The Chef Show Season 1 Episode 7: Hot Luck Review

There’s more barbecue fun in store in the seventh episode of The Chef Show, as Jon Favreau and Roy Choi attempt create their own barbecue for Aaron Franklin’s Hot Luck festival.

In the previous episode of Jon Favreau and Roy Choi’s The Chef Show, Aaron Franklin, owner of Franklin Barbecue, had given Favreau tips about how professionals cut their meat for barbecues. This love of barbecue had begun back when Franklin had appeared in Favreau’s 2014 film Chef, on which The Chef Show is based, when he had taught Favreau how to barbecue. Thus, it isn’t surprising that we are getting another barbecue themed episode on the show.

Barbecue Meat Tips

Franklin’s impact on Favreau was so strong that Favreau now regularly barbecues at home. However, there is something completely extraordinary about the taste of Franklin’s barbecue which Favreau has not been able to replicate at home. It’s all down to the fire, says Franklin, who knows how much, or how little, to turn the heat to impact the meat’s flavour. It’s a skill he has perfected over years but he also commends the quality of his wood fire smokers.

While enjoying Franklin’s meats, Favreau asks him an interesting question about how handedness affects meat. As Favreau explains to Choi, cows, like humans, are right or left handed, with there being more right-handers than left-handers. Cows lean on their dominant limb to raise themselves off the ground, which makes that limb becomes more muscular. The prevailing theory is that barbecue chefs buy only left briskets, as a result. But Franklin vehemently disagrees with this notion, insisting that there is a good mix of the two and chefs buy both.

Franklin’s love of barbecue is strong enough that he is holding a food festival exclusively for chefs. Called Hot Luck, the festival will bring together chefs from a variety of fields to try their hand at barbecuing. Favreau and Choi are delighted at the prospect… for now.