Roger Mooking hunts for creative ways to cook with fire

By Andrew Warren TV Media

Low and slow: any barbecue lover can tell you that those are the key ingredients to perfect, mouthwatering barbecue. Whether it’s Carolina-style pulled pork or brisket in the Kansas City tradition, it’s that combination of a long cooking time and a low, steady heat that makes barbecue so incredible. The third ingredient, though, might be the most important of all: the fire.

It isn’t just barbecue that draws Roger Mooking in Cooking Channel’s “Man Fire Food,” but any foods being cooked using fire, whether it’s over a campfire or in a custom-made smoker. A new season of the meaty favorite premieres Wednesday, Nov. 28, and this sea- son the host is headed all around the country to discover all the creative ways in which people put the most primal of cooking methods to use.

In this week’s premiere, smoke signals pull Mooking to the Southwest, where a smokehouse in Chandler, Arizona, serves up Tennesseestyle barbecue. The joint’s founders show off their piping-hot brick pits and get the host to lend a hand loading them up with more than 300 pounds of pork before sharing some of their fall-off-the-bone ribs tossed in a barbecue sauce with more than a hint of spicy cayenne. Mooking’s in Las Vegas for his second stop, and at The Kitchen at Atomic he checks out a portable cooking rig called “the swing set”; but this multipurpose cooking con- traption isn’t child’s play. He and chef Justin Kingsley Hall use it to hang Mediterranean spice-rubbed legs of lamb over a low heat, bury beautiful butternut squash in a bed of coals, and even hang a swinging basket that is used to grill veggies — sounds safe!

Next week, on Wednesday, Dec. 5, Mooking’s journey continues as he checks out two chefs blending international techniques and flavors with American-style barbecue. In North Carolina, he hangs out with a chef who’s infusing Puerto Rican flavors into his pit-smoked hogs, and in Virginia he meets a classically trained French chef who’s also a champion pitmaster who builds his own cooking rigs. Whether it’s low-heat coals or big, dancing flames, fire is the oldest and most basic way to cook food — but there’s nothing basic about what these chefs are doing. The new season of “Man Fire Food” premieres Wednesday, Nov. 28, on Cooking Channel.

Sunday, Nov. 25

3:00 p.m. (5) KSTP Taste Buds: Chefsgiving Highly recognizable chefs prepare an unforgettable holiday meal. (N)

Monday, Nov. 26

1:00 p.m. (11) KARE The Rachael Ray Show Viewers are presented with great recipes and simple solutions for everyday issues.

Tuesday, Nov. 27

11:30 a.m. (9) KAWE Sara’s Weeknight Meals The Italian lemon aperitif limoncello and a homemade lemon pasta are prepared.

1:00 p.m. (11) KARE The Rachael Ray Show Viewers are presented with great recipes and simple solutions for everyday issues.

Wednesday, Nov. 28

1:00 p.m. (11) KARE The Rachael Ray Show Viewers are presented with great recipes and simple solutions for everyday issues.

Thursday, Nov. 29

1:00 p.m. (11) KARE The Rachael Ray Show Viewers are presented with great recipes and simple solutions for everyday issues.

Friday, Nov. 30

12:30 p.m. (9) KAWE Food Over 50 Herb roasted whole chicken and grilled zucchini and asparagus.

1:00 p.m. (11) KARE The Rachael Ray Show Viewers are presented with great recipes and simple solutions for everyday issues.

Saturday, Dec. 1

6:00 a.m. TRAV Food Paradise These restaurants serve up nostalgic food with some innovative modern twists.

7:00 a.m. (2) KTCA Food Flirts The Food Flirts create a chocolate pretzel brioche bread pudding with raspberry cream.

TRAV Food Paradise America loves barbecue and Food Paradise travels through America’s barbecue hot spots.

7:30 a.m. (2) KTCA Taste of Malaysia

With Martin Yan

8:00 a.m. (2) KTCA Simply Ming

A&E Scraps: Parts Uneaten Chef Joel Gamoran travels and creates incredible feasts with food waste and scraps.

TRAV Food Paradise New fusions are bringing noodles to the next level such as spaghetti in a cone.

8:30 a.m. (2) KTCA Moveable Feast With Fine Cooking

9:00 a.m. (2) KTCA Martha Bakes Martha’s menu includes doublecrusted sour cherry pie and St. Louis gooey butter cake.

TRAV Bizarre Foods Andrew Zimmern introduces us to the world’s most bizarre and unique foods. (N)

9:30 a.m. (2) KTCA How to Cook Well With Rory O’Connell Rugelach, white Christmas cake. galette de rois. and plum pudding are made.

10:00 a.m. (2) KTCA Pati’s Mexican Table (N)

TRAV Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations Andrew highlights the locally grown traditional foods of Dubrovnik, Croatia.

10:30 a.m. (2) KTCA New Orleans Cooking With Kevin Belton Fried Chicken; Stuffed Green Bell Peppers; Sweet Potato Pie.

TRAV Bizarre Foods: Delicious Destinations Andrew Zimmern explores the classic dishes of the vibrant New Orleans.

11:00 a.m. (2) KTCA Jacques Pépin: More Fast Food My Way Jacques breaks with tradition to make a skillet apple charlotte cooked in a single pan.

TRAV Food Paradise Whether classic or exotic, nothing warms your heart like a plate of good food. (N)

11:30 a.m. (2) KTCA Lidia’s Kitchen Noon (2) KTCA Sara’s Weeknight Meals Braised brisket with flying disks, and root vegetable latkes.

12:30 p.m. (2) KTCA America’s Test Kitchen From Cook’s Illustrated

1:00 p.m. (8) WDSE Bea Ojakangas: Welcome to My Kitchen Special

1:40 p.m. (8) WDSE Bea Ojakangas: Welcome to My Kitchen Special

2:20 p.m. (8) WDSE Bea Ojakangas: Welcome to My Kitchen Special

3:00 p.m. (8) WDSE Bea Ojakangas: Welcome to My Kitchen Special Brainerd Daily

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