Page 20 - March 2021 Barbecue News Magazine

bbq podcasts
Barbecue Base
Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/barbecue-base/id1510373361
Ben Arnot
BBQ Podcast Guru
https://smokinghotconfes- sions.com/
Like Coca-Cola, Rock’n’Roll and General Motors, low’n’slow barbecue has spread around the world, being embraced by people in all corners of the globe. Coming to you from New Zealand, the Barbecue Base podcast offers a very unique take on the low’n’slow scene.
Hosts Alex Lawson and Noel Hassapladakis created their podcast to keep their listeners up to date with the local competition scene, their own home cooks, and also cast their net wide to have a lineup of guests who are both local and international pitmasters. As well as sharing as many tips, tricks and methods as possible, they also love to have fun. This is evidenced by their ‘10 Burning Questions’ round, where they and their guests will take a big hit of Fire Dragon Chili’s Dragon’s Fury hot sauce and then fire off ten quick questions and answers. I can tell you from personal experience, that this is incredibly funny and also one of the fastest audio segments you’ll ever hear as they race to the finish and a delicious cold beer!
The lads clearly enjoy what they do and it’s the first thing you’ll notice when you tune in. For Alex, having Harry Soo on the show was a personal highlight. Despite being re- duced to a hopeless fanboy, they recorded over an hour of Harry Soo wisdom and in true Harry Soo form, they then got to hang out and chat for an-
other hour. Noel’s favourite episode includes a deep dive into the European BBQ scene with Pit- master Paulie Patterson. Patterson is a chef from New Zealand who has recently spent time in France, as Head Pitmaster at Rosie’s Smokehouse in Paris. A laid back and funny chat, Patterson regaled
the lads with stories about meeting Mitch Benjamin from Meat Mitch, serving up medium rare brisket (yes, it’s a thing!) and eating the tip of another chef’s finger.
Created at the start of lockdown in March 2020, Alex and Noel haven’t had a chance to travel far with their show, but instead have embraced all the modern technology they can get their hands on to travel the world virtually, with guests from NZ, Australia and the US. A fantastic experience that they have had, was their penultimate episode of 2020 where they gathered five of their favourite local pitmasters for a BBQ podcast extravaganza. Each guest went through a ‘10 Burning Questions’ with the lads doing all five. It was hilarious at the time, though reportedly not so much the next day!
If you’re looking for a podcast with humble, down to earth hosts, that is inclusive, lighthearted, but still educational, and explores another dimension of the world of low’n’slow
BBQ, you should definitely add Bar- becue Base to your list. Episodes are 60 - 90 minutes in length and are re- leased every fortnight. They are available on all good podcasting platforms and you can find Barbecue Base on all the major social media platforms. Tune in, and check out the world of low’n’slow in The Land of the Long White Cloud!
BarbecueNews.com - 20
MARCH 2021