Food Chefs
COWBOY COOKING: ADRIAN DAVILA SERVES UP SOUTH TEXAS BARBECUE, VAQUERO-STYLE At Davila’s BBQ in Seguin, Texas, the 3rd-generation pitmaster carries on a family legacy of mesquite-smoked meats with a Latin twist By Eric Lucas
Chef, author, and TV personality Adrian Davila has succeeded his father as pitmaster at Davila’s BBQ in Seguin, Texas.
S
ADRIAN DAVILA
66 I N S I G H T April 15–21, 2022
personal heritage, which stretches from his family’s south Texas ranch back many generations to an aristocratic forebear in Ávila, Spain (that’s why morcilla, Spanish blood sausage, is in his cookbook). Add to these culinary influences the indigenous flavors of Mexico, the hardcore carnivore focus of Texas barbecue—practically a religion in the Lone Star state—and the region’s unique cultural confluence today, and the resulting cuisine is as complex as a rainbow. Witness Davila’s Frito pie, with his family’s famous spicy beef sausage and brisket. Texas sausage derives from the 19th-century wave of German immigration, and Fritos were born and bred in San Antonio by a Kansas-born confectioner of Irish background. The lamb ribs are another Davila
family specialty, and unusual in Texas. Lengua—tongue—is foreign to most U.S. menus, but found in Davila’s cookbook, along with pork stomach and beef tripe. On occasion, he prepares traditional barbacoa, slow-cooking a cow head or an entire lamb in an underground pit, wrapped in maguey leaves, just as his family did on their ranch and the vaqueros did centuries ago. “We use the whole animal, vaquero-style, from head to tail,” Davila said. “Cowboys on the range didn’t have the luxury to waste anything.” Now, “nose-to-tail” is one of the trendy ideas of today’s food scene— but Davila would say there’s really nothing new under the Texas sun. Eric Lucas is a retired associate editor at Alaska Beyond Magazine and lives on a small farm on a remote island north of Seattle.
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAVILA'S BBQ
ince 1959, san antonio-area barbecue joint Davila’s BBQ Adrian Davila has served loyal fans a distincwith his father, tive, Latino variety of the Lone Edward Davila. Star State’s favorite food, honoring the Mexican heritage of both barbecue and cattle farming—lending a deeper layer of tradition to those two icons of Texas culture. Classic Texas For instance, Adrian Davila, who barbecue offerings are has succeeded his father Edward infused with and grandfather Raul as pitmasDavila’s Mexicanter, adds cayenne chile to the usual American salt-and-pepper rub used by pitheritage. masters elsewhere in Texas. “Gives it a spicy kick to go with the smoky foundation,” he said. That smoky foundation derives The Davila from mesquite, but unlike most Texfamily’s housemade as pitmasters, Davila cooks his meat beef sausages next to the fire, not separated from it. are a local The salsa that customers receive favorite. with their meals is made with fire-roasted tomatoes. “That’s how the vaqueros would have done it on their campfire more than 200 years ago,” Davila said, harking back to the dawn of cattle raising in Texas. Mexican cowboys—vaqueros— herded Spanish longhorns through No-Holdsthe grasslands and scrub of south Barred Texas, and their heritage isn’t only Comfort Food: the cows, but also the cowboying— Frito pie, with spicy beef including the cow-camp food. sausages and Popularizing that heritage is brisket why Davila published a cookbook in 2018: “Cowboy Barbecue: Fire Secret Technique: and Smoke From the Original Rub half an Texas Vaqueros.” Based on three onion on the grill, generations of cookery at the fam- and it will keep ily restaurant, the book illustrates the meat from both Latino barbecue and the cen- sticking turies-old history of Latino culture Davila’s BBQ in south-central Texas. It reclaims 418 West the true history of the beef indus- Kingsbury Street, try in Texas, which began long be- Seguin, Texas fore Charles Goodnight. DavilasBBQ.com Davila’s book digs deep into his
