Legendary Texas Pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz Featured in Chef's Table: BBQ

Netflix

The next iteration of Netflix's Emmy-winning documentary food series Chef's Table is starting off with a Southern bang.

Chef's Table: BBQ, the upcoming series set to take viewers on a deep dive into the smokey world of barbecue, kicks off with an episode dedicated to a Texas legend: 85-year-old pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow's BBQ in Lexington.

This 85-year-old grandmother who opened Snow's in 2003, has been perfecting her barbecue method for 50 years. A custodian by day and a pitmaster by night, Tomanetz still shovels the coals at her award-winning restaurant.

The episode highlights her old-school approach to barbecue, from relying on touch to know how hot the pits are and tirelessly mopping each piece of meat by hand with their traditional mop sauce. There's a reason Snow's was named the best barbecue restaurant in the state by Texas Monthly in 2017!

"I can tell you how hot my pits are because I feel 'em with my hands," Tomanetz says in the show's trailer. "It's just something I do."

Tomanetz, though humble, is no stranger to recognition. She was inducted into the Barbecue Hall of Fame in 2018 and is a two-time James Beard semifinalist.

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Each episode of Chef's Table: BBQ will focus on a different barbecue restaurant around the world. Other featured pitmasters include Lennox Hastie, a remarkable Australian chef who sources all of his ingredients from the Outback; South's Best winner Rodney Scott of Charleston, South Carolina, who is known for his whole hog barbecue; and Rosalia Chay Chuc, a traditional Mayan chef who serves Cochinita Pibil out of her Mexico home.

Chef's Table: BBQ premieres globally on Netflix on September 2, 2020.