James Beard Award Semifinalist, owner of Ray Ray’s Hog Pit
Food Network Diners, Drive-ins and Dives
James Anderson and I talk about his experience on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Here is the Delish article that I site in my podcast.
James is very successful but one of his concepts, Ray Ray’s Meat and Three failed, he tells me potential reasons why that happened. He tells me about the updated concept Ray Ray’s Supper Club where they have a guest chef each week. He was generous enough to offer me and a plus one complimentary tickets. It was incredible, it was $120 per person, 7 courses paired with 7 wines. It was quite the experience, it was at a community table, the chef came out between courses and explained each dish. It was awesome.
I asked him if he prefers casual bbq or fancy high end cuisine. I also asked him if because of his popularity and success if he feels pressure to perform at a high level and he was very vulnerable and talked about his former anxieties and how he deals with pressure nowadays.
Top 3 restaurants in Columbus, Ohio
James Anderson’s top 3 restaurants in Columbus, Ohio are Meshikou on Bethel Rd, Los Pinos in Reynoldsburg, and Veritas for a fancy feast. His favorite barbecue besides his own is SHOCKING you won’t guess his favorite Columbus, Ohio BBQ. Listen to this podcast episode to hear his answer.
James tells me about being a semifinalist for a James Beard award, as a BBQ food truck guy. Barbecue people rarely get that nomination, food trucks are even more rare and he’s possibly the only food truck BBQ person to ever be a semifinalist for the James Beard award.
He raises hogs and provides some hogs for Ray Ray’s Supper Club but he doesn’t supply all the hogs for all his locations. He states that he’s a hobby farmer with hundreds of hogs and the quantities needed to source Ray Ray’s is in the thousands.
How to make the perfect smoked brisket
Ray Ray’s James Anderson tells me how to make a perfect brisket. Wrapping is crucial, wrap around hour 8, he prefers paper but says foil is almost as good, respecting the rest is more important than the wrap.
James is a self-taught pit master, when his father passed away, he started to practice smoking meats with his brother. His brother liked it more as a hobby, but James was quite taken with it and started to master his craft. He read books, practiced, tons of trial and error, watched documentaries, and traveled the country to teach himself how to smoke meat.