At 16, Zak Hatch got a job washing dishes at Caldwell County BBQ in Chandler. In five short years, the Valley native worked his way up the Caldwell command chain to score one of its most critical jobs, piloting the barbecue program at the restaurant’s new Peoria location as its lead pitmaster. Trained by Caldwell owner Travis Taylor, Hatch hopes to pay it forward by mentoring new employees. We recently caught up with Hatch between pulling and wrapping briskets.
What makes for a good pitmaster?
Patience and a passion for cooking barbecue, because it’s a lot of work. Standing in front of smokers at 250 to 300 degrees, wrapping 75 briskets in Arizona heat that’s up to 115 degrees takes a lot of energy. It’s a physically demanding job. You really have to be passionate about it and have patience, because it’s a 12-hour cook. You can’t rush.
What does your day look like?
All the meats are laid on [the smoker] at 5 a.m. I come in four hours later and run the cook for the rest of the day. I help trim brisket – we trim about 50-70 briskets a day. From there, I spend my time managing fires and looking at catering orders to see if we need to start prepping. Then, I spend a couple of hours wrapping briskets, spending time with each brisket, pulling it off and making sure that it’s the best quality that I can make it.
Do you have a favorite chef?
Aaron Franklin [of Franklin Barbecue in Austin]. He really knows what he’s doing. New pitmasters [at Caldwell] have to read the Franklin Barbecue: A Meat Smoking Manifesto. He helped create and popularize Texas barbecue and make it as big as it is.
Any advice for an aspiring pitmaster?
Always be learning. You’ll never truly master it, and that’s one thing I like about bringing on new people and training them. Everyone has their own perspective.
