All Smoked Up - PRESS
Saturday, August 5, 2006
Roadside BBQ cuisine
Chef takes a different route ... Route 55
By Michelle J. Lee
Poughkeepsie Journal
Hamburgers and sandwiches are common street foods. But to try a unique
spin on roadside dining, drive on Route 55 to a gravel-covered lot by
the Beekman border.
Three days a week, Rob VanVoorhis sets up his 13-foot smoker and serves the lunchtime crowd a savory selection of baby back ribs, roast duck and sirloin steak.
Though the menu varies daily, VanVoorhis, 49, adds his own special flourish. Barbecue sauce is infused with passion fruit. Duck is laced with blackberry. Even the mac and cheese is fancy, mixed with crab meat, Parmesan and provolone cheeses.
While it may seem like barbecue comes naturally for VanVoorhis, a 2004 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, he learned by trial and error.
He purchased the smoker in July 2004 and threw out about $500 in meat before getting it right.
"It really was practice, practice, practice," he said.
Originally from Hopewell Junction, VanVoorhis said he first started cooking as a hobby. He eventually became the house chef while raising a family of four children in Vermont during the 1980s.
VanVoorhis worked as a regional director for Maloney Properties in Boston for 13 years. When the company downsized in 2003, he followed his passion and switched to the food industry.
With the support of his wife, Ellen, VanVoorhis enrolled in the associate degree program at the CIA. The school helped him learn proper cooking and service techniques, along with business courses. He also had the chance to hone his skills with an externship at the Silver Spring Country Club in Ridgefield, Conn.
In addition to catering business VanVoorhis set up the roadside business in October as a side job to supplement his catering company, which primarily works on weekends.
Joe Amiano, a landscaper and home renovator from Beekman, said he stops by twice a week for lunch. His favorite dishes are the ribs and roast duck.
"It's just an amazing flavor. He's got the apple (wood), the cherry, all the different flavors. The way he puts it together is amazing," Amiano said.
VanVoorhis said the secret to good barbecue is simple: the cook. "You've got to have some nice spices," he said. "You really have to cook it right."
He's All Smoked Up
By Melinda McGarty Webb
Danbury NEWS-TIMES CORRESPONDENT
As a frigid winter wind swept by the home of Rob VanVoorhis in Danbury, it carried the smell of wood smoke through the neighborhood as well as the sweet scent of corn simmering in a bath of cream, chicken stock and fragrant sprigs of thyme. It was a breath of summer on a particularly raw winter afternoon. VanVoorhis, chef and owner of All Smoked Up BBQ Catering, fired up his smoker on the morning of Dec. 24 and that afternoon was preparing meats and sides for use that evening, and smoking a turkey breast to bring to his in-laws' house the next day. With no coat over his chef's whites despite the bitter weather, VanVoorhis moved easily between the 13-foot-long black metal smoker set up on his driveway, the two-burner propane stove beside it, and a portable metal prep table.
Inside the smoker, baby back ribs, golden quartered chickens and Italian sausage cooked slowly, while the chef pan-tossed a colorful mixture of julienned carrots, summer squash and red bell pepper to accompany the meats. He had already prepared a dish his wife of three years, Ellen, counts among her favorites, Blue Mac and Cheese, as well as baked beans packed with tender pulled pork. All are among the foods VanVoorhis offers as part of his standard barbecue menu. He hooks up the 1,800-pound smoker to the back of his truck and tows it to events, where he prepares the meal on-site. While he specializes in barbecues, pig roasts and New England-style clam bakes, VanVoorhis offers an extensive a la carte menu as well and will prepare virtually anything a customer requests.
The menu listed on his Web site includes such decidedly non-barbecue entrees as salmon with lemon and dill, wiener schnitzel with braised red cabbage and spaetzle, and coq au vin. But one of the most-requested parties is his pig roast. For a price of $18.00 per person with a minimum of 50 guests, VanVoorhis will roast an 80-pound pig, which will feed about 50 guests, and provide baked beans, buns, coleslaw, condiments, paper goods and utensils. Clam bakes are served buffet-style and priced per person. For $27 per person, for a minimum of 60 guests, customers receive New England-style clam chowder, steamed clams with drawn butter, quartered barbecue chickens, corn-on-the-cob boiled in sweet cream, steamed red bliss potatoes, coleslaw & dinner rolls.
He even has a Super Bowl party menu, which includes ribs, chicken, baked beans and coleslaw at $500 for the host and 30 guests. Despite his obvious aptitude at the grill, VanVoorhis is a relatively recent convert to the culinary field. He grew up in Hopewell Junction, N.Y., and then, until 5 years ago, lived in Vermont and worked as regional maintenance director for a property management firm. His territory included all of Vermont and western Massachusetts. Then, one December evening in 2000 while visiting friends in Hopewell Junction, Rob met Ellen at a party. After a six-month courtship, they married the following July.
Ellen teaches seventh- and eighth-grade English at the Sherman School, and has done so for 37 years. Unable to find a job in his previous field here, Rob decided to try his hand at something new. "I'd been cooking all my life as a hobby," he said. "I knew I had a passion for it." When he decided to go to culinary school, his wife urged him to find the best school possible. Last May, at age 47, Rob graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. — the crème de la crème of American cooking schools. He was the oldest student in any of his classes. In fact, at graduation, some of his classmates were a full 30 years his junior.
"It was .Ÿ.Ÿ. interesting," he said slowly, smiling in a way that hinted there was more to it than he was willing to share. "Most of the kids had a pretty high maturity level, though, so it was OK." While many of his classmates lived on campus, he commuted to Hyde Park, which became a strain. "Going back to college was pretty strange," he said. "I had a sense that it would be all about the cooking, but it wasn't," he continued. "There was a 15-week writing course, and courses in accounting, management and math." Ellen interjected, "Didn't you not even see the inside of a kitchen for the first couple of months?" "Yes," her husband replied. "For the first couple of months we weren't in the kitchen at all. But once we were, we had the opportunity to work with so many fine master chefs it was worth the wait."
Each CIA student must complete a 20-week "externship" in order to graduate, and VanVoorhis chose to work at the Silver Springs Country Club in Ridgefield, CT. "It taught me a lot," he said. "The job was a great mix of fine dining and things like family barbecues and concessions." He particularly enjoyed the Sunday night barbecues, where he would grill high-end meats such as double-cut veal chops and New York strip steaks. "I really enjoyed not only the cooking, but being with everybody — socializing and cooking, and becoming part of it all." A barbecue is fun, he said, because it takes the chef out of the kitchen and lets him be part of the festivities. That appealed to VanVoorhis, so he began researching different approaches to barbecue, eventually settling upon Southern style.
When Southerners order barbecue – or barbeque, BBQ or BB-Q, depending upon who's writing the menu – they are looking for slow-cooked pork, generally shoulder roasts or Boston butts, eaten sliced or pulled, and served on a bun with coleslaw. Southern-style barbecue sauces– applied during the last few minutes of cooking – are generally vinegar-based, rather than tomato-based. In fact, some Southern pit cooks say putting a tomato-based sauce on barbeque is like putting ketchup on filet mignon. Pulled pork sandwiches are now far more common in Connecticut than they were 10 or 15 years ago, but they are still not nearly as prevalent – or revered – as they are in Southern states. Barbecue is serious business in the South, as are barbecue competitions. VanVoorhis intends to throw his hat into the ring this summer when he enters the Rhode Island and Massachusetts state championships, as well as ones in Hartford and Vermont, and a ribs competition in New Paltz, N.Y.
His company's Web site actually lists its name as All Smoke Up BBQ Catering & Competition Cooking Team. Ellen VanVoorhis assists Rob at catering jobs that take place on weekends or at night. Last month they catered a party for the Orange County Choppers bike shop in Rock Tavern, N.Y. The shop, owned by Paul Teutal Sr., is the setting for the hit series "American Chopper," which airs on the Discovery Channel. The vast majority of what the couple serves can be made right on the smoker and grill unit they bought in Georgia for about $4,000, plus a hefty shipping charge. VanVoorhis makes some items in the kitchens of the Catholic War Veterans Hall and St. Nicholas Catholic Church, both in Danbury, but most of his cooking is done at the site of a party – and, particularly for pig roasts, he is there all day.
First he loads the firebox with a mixture of hard woods early in the morning — usually sugar maple, white oak and hickory. It takes about an hour from the time he lights the flame until the time the smoker is hot and ready to go. Then he rubs the pig's underbelly with his special rub, coats the skin with olive oil to promote even browning, and in it goes. "I like to get everybody involved," he said, explaining that he encourages people to baste the pig while it cooks if they wish, and pick their own meat once it's ready. He generally garnishes the pig with fruit and always lets it rest for 30 minutes after cooking so the juices can settle. "I'll carve it – but by the time it's cooked, it's just falling off the bone," he said. "It's easy to pick off whatever you want — the ham, bacon, tenderloin. People love it." He likes to roast a pig for between nine and 10 hours, and ribs for about three hours.
After all, you can't do barbecue quickly, some say, and if you do, then you haven't done it right.
National BBQ News
Life-long hobby becomes career as chef gets ‘All Smoked Up'
After many years of working in the property management business, Rob VanVoorhis decided it was time for a career change. At 45, Rob went back to college to turn a life-long hobby into a very busy career. After two years of study, he received his associate's degree from the Culinary Institute of America.
After graduating in May 2005, VanVoorhis started his BBQ business. He specializes in onsite catering of southern style pit smoked BBQ. He creates dishes like pulled pork, smoked spare ribs, BBQ chicken, BBQ brisket, and smoked bleu mac & cheese. This dish is made with a blend of cheeses, with bleu cheese as the front-runner.
VanVoorhis will bring the smoker and all of his gear right to your home and create a bevy of BBQ and other side dishes. All food is prepped and cooked as you and your guests enjoy the show. VanVoorhis has catered to the staff of the hit television show American Choppers, Orange County Choppers of Montgomery, N.Y.
All Smoked Up, the name of VanVoorhis' business, has catered weddings, rehearsal dinners, graduations, birthdays, baptisms, as well as other private events. “Our largest job to date has been for 120 guests, and we have a 300 guest event scheduled for July 4th weekend.”
Pig roasts are becoming one of his most requested events. Rob will slow roast a whole hog and serve it up with several side dishes. He likes to get his clients involved. “I love the personal nature of family BBQ and seeing folks come back for seconds!”
The most important thing is that VanVoorhis does all of the work. You can sit back, relax, and enjoy your family and friends, while being completely catered to. VanVoorhis also works as a private chef for a family in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. This is another service he provides for anyone who just can't find the time to cook.
For a set fee, he will do all of the grocery shopping. Afterward, he will use your kitchen and prepare meals which can be either refrigerated or frozen and re-heated at a later date. There is much more information related to his private chef work and his BBQ catering available at www.allsmokedup.com .
All Smoked Up BBQ Catering, LLC Copyright © 2008 - All Rights Reserved.
60 Newtown Road | Box 60 | Danbury, CT 06810 | ASUBBQ@gmail.com
Roadside BBQ Located on Rte 55 in Beekman, NY | Thursday, Saturday (unless we
are catering) & Sunday, always weather permitting. | 10AM until sold out