Welcome to Biscuits and Jam from Southern Living. I'm your host, Sid Evans. And today I'm

talking with a guy who knows as much about Whole Hog Barbecue as anyone in the world. Pat Martin is

best known for his eponymous restaurant chain, Martin's barbecue joint. But he's also the author of a cookbook

called Life of Fire and the host of a new TV show on the outdoor channel that goes by the same

name. Pat wasn't always headed for a culinary career. At one point, he was working in finance,

but he eventually realized his dream was to own

an operator restaurant that celebrated the food he loved most, West Tennessee-style Whole

Hog Barbecue.

Now Martens is one of the most successful barbecue franchises in the South, and Pat has become

a champion of a labor-intensive style of cooking that is

slowly disappearing. We'll talk about all that, plus his mom's coconut cake, his barbecue mentor,

and his family's total obsession with homemade ice cream on this week's Biscuits and Jam.

Pat Martin, welcome to Biscuits and Jam.

Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it very much.

It's good to see you again.

You too.

I'm a big fan of your restaurants, especially the one in Birmingham, which is kind of right down the street from me. That's been a real lifeline for me since y'all built that place. Yeah, I appreciate it, man. I'm proud to be down there. I'm glad it's convenient for you. I'm glad we're doing still a good enough job that you're coming in the doors. Oh, I love it. I love it. I mean, those dry rub wings are a big

hit in my family. I mean, I love the brisket sandwich. The barbecue is just great. It's so good.

Thank you, man. I appreciate that. Well, so, Pat, congrats on the new TV show. It's called Life of Fire, right?

Yeah, yeah. We went through a couple different names. It was called Gods of Barbecue, and I'm a big proponent of humility. So I didn't like that title. So we changed it to Life of Fire, which happens to be the title of my book. And it's really more descriptive of what I'm trying to accomplish on the show anyway. Yeah, I think it's a good title change. That sounds a lot more like you. Yeah. They had named the show before I had committed. They already had the show greenlit. We were about three episodes in. I was like, we've got to talk about this title. So it went from Gods of Barbecue to Legends and Barbecue. And then I kept trying to get it like, well, we're going to shoot a lot of barbecue, but I also want to shoot a lot of stuff that is not necessarily grilling, like sitting around a Weber grill, but live fire cooking and just broadens the scope of it just a little bit. But with barbecue still being the backbone to it. Well, this is your first TV show that I'm aware of.

What's been the highlight?

Well, I opened in 06.

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