Carolina Barbecue

a personRien Fertel

also: Rien T. Fertel

A New Orleans writer and historian — a Tulane doctorate in history, 2013 — who recorded the Southern Foodways Alliance's barbecue oral histories in North Carolina in 2011 and South Carolina in 2012, then spent five years following the whole-hog pitmasters of Tennessee and the Carolinas for The One True Barbecue (Touchstone, 2016): part travelogue, part memoir, about the cooks who fire, flip and chop 200-pound pigs in smoke-filled pit houses, from Rodney Scott of Hemingway and Sam Jones of Ayden to Ricky Parker of Lexington, Tennessee.

The story Cited · web-southernliving-quest-one-true-barbecue

Fertel's first bite of whole hog was at Siler's Old Time BBQ in Henderson, Tennessee, in 2008, and the cook who held his attention was Ricky Parker of Scott's-Parker's in Lexington, Tennessee, who died of liver disease at fifty-one; Fertel went back to see Parker's sons at the pits. For the Southern Foodways Alliance he recorded the North Carolina set in November and December 2011 — Chip Stamey in Greensboro, Sonny Conrad at the Barbecue Center, David Wilson at Short Sugar's, Brandon Cook at Cook's, Debbie Holt at Clyde Cooper's, the Parker's crew in Wilson, Samuel Jones at the Skylight Inn on November 29, Bum and Larry Dennis in Ayden, Stephen and Gerri Grady in Dudley — and the South Carolina set in June 2012: Douglas Oliver at Sweatman's, Tony Kittrell at Dukes, Jay Allen at Midway, Jackie Hite, Russell Cooper at Cooper's Country Store, the Browns in Kingstree, David Bessinger at Melvin's, and Rodney Scott in Hemingway, where the pits were turning eight to ten hogs a night. The One True Barbecue follows the whole-hog line from those pits: Scott, who went on to a Charleston restaurant and a James Beard award; Jones, the Skylight's grandson; Keith 'Pop' Ward, who tends Wilber's pits through the night in Goldsboro; Oliver at Sweatman's; three places named Scott's; and a new generation, Tyson Ho at Arrogant Swine in Brooklyn and Elliott Moss at Buxton Hall in Asheville. Robert Moss reviewed it for Southern Living, and John Shelton Reed wrote that it 'should be read by anyone who thinks barbecue is about sticky red sauce'. Fertel holds that most barbecue writing is hyperbole.

Today Cited · web-rienfertel-about

Visiting professor of history at Tulane and book critic for the Times-Picayune/Advocate; his fourth book, Brown Pelican (LSU Press, 2022), left barbecue behind. He calls New Orleans home and lives part of the time in a century-old church in St. Martinville, Louisiana.

Facts

rolewriter, scholar
stylesEastern North Carolina barbecue, Pee Dee whole-hog barbecue
regionThe American South, The Carolinas
linksRien Fertel — about · The One True Barbecue — the author's page · Skylight Inn — SFA interview by Rien Fertel, 2011
confidencehigh · updated 2026-09-15

Its kin

organizationsSouthern Foodways Alliancerecorded its North Carolina barbecue interviews in November and December 2011 and its South Carolina set in June 2012, before writing The One True Barbecue.and of this page it says: interviewed the Skylight Inn for its North Carolina project before writing The One True Barbecue.the pitwhole hogthe cooking The One True Barbecue is about: the pitmasters who cook the whole animal, in Tennessee and the Carolinas.placesSkylight Inn BBQinterviewed Samuel Jones there on November 29, 2011; one of the pits his book follows.peopleSam Jonesthe Skylight's grandson, one of the pitmasters his book follows.and of this page it says: interviewed him for the Alliance in 2011.placesScott's Bar-B-Queinterviewed Rodney Scott there in June 2012; one of three places named Scott's in his book.and of this page it says: interviewed Rodney Scott here in June 2012.peopleRodney Scottfollowed from the Hemingway pits onto the national scene in his book.and of this page it says: interviewed him for the Alliance in 2012.placesWilber's Barbecuewhere Keith 'Pop' Ward, who tends the pits through the night, is one of his subjects.placesSweatman's Bar-B-Queinterviewed the cook Douglas Oliver there in June 2012; Oliver is in the book.placesBum's Restaurantinterviewed Bum and Larry Dennis in December 2011; Bum's is in the book.placesGrady's Barbecueinterviewed Stephen and Gerri Grady in December 2011.placesParker's Barbecueinterviewed Donald Williams and Kevin Lamm there in November 2011.placesClyde Cooper's BBQinterviewed Debbie Holt there in November 2011.placesStamey's Barbecueinterviewed Chip Stamey there in November 2011.placesRed Bridges Barbecue Lodgeinterviewed Natalie Ramsey and Chase Webb there in November 2011.placesShort Sugar's Pit Bar-B-Qinterviewed David and John David Wilson there in November 2011.placesCook's Barbecueinterviewed Brandon Cook there in November 2011.and of this page it says: interviewed Brandon Cook for the Southern Foodways Alliance in 2011.placesBar-B-Q Centerinterviewed Sonny Conrad there in November 2011.placesDukes Bar-B-Queinterviewed Tony Kittrell there in June 2012.placesCooper's Country Storeinterviewed Russell Cooper there in June 2012.and of this page it says: interviewed Russell Cooper here in June 2012.placesMidway BBQinterviewed Jay Allen there on June 12, 2012.and of this page it says: interviewed Jay Allen here on June 12, 2012.placesJackie Hite's Bar-B-Qinterviewed Jackie Hite there in June 2012.and of this page it says: interviewed Jackie Hite here in June 2012.placesBrown's Bar-B-Queinterviewed Thomas and Angela Brown there in June 2012.placesBuxton Hall BarbecueElliott Moss's Asheville pit, among the new generation in his book.peopleElliott Mossone of the new-generation cooks his book ends with.stylesEastern North Carolina barbecuethe North Carolina whole-hog country his book crosses.stylesPee Dee whole-hog barbecuethe South Carolina whole-hog country his book crosses.peopleJohn Shelton Reedblurbed the book.and of this page it says: Reed's blurb on The One True Barbecue: it 'should be read by anyone who thinks barbecue is about sticky red sauce'.peopleRobert F. Mossreviewed the book for Southern Living in May 2016.and of this page it says: whose The One True Barbecue Moss reviewed for Southern Living in May 2016.

Who points back

places · says of this pageJack Cobb & Son Barbecue Placethe interviewer who took Rudy Cobb's oral history in 2011.places · says of this pageMorris Barbequethe interviewer who took the oral history in 2011, and to whom Morris described the gas cooker.people · says of this pageBum Dennisinterviewed him for the Alliance in 2011.

Sources

Where it came from: Cited a source we name · Harvested pulled from an open dataset · Tradition what the tradition says, hedged · Inference this project's reasoning · Field somebody stood there. This record as JSON.

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