The Royal Chef At Home: Easy Seasonal Entertaining

SUMMER

A fter a whirlwind round of job interviews, I was headed back to the airport to catch a nonstop flight to London. With a few minutes to spare, I realized that I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. I was starving. Luckily, this being Dallas, there was an airport outpost of a well-known local barbecue place (I no longer remember the name), and I decided to grab a sandwich before boarding. Brisket was on the menu, and it wasn’t the tiny rolled brisket I was used to cooking at home for Sunday dinner. The chef behind the counter pulled out the biggest piece of meat I had ever seen and began carving thin slices and layering them onto lightly toasted white bread with a dab of extra bbq sauce on top, sliced in half and put in a Styrofoam container. I joked that I had never seen such a giant piece of meat, and he laconically responded, “You think so? I got twice this size in the back.” Maybe true, maybe Texas-sized exaggeration.