Australian transplant gets cooking in Texas
To snatch a phrase from a bumper sticker, Jess Pryles wasn’t born in Texas but she got here as quick as she could.
Author, TV host, emcee and chef Pryles recently released her first cookbook, “Hardcore Carnivore: Cook Meat Like You Mean It,” featuring 224 pages of recipes and her own tricks and tips to attaining dominance over meat.
You won’t know what perfection is until you have her bacon-fried croutons and beer-battered onion rings.
As such, she’s been called the “female Ron Swanson” for her love of bourbon, beef, pickup trucks and hunting.
Born in Australia, Pryles now makes her home in Austin, right in the thick of Central Texas barbecue heaven. She went from owning her own gourmet cupcake bakery, Sugadeaux, in Melbourne to creating drool-worthy meat dishes about a decade ago. Along the way, she became the co-founder of the Australasian Barbecue Alliance, which officiates barbecue competitions and trains judges.
“I got into meat and barbecue thanks to a visit to Austin about 10 years ago,” she says. “I was travelling through and had my first experience with a smoked beef rib. It was an earth-moving flavor experience.”
The experience fueled a curiosity in Pryles that changed her life. She soon moved to Texas.
“A desire to eat more barbecue led to a curiosity to learn more about how it was made, which inadvertently led me down a path
to understanding more about preparing and cooking meat in general,” Pryles says.
A decade on and her own line of Hardcore Carnivore seasonings and meat rubs are sold all over the United States and in select parts of Europe and her native Australia. You’ve probably seen them on the shelves at Buc-ee’s, too, next to the Beaver Nuggets and other road-trip treats.
Upon moving to the Lone Star State, Pryles found that Australians and Texans are bonded by the same rugged spirit.
“We have similar attitudes. Easygoing, love an adult beverage and share ruggedly beautiful home terrains,” Pryles says. “Maybe that’s why it was so easy for me to assimilate and become a true, honorary Texan. It felt so natural.”
The Texans she has met along the way have embraced
her as one of their own. She’s been moved by the welcoming warmth of native Texans who are eager to share their love of the state with her.
“It didn’t matter that I was from another continent,” she says. “Once I showed genuine interest and fondness for the things that make this state so great, be it bluebonnets, trucks, barbecue, football or two-stepping, I was welcomed with open arms.”
And Pryles found that the stereotypes some of us Texans rail against were, in fact, true. But they weren’t a total surprise, her father spent time at Southern
Methodist University in the ’60s and shared his experiences with her early on.
“I was definitely expecting everyone to be wearing boots and Cadillacs with horns on the hood, but to be fair, I do see them every now and then in Austin,” she says with a laugh. “And nearly everyone I know owns a pair of boots, so I wasn’t too far off.”
On March 2, Texas Independence Day, she posted a gallery-worthy photo of herself as a version of the Goddess of Liberty, wrapped in the Texas flag holding a can of Lone Star beer aloft and cradling firewood. It immediately became a socialmedia hit.
And being an honorary Texan, Pryles has a natural affinity for Whataburger. In the late-night/early-morning hours, she’s all about the Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit. Otherwise, she keeps things straight-forward.
“The rest of the time, it’s a Whataburger with cheese and no tomato. I like tomato, but it’s just that it creates a slippery hazard when in a burger,” she says.
There is a level of no-nonsense grit to what she does that has even made fans out of grizzled pitmasters. For instance, her website has how-to features on dry aging steaks at home, reverse searing and how to season that most holy of cookware — a cast-iron skillet.
For the next few months, she will be on tour behind “Hardcore Carnivore,” including making two public appearances back in Australia. She’s also a panelist at this year’s South by Southwest festival, talking about the community that has risen around barbecue in recent years.
Speaking of that, what is the next frontier in Texas barbecue, as she sees it?
“Frontiers are being broken, and we’re seeing Texas-style barbecue appear all over the country and all over the world,” she says. “The rise of young blood entering the industry is undeniable, so I think you’ll start to see great quality barbecue becoming more readily available.”
Just don’t expect her to get into the act. For someone who has released her own seasonings, rubs, shirts, hats and now a best-selling book, don’t wait for Pryles to get into the restaurant business anytime soon.
“I have enough irons in the fire with my Hardcore Carnivore rubs and merch, my classes and my speaking engagements to take on anything else right now.”