Damien Brockway
Damien Brockway is a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef who opened Distant Relatives, an Austin barbecue trailer serving what he calls modern African American cuisine. His cooking draws on the African diaspora: after tracing his ancestry to Nigeria, Mali and Cameroon, he began working West African ingredients such as grains of paradise and African bird's eye chilies, along with nutmeg and allspice from the West Indies, into barbecue cooked on a Texas-style offset smoker. The truck now operates at Meanwhile Brewing in Austin.
Technique
Meats are dry-rubbed and smoked on an offset smoker over pecan rather than the more common post oak; Brockway has said the lighter, sweeter pecan smoke lets the spices come through. Sauces are served on the side, modeled on old-style mops of butter, vinegar and spices.
Recognition
- Distant Relatives — one of Eater's Best New Restaurants in America
- Distant Relatives — Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ Joints (2021)