbs” urges.
“I love my garden! It’s half my back yard.” I’m about 6 years into it and I couldn’t even name everything I’ve got out there.”
“I can things, I dehydrate… My grocery bill plumets during the summer time.”
He also takes the opportunity to teach his son, age of 11, how to garden and cook.
“I got him his own professional Chef knife and enjoys cooking alongside his dad. He can “get down”.
Being a dad and teaching him how to be a young man is my favorite thing to do” he said with pride. He’s a very, yes sir, no sir young man and very well mannered.”
“He made dinner last night!”, Christian volunteered.
Spending time with Christian Huerta makes you want to pick up a knife, grab your favorite and also, “get down”, preparing something special, with pride and with love and hard work.
