Nicholls culinary arts student Nicholas Moore plans to attend a master cooking class in Lexington, Texas, hoping to bring back this education to the Chef John Folse Culinary Institute.
Moore, a 30-year-old student at Nicholls State, plans to travel to Lexington’s Snow’s Barbecue for a 12-hour master class put on by the restaurant during upcoming spring break. Participants will learn to cook proteins such as brisket, pork, ribs, chicken, sausage, and pork steaks, which Moore says is “a really unique cut.”
“We will learn how to prepare the proteins, get them ready, how to deal with your fires, how to put your proteins on the cookers, and check everything throughout,” Moore said.
Moore hopes to gain insight on the owner’s path to success.
Owner of the restaurant, Kerry Bexley, founded Snow’s on March 1, 2003. The restaurant gained its name from Bexley’s nickname as a child. Bexley’s pit master, Tootsie Tomanetz, works as a janitor Sunday through Monday, with the restaurant only being open on Saturdays, which is what Snow’s is known for.
According to Moore, Snow’s brisket cooker holds 500 pounds of meat. He also mentioned
that the owner, Bexley, built all of the cookers used on the property.
“There is a cattle auction by the restaurant, and the owner wanted to have a means to feed people before they went to the auction. Then the restaurant exploded and they made it on Texas Monthly Top 50 BBQ list,” Moore said.
Texas Monthly is a ranking of Texas’ best barbecue restaurants that is released every four
years. The restaurant then got famous on social media and drew in a variety of customers, and
had to expand due to overflow. Snows started working with online company Gold Belly to sell
their products, package them, freeze them, and send them straight to your doorstep.
Moore went to the restaurant for himself for Tootsie’s 90th birthday. He reflected on his experience.
“My mom and I got there at 11:30 at night with three people in the line in front of us, and they opened at 8 a.m. We watched the proteins cook and talked to the owner, and right before they opened, they gave out door prizes like Yetis, and we looked at the merch building on the site.”
Moore also said, “150 People in line is not out of the ordinary for them.”
Moore mentioned that after Tootsie lost her husband and son, she began to work at Snows and has done so for the past 20 years and “is there to do what she loves.”
After college, Moore aspires to start a barbecue restaurant of his very own. He wants to learn as much as possible from the trip to help his future.
“The ability to cook consistently large quantities of all the proteins that are barbecued, to be able to know how to effectively maintain your fires, and learn about your cooker, and start with a good quality piece of protein,” Moore said.
