
Barbecue is a delicious habit, a world in which talent and art are mixed with fire and smoke. For Eammon Azizi, a creative director by day, his real love smolders outside the office. His favorite job isn’t in front of a screen it’s working alongside a smoker, guarding ribs or brisket for hours on end. With kindling in Buffalo, New York, Eammon gets through the warmer months grilling outdoors whenever possible. When the snow starts to fall, he heads inside, employing cold weather to try new flavors, perfect techniques, and sharpen his skills as a pitmaster and competition cook.

1. Creating a Barbecue Philosophy
Eammon doesn’t simply cook barbecue he is it. For him, it’s not a weekend pastime or something to bring to the family picnic. It’s art. It’s a statement. He believes that barbecue is a reflection on the guy who puts it together, and he thinks a lot and hard about what his food is telling him. It’s a mindset that seeps into everything that he does. He blends traditional barbecue methods with offbeat ingredients, experimenting with new spice combinations, marinades, and woods constantly. He doesn’t want to replicate somebody else’s taste his own food has to be unique and personal.

2. Wood Cooking and Heart
Early on, you’ll catch Eammon telling you that wood choice matters much more than people realize. He uses it as a second spice. Different types of wood impart something unique. Cherry wood adds sweetness and a deep mahogany hue to his meats. Oak adds a reliable, bold smokiness. Mesquite is more robust and powerful, and hickory provides that distinctive barbecue kick most folks are familiar with. He tends to mix woods, so he can adapt his selection to meet the cut of meat, the rub, and the sauce and ensure harmony in each mouthful.

3. The Enchantment of Smoke and Fire
Fire is unpredictable, but Eammon holds it in high regard. He’s found that the secret to really exceptional barbecue isn’t having the best equipment or the most expensive ingredients though that doesn’t hurt. It’s mastering the fire. That means working with airflow, adjusting coals, and monitoring temperature hawk-like. Every smoker’s slightly different, and the weather’s a factor. If it’s windy, you might have to move your vents. When it is humid, the smoke does not behave. Eammon tells us the cooks are like a conversation between him and the pit. He has to listen, respond, and make adjustments on the fly.

4. Beyond the Backyard: Competition Cooking
Backyard potlucks have nothing to do with barbecue competitions. They’re high-stakes, technical competitions where half a degree off in temperature or a extra minute on the smoker is the difference between victory and sent home with an empty purse. Eammon started a few years ago, and he was hooked from day one. The adrenaline rush, the late nights tending fires, the team camaraderie it all did it for him. These competitions typically run the length of the weekend. He’ll be resting in a folding chair next to his smoker, with alarms every 30 minutes to check temperatures. It’s savage but wonderful. And when he gets it right, it’s all worth it.
5. Signature Dishes and Surprise Twists
Eammon’s barbecue has a voice. His brisket is old school, smoked low and slow for 12 or more hours, but might be topped with a cherry-chipotle glaze that adds sweetness and a smoky punch. His pulled pork is fall-apart rich and tender but jerk-seasoned for a touch of island flavor. His ribs? Sticky and spicy with a touch of tang from the addition of tamarind in the sauce. Even his sides are creative. He might bring out a smoky mac and cheese loaded with poblano peppers or cornbread infused with curry and honey. These experiments are not there for the sake of novelty they’re proof of his love of international food and his curiosity as a chef.

6. Sharing the Craft
Barbecue, to Eammon, is not something to be selfish about. He will often invite neighbors, friends, and even strangers into his backyard to teach. He holds spontaneous classes on how to construct a fire, cut a brisket, or smoke a chicken just perfectly. He says that the most effective way to learn barbecue is to do it alongside someone who has done the trial and error. To him, instructing isn’t about showing off it’s about sharing a heritage, a skill set, and a food enthusiasm that brings people together.
7. Getting Inspired
Even after all these years of cooking, Eammon never really feels like he’s finished learning. He’s always on the lookout for the next thing, the next technique, the next local style he hasn’t tried yet, the next ingredient he hasn’t played with. He reads cookbooks, surfs barbecue boards in the middle of the night, watches cooking shows, and travels as much as he can to taste barbecue from someone else. He’s constantly scribbling down thoughts, taking notes over dinner, and planning his next test. This zeal for continuous learning is what fuels the fires.

8. Indoor Experimentation
Buffalo winters are no joke, but they don’t discourage Eammon from cooking. When snow covers his backyard smoker, he makes do with the kitchen. He experiments with oven-roasting techniques, reverse-searing, and sous-vide arrangements to reproduce barbecue textures. He uses smoked oils and salts to get that same depth of flavor within. It is in those sessions that many of his most innovative ideas are born. Without fire to distract him, he fully focuses on flavor creation, spice incorporation, and sauce development. It’s quieter, more restrained but no less satisfying.

9. Community and Connection
What is striking about Eammon’s approach is the emphasis it places on connection. He does not cook to impress; he cooks to share. He believes that food is one of the oldest and most powerful ways of bringing people together. Whatever he is preparing for his family, serving guests at a block party, or conversing with other pitmasters at a barbecue competition, Eammon always looks at barbecue as a way to build connections. He says the best moments aren’t when someone’s complimenting the food it’s when they come back for seconds.

10. Pitmaster Gear and Setup
Eammon’s toolkit is compact but thorough. He prefers offset smokers because they enable him to control fire and air. He also employs kamado grills if he requires better heat retention. His equipment includes a couple of trusty thermometers, pound packets of butcher paper, lump charcoal, a stockpile of smoking woods, and a rotating door of homemade spice rubs he makes himself. Though he’s up to date on the newest gadgets, he doesn’t believe technology should do it for him. For him, the human element is the whole concept.

11. Keeping Tradition Alive, with a Personal Spin
Eammon is a great admirer of traditional barbecue. He studies the roots of it from the Carolina-style pulled pork to the Texas-style brisket and tries to give those styles justice when he cooks. Yet, he also believes that traditions must transform when individuals make them their own. That’s why he’s not afraid to get innovative. He draws inspiration from global cuisines and finds creative ways to cross-pollinate them with traditional barbecue techniques. It’s not inventing the wheel it’s making it roll in the direction that he is.

12. What Motivates a Pitmaster
When asked what motivates him, Eammon does not refer to trophies or social media likes. He shares in that silent second when slicing into a brisket, seeing the perfect ring of smoke. He shares the dawn scent of oak and hickory suspended in the air. He shares the thrill when somebody takes that first bite, closes their eyes, and nods simply. Those are the moments that make all nighters, failed experiments, and sore shoulders.

13. Fire as a creative force
At its essence, Eammon regards barbecue as an art. The fire is wild, alive, and volatile. Preparing food with it takes patience, gut, and a hint of risk. But that’s exactly what makes it so rewarding. Every chef is different, each fire slightly different. It’s this perpetual test and the possibility of taking simple, humble ingredients and making them memorable that keeps him at it. For Eammon, the fire is not merely a means of cooking. It’s his canvas.