Chef Todd Ginsberg Offers BBQ Tips for Father’s Day
The founding chef of Woods Chapel BBQ spent two years perfecting the menu for the Summerhill restaurant.
For some families, the traditional observance of Father’s Day wouldn’t be complete with out a barbecue. It may be as simple as throwing a few burgers and hot dogs on the grill or marinating a few leg quarters before they go on the smoker. But if it’s a Texas-style smoked brisket, be prepared for some work.
Todd Ginsberg knows. He spent nearly two years working on the concept and the cooking at the Woods Chapel restaurant in Summerhill near Atlanta’s downtown. The Southside neighborhood, which was named after a once-prominent Atlanta church, is adjacent to the south Atlanta community where many Jewish institutions and synagogues were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Ginsberg initially developed a Jewish-style braised beef recipe for the Rye Restaurant Group’s two General Muir restaurants that has won him a loyal following of hungry meat eaters. He says that a properly barbecued brisket starts with several important requirements.
“One of the secrets to great barbecue is to start with a wood fire. That’s a big one for us. We don’t use electricity or gas. We just use a mix of white oak and red oak. And just important, if not more important, is the quality of the meat. We only use well marbled, well-trimmed Angus beef, with a good balance of fat and lean, for all our briskets.”
The long cooking time is a well-known factor for serious competitors in the annual Atlanta Kosher BBQ Festival. Preparation for the daylong event usually starts early the night before. Low and slow is the way past winners of the competition describe their smoking technique.
According to Ginsberg, a properly cooked brisket, prepared with a rub takes 10 to 12 hours or more in the primitive offset smokers at Woods Chapel. All meat is finished off in an industrial appliance called a JR oiler, a rotisserie-style smoker that helps to distribute or render the melted fat that marbles the brisket.
In developing his technique, Ginsberg and the development team from the Rye Restaurant Group of Ben and Jen Johnson and Shelly Sweet spent time eating their way through the menus of such Texas barbecue shrines as Smitty’s BBQ and Franklin in Austin. It left them with the impression that cooking the perfect barbecue is not as easy as it looks, that if they were to win a loyal following, they had “to step up their game,” as Ginsberg noted. They recognized that many in this part of the South have grown up with good barbecue and great restaurants are honored.
“I think we came up with the classic Texas-style brisket,” Ginsberg says. “Good bark, good meat, so it comes out super, super tender, great flavor, a lot of seasoning and, you know, just the right amount of smoke. The biggest takeaway for me was that no matter if you’re cooking it or eating it, everybody is super passionate about barbecue.”
What sets it apart from the oven-cooked brisket that is a feature of many Jewish holiday celebrations is that the Texas-style smoked meat doesn’t go through the long process of marination. Ginsberg’s acclaimed brisket at the General Muir gets a brining for nearly two weeks before a slow and low finish in the oven. What remains the same for both is the sticker shock that one encounters when paying the inflated price of beef today,
“It’s insane. It’s crazy. Unfortunately, we’ve had to pass it along to our guests. Not only do we feel it at the back door but people coming in have to pay more. So, it’s something we’re monitoring. It’s a constant conversation with the refs about where food costs are and where our prices are.”
Ginsberg kept the sides that compliment his meat dishes relatively simple. Woods Chapel offers mac and cheese, a beet and jalapeño coleslaw, buttermilk and dill potato salad, and red rub fries. On Saturdays and Sundays, which includes Father’s Day, a hot smoked Scottish salmon entree is offered.
To complement your barbecue, several imaginative cocktails with a touch of sweetness are offered. There’s a Peach Whiskey Smash, a Strawberry Pimm’s Cup and a rosé wine drink with a California liqueur made from the aloe plant.
For his Father’s Day, Ginsberg is taking a pass on barbecue. To celebrate his special day as the father of an 11-year-old, his wife, who becomes the household’s chef for that day, is preparing his all-time favorite dish. It’s chicken parmesan, just like his mother used to make for him as a kid.
comments