Hey y'all, welcome to Biscuits and Jam from Southern Living. I'm your host, Sid Evans,

and today I'm talking with a guy best known to many of you as Kevin Malone from the office.

But there's a lot more to actor Brian Baumgardner than his famous and famously goofy on-screen persona.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Brian has a deep love for the South, a wicked sense of humor,

an obsession with sports, and a successful podcast called Off the Beat.

He also has a lifelong passion for barbecue, both the style of cooking and the communal gathering

that defines it.

And now he's come out with the seriously good barbecue cookbook, over a hundred of the best recipes in the world.

Brian has a lot of opinions on the subject, as well as whether Texas is part of the South and the absolute best way to cook grilled chicken.

We'll also talk about the connection he sees between acting and cooking,

while he drove hundreds of miles for a meal at Rodney Scott's Whole Hog Barbecue in Charleston

and the real story behind that infamous chili scene from the office.

All on this week's Biscuits and Jam.

Brian Baumgartner, welcome to Biscuits and Jam. It is my pleasure to be here on Biscuits

and Jam. How's it going? It's going great. It's going great. Where am I reaching

you right now? I am in Southern California. Okay. So there's the word south in the words,

but I'm not really in the South. You're a long ways. But I'm from there. Where are you? I'm in Birmingham,

Alabama. I'm from Atlanta. I spent a bunch of time in

Birmingham. And yeah, all throughout the South, I was born and raised and lived there until I left

for college. Well, I want to get into that in a second, but I just, before we really start,

I got to tell you that my daughter was in a band in eighth grade, and they were called Scrantonicity.

Nice.

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