Middle Tennessee Open-Fire Experts Are All Over the Media

I know it’s tough to think about cooking outdoors over live fire when the weather is hotter’n the hinges of hell — as it has been for the past month. But dedicated backyard grilling enthusiasts are always ready to fire up some implement of incendiary cookery and are often seeking to learn more about their chosen hobby.

Fortunately, Middle Tennessee is blessed with all sorts of outdoor cooking expertise, and these masters are more than willing to drop their knowledge on anyone willing to watch.

First up is Pat Martin, the absolute powerhouse of a storyteller, live-fire cooking master and restaurateur responsible for nine Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joints, four Hugh Baby’s and two SweetMilk restaurant locations. Along with his business partners, Martin has already introduced the region to whole-hog cookery, Friday-only slugburgers and the little-known fact that a real “cathead” biscuit is actually small, not some giant puma-head-size beast that some Southern restaurants roll out at breakfast.

As much as Martin loves the restaurant business, he also loves to teach, specifically about live-fire techniques. He has already produced two seasons of an excellent television series, Life of Fire, which is distributed through the Outdoor Channel and the Tastemade digital media company. He has been working with internationally known chef Andrew Zimmern’s Intuitive Content food, travel and lifestyle production company to produce the first two seasons, and now Zimmern and company have acquired the future IP rights to the show with the aim of broadening distribution.

In the official announcement of the new arrangement, Zimmern predicts a bright future for the show: “We’re proud to continue our partnership with KSE’s Outdoor Sportsman Group (OSG) and Outdoor Channel on a series that has consistently resonated with audiences through authentic storytelling and extraordinary characters — notably Pat, the life and fire of the show, who has the extraordinary ability to earn people’s trust and reveal traditions that otherwise might be lost. Bringing Life of Fire back home under our banner is an important step as we further invest in our premium lifestyle properties with long-term viewer appeal.”

I recently sat down with Pat during a break in filming an episode for Season 3 at an undisclosed location (OK, somebody’s kick-ass Airbnb in Williamson County) as he was working with some local talent who he called “the next guard of barbecue in this town.” Who was it specifically? I’m sworn to secrecy, so you’ll just have to wait until Season 3 comes out sometime in 2027. The good news is Netflix has picked up some of Life of Fire’s past catalog to stream as part of their new Culture Edit initiative, so hopefully Intuitive Content can deepen the relationship with the streamer for a broader distribution in the future. Currently, Netflix subscribers can watch a fantastic episode featuring the Darsino family, a visit to a legendary West Tennessee whole joint that still does it the old-fashioned way, Chris Lilly’s smoked chicken and Alabama white barbecue sauce from Big Bob Gibson’s, and a trip to California to learn about Santa Maria-style meat cookery.

In addition to a couple of Middle Tennessee episodes for Season 3, Martin has plans to film in California Wine Country, explore immigrant-inspired Midwestern cooking traditions, explain the difference between the Carolina and Tennessee whole-hog processes and enjoy some shore lunch lakeside in Minnesota. (Maybe I should have interviewed him on another leg of his barbecue odyssey.)

As we sat down, I asked him why he carved out time in his already extremely busy life for a massive project like this show. He answered: “I love shining a spotlight on other people, talking about their cultures and practices cooking over live fire. This has really scratched a big creative itch for me. I didn’t know how it would mean so much to me!”

Martin has always invited people behind the scenes to see how he cooks. At Martin’s, the smokers aren’t hidden away in the kitchen or in some detached smokehouse — they’re always visible from the dining room. Cooking a 180-pound hog is an impressive feat, and there’s nothing dainty about straddling the pit to heave the carcass when it’s time to flip the pig. It’s not just for show; it’s to demonstrate that Martin’s is cooking the same way that Pat’s progenitors of pork have done for generations, just in a (slightly) more comfortable indoor environment.

“Fire is so intimidating to some people,” he explains. “And I love the restaurant business, love it! But I wanted to have a heavy hand in the creative of this series. [Executive producer] Patrick Weiland said, 'So just do it,' and he created empty canvases where I could choose who or what I wanted to feature.”

And if Pat Martin is in charge of a cook, you know it’s going to be his style of old school. “No gas. No electricity. Just wood, fire and cast iron. Real!”

You can currently stream Seasons 1 and 2 of Life of Fire on Tastemade, and Season 3 will be released sometime in 2027.

In other streaming Nashville food-related content, author Matt Moore has released Season 2 of his entertaining series Serial Griller, filmed in the backyard of his East Nashville home. Matt is an engaging presenter who teaches while he cooks in his outdoor cooking set-up — which stimulates great envy in my heart. He’s also good for a cocktail recipe or two per episode, so you can learn what to pair with what comes off the grill.

The episodes are entertaining and well-paced, and definitely worth your time. I admit that the first season was a little hard to find because the Hungry.TV streaming network is kind of scattered in its distribution. If you’re more familiar with the satellite networks that often come pre-installed on your television, you can search of it on the Samsung TV Plus: Channel 2118 (or Channel 1225, depending on region/updates). LG Channels: Channel 708. Local Now: Channel 1512. Vizio WatchFree+ (check your local on-screen guide for availability). And on other platforms: Roku, Amazon Fire TV (via Janson app), Twitch (Twitch.tv/hungry), and the Hungry Official Website.

Hopefully, the show will eventually show up on Amazon Prime and Tubi like Season 1 did. That’s a lot easier for busy folks like me to track down.