Three Questions with Santa Maria Barbecue & Grill
We first learned about Michael Hockenhull and his catering business when he posted some magnificent Santa Maria BBQ photos on our Facebook page. For the past 21 years, Michael’s Santa Maria Barbecue & Grill has been serving traditional Santa Maria Style Barbecue at special events and gatherings across Southern California’s Inland Empire.
“Since 1990, we’ve served southern California communities with authentic Central California cuisine featuring tender, choice cuts of tri-tip sirloin, grilled to perfection over red oak wood using a 100-year-old authentic dry rub recipe,” he says.
Michael lives in Chino Hills with his wife and two children. We recently caught up with him as part of our Three Questions interview series:
What inspired you to start a Santa Maria BBQ business in Chino Hills?
There was nothing like it out here. We have a great following in the Inland Empire.
I was introduced to the Santa Maria world from a man who was born and raised in Santa Maria. He had just moved to the Los Angeles area and was starting his own BBQ catering business. It started as a part time job for me, fortunately for him I liked cooking, eating and talking. He taught me everything I needed to know about running a business. I can’t thank him enough.
You must sometimes serve folks who’ve never had Santa Maria BBQ before. What is the typical reaction when they try it for the first time?
I love to serve first-timers, the look on their face is priceless. Then they give me a big hug for making their belly happy!
What’s your top tip for folks who want to prepare their own Santa Maria BBQ?
Keep to tradition, do not try to re-invent the wheel. Simple seasonings, red oak wood and please take your time, your grill is not a microwave.
Fly into BBQ Country
Adding to the steady stream of publicity for Santa Maria Style Barbecue this summer, leading online travel merchant CheapFlights.com spotlights our regional culinary tradition in a new piece featuring their editors’picks for America’s Top 10 Barbecue Towns.
In doing so, they include Santa Barbara, which is an hour south of Santa Maria, as a hub for Santa Maria BBQ. They might have been remiss in not pointing their readers to the true landmarks of Santa Maria Style Barbecue in the Santa Maria Valley, such as Shaw’s Steakhouse, the Hitching Post and Far Western Tavern. But as they note, Santa Barbara is certainly well versed in Santa Maria BBQ, and they are probably and understandably more inclined to point readers toward places closer to major airport hubs such as Los Angeles.
That said, we will take this opportunity to remind you that the Santa Maria Valley has it’s own airport with commercial flights to and from Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Better yet, the Santa Maria Airport offers private pilots a unique “fly and dine” experience. Indeed, pilots can taxi right up to side of the airport’s Radisson Hotel, park their plane and walk to lunch at the hotel’s Vintner’s Grill. We’re told that many pilots fly into town for the grill’s famous Sunday brunch, and the Santa Maria tri-tip sandwich is a popular lunch item.
Another memorable on-site attraction is the Santa Maria Museum of Flight, which features a variety of planes, models, photos, memorabilia and exhibits, including a restored F4 fighter jet that served in Vietnam and a 1929 Fleet biplane. The museum also features several Hollywood movie props, including an H-1 Racer from The Aviator, a full-scale Wright glider from Winds of Kitty Hawk and an original wooden hangar from The Rocketeer.
Whether you come by wheels or wings, the Santa Maria Valley is ready to welcome you with what Sunset Magazine once called “the world’s best barbecue.” So pack your appetite and we’ll see you soon!
The (Not So) Secret BBQ
Santa Maria Style Barbecue has been on a magnificent streak of media coverage, and the latest comes from L.A. Weekly’s fine how-to feature this week on our regional culinary tradition.
Spotlighting local purveyors such as the Hitching Post, Far Western Tavern and Susie Q’s Brand, writer Kathy McDonald begins: “Memphis, North Carolina, Kansas City, Texas and Santa Maria–all are barbecue styles; only one is native to California. Traced to early ranchers and vaqueros (Mexican cowboys) of the 1800s Central Coast, Santa Maria barbecue is traditionally grilled meat cooked over native red oak.”
Santa Maria Style Barbecue is the barbecue world’s best-kept secret, but the secret is increasingly out as foodies and food writers alike champion its charms!
What’s The Rub on Santa Maria BBQ?
One of the definitive and distinguishing characteristics of Santa Maria Style Barbecue is that, unlike other regional barbecue styles, it doesn’t require you to slather the meat in barbecue sauce.
Indeed, when it comes to Santa Maria BBQ, there’s no sauce whatsoever, but rather a simple yet magical rub based on native tradition. According to the official menu copyrighted by the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce, the seasoning is a mixture one tablespoon of salt with a ½ teaspoon of black pepper and a ½ teaspoon of garlic salt (for a larger stash, you just increase the ingredients proportionately).
Of course, as with all culinary pursuits, there’s always a little room for creativity, too. For example, local Santa Maria BBQ retail food purveyor Susie Q’s Brand adds a whisper of parsley to its blend. The Hitching Post’s BBQ2You, Cowboy Flavor and F. McLintocks are among other local barbecue specialists to offer their own proprietary rubs.
At barbecue competitions and festivals featuring a variety of regional styles, those who specialize in Santa Maria Style Barbecue are often met with puzzled looks from patrons, who ask, “Where’s the sauce?”
Without “rubbing” it in, let’s just say that their skepticism is quickly replaced with wonder as they get their first taste of the magic of Santa Maria-style seasoning.
The Classic Cuts of Santa Maria Barbecue
While tri-tip has become synonymous with Santa Maria Style Barbecue in recent decades, it’s not the only cut available to those who want to enjoy or prepare an authentic Santa Maria BBQ meal.
Indeed, some visitors actually complain when they learn that a local restaurant doesn’t offer tri-tip, saying that it’s not true Santa Maria Barbecue—all the while looking at a menu featuring top block sirloin or prime rib, the two founding cuts of this regional culinary tradition.
Yes, it’s true. Prime rib roast was prevalent in the early days of Santa Maria Style Barbecue, and top block sirloin is another enduring cut from the past. Then, in the 1950s, a Santa Maria butcher popularized the tri-tip cut. Soon, tri-tip was lifted from carnivorous obscurity and became an integral part of the authentic Santa Maria Style Barbecue experience.
But as wonderful as tri-tip is, don’t forget that there’s more than one cut when it comes to savoring Santa Maria BBQ!
The Ultimate Chardonnay Tasting
One cannot live on barbecue alone, right? After all, you need a little wine to go with it!
On that note, we would like to remind you that the ultimate Chardonnay tasting is coming to the Santa Maria Valley this Saturday, July 23, as part of the 2nd annual Chardonnay Symposium, the only event of its kind dedicated to America’s top white wine.
The Grand Chardonnay Tasting at Byron Vineyard & Winery (pictured here) begins at 2 p.m. and will feature Chardonnays from more than 60 wineries paired with local artisan foods. The cost is $65 per person. Click here for information and tickets.
If you love Chardonnay, you won’t want to miss this tasting. Nowhere else can you experience so many different styles of Chardonnay from a variety of regions all under the same roof.
The Santa Maria Valley is a natural choice to host this event. Indeed, the Santa Maria Valley boasts one of California’s coolest growing environments, yielding optimal conditions for Chardonnay. Two Chardonnays from the Santa Maria Valley were named to the top 10 slots of the Wine Enthusiast magazine’s annual list of “The Enthusiast 100: The Most Coveted Wines of 2010.”
National Love for Local Tradition
Once upon a time, Santa Maria Style Barbecue was a truly local secret, but as with all good things, the word has begun to spread far and wide. Indeed, we earlier looked at a tri-tip specialist in New York City, and more recently featured a Santa Maria BBQ restaurant in the California desert.
Now, across the wires comes additional word of Santa Maria Style Barbecue popping up in formerly unlikely places. First up, we have the Mavericks Oak Pit Grill in Golden, Colorado. According to a recent report, the restaurant invites patrons “to experience a new style of BBQ: Santa Maria features all-natural top sirloin grilled over oak wood (not what commonly comes to mind with barbecue).”
(A new style of BBQ? New for Colorado, perhaps. But we must remind everyone that our local barbecue tradition is rooted in the 19th century!)
The report continues, “Letting the meat speak for itself is what Santa Maria-style is all about. Not covering over the skill of the pitmaster with a zingy sauce is a bold move, but it shows the confidence and skill with which Maverick’s grills all its meats.”
Well said!
Santa Maria Style Barbecue is also getting a foothold in the Windy City at Lillie’s Q restaurant. There, Chef Charlie McKenna “serves a hodgepodge of influences that favors variety over one local style. Coleslaw-topped pulled pork sandwiches are distinctly Carolinian; smoked tri-tip is native to Santa Maria, California…”
In other words, the secret of Santa Maria BBQ is increasingly out. At the end of the day, there’s nothing like enjoying it right here in the Santa Maria Valley, prepared by the local masters with truly local ingredients. But it can’t hurt to have folks’appetites for Santa Maria BBQ being whetted elsewhere as well.
On that note, we give a tip of the pitmaster’s hat to our Santa Maria BBQ ambassador’s across the nation!
The Evolution of Santa Maria BBQ
While Santa Maria Style Barbecue is firmly rooted in specific traditions, methods and ingredients, it has also slowly evolved over time to achieve what we now recognize as the “style” of Santa Maria.
For example, tri-tip beef and Santa Maria-style grills with adjustable screens are now considered staples of authentic Santa Maria Style Barbecue in the Santa Maria Valley. But in the earliest days of Santa Maria Barbecue, other cuts of beef were strung on wooden poles and cooked over earthen pits filled with hot red oak coals.
In his book Santa Maria Style Barbecue, local barbecue historian R.H. Tesene writes, “The Santa Maria Barbecue grew out of this tradition and achieved its ‘style’when local residents began to string cuts of beef on skewers or rods and cook the meat over the hot coals of a red oak fire.”
As the popularity of this style grew, above-ground grills were naturally embraced as a more practical way to cook the meat. And while stringing the meat on steel rods remained popular for large community barbecues, adjustable screens became increasingly common for smaller preparations. Today, small backyard Santa Maria-style grills are common across the valley and beyond.
The choice of meat has also evolved. Prime rib and top block sirloin were long the favored cuts, but beginning in the 1950s, tri-tip emerged as another signature cut of Santa Maria Style Barbecue. Today, tri-tip has become synonymous with Santa Maria Style Barbecue, and you will also see top sirloin and prime rib offered by local barbecue restaurants.
Santa Maria-style seasoning, locally grown pinquito beans, grilled buttered French bread, fresh salsa, tossed green salad and strawberry dessert also remain essential components of the traditional Santa Maria BBQ dining experience. And with the emergence of the Santa Maria Valley wine country, you could also say that the “official” menu is evolving to include a glass of local wine!
Santa Maria BBQ Sizzles on TastingTable.com
Santa Maria Barbecue’s red-hot summer continues as leading food and wine web site TastingTable.com turns the spotlight this week on California’s native barbecue style: “Patriotic displays of meat grilling and beer drinking will take place across the nation next Monday. But in our state, it’s only right to represent the Stars and Stripes and the Bear Flag by opting for a Santa Maria-style cookout.”
Hear, hear!
TastingTable.com adds, “The distinctively shaped grills you’ll find dotting the streets throughout Santa Barbara County on weekends are as integral to this regional grilling style as the red-oak fires that fuel them.”
The site also recommends Santa Barbara County Syrah as a perfect wine match for Santa Maria Style Barbecue. We might also suggest a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Santa Ynez Valley or even a fuller-bodied, spicier Pinot Noir from the Santa Maria Valley.
On that note, we are wishing you all a festive 4th of July filled with friends, festivity and, of course, Santa Maria BBQ!
American Cowboy Salutes “The Best Ranch BBQ”
On the heels of high-profile coverage in FoxNews.com and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Santa Maria Style Barbecue is once again in the sizzling spotlight as the latest issue of American Cowboy magazine declares it “The Best Ranch BBQ.”
In the accompanying piece, food and travel writer Laurel Miller elaborates on the origins of Santa Maria BBQ as a celebratory meal prepared at local ranchos in the mid 1800s, with native ingredients and methods becoming what is today known as Santa Maria Style Barbecue. She writes, “California’s mild climate favored outdoor cooking, and barbecues were the way to celebrate special occasions, uniting family, friends, neighbors and workers.”
The piece includes a recipe for preparing Santa Maria Style Barbecue, and it features a classic photo of Billy Ruiz of Cowboy Catering slicing into a perfectly seasoned cut with trailing wisps of steam.
Thanks to American Cowboy and Laurel Miller for spreading the flavorful good news about Santa Maria Style Barbecue.
