On the Road with Chef Dennis - Tuckaway Shores

Hey everyone, we are live from Tuckaway Shores Resorts for a mini egg fest. And this is the first in the series of On the Road with Chef Dennis. And let me tell you, I could not have picked a better place to start this series at because I have been amazed from the moment I walked in here and people started just being so kind and so generous to me. And they're there handing me food and saying, they didn't even know who I was. Are you staying here? Well, you come back down and we're gonna feed you later. No idea who I was at first. They were just being genuinely friendly, warm people, and—

buenas noches—

what a wonderful group of people.

Yes, they are.

And this is Jackie, and Jackie runs Tuckaway Shores, and, uh, it's been quite an incredible event here. And you do other things here, and it's a beautiful site. We are on the beach. I have oceanfront on the third floor with the most amazing windows that fold open into 9 feet of expanse of beachfront view with a breeze that is to die for.

On our secluded beach.

Secluded beach, yeah. You know, it was so amazing that there's not a lot of people out here, but when you think about what Florida has in terms of beach, I guess it's not as surprising. But, uh, you know, you've got a good thing going here.

Well, we have the longest Brevard County. Space Coast has 72 miles. Beachfront, longest in Florida. The south side of the county is more secluded, laid back, which is where we're located. And there's no high-rise buildings, so it's kind of feels private.

Yeah, it does. And you got a good size beach. I mean, I went further down the coast today, and when I went out at, uh, oh geez, I can't remember the name of the resort, Vero Beach. It was a much smaller beach, and I was surprised that it didn't have quite as much. And you'll notice we are in a hotel lobby. So that's why there's phones going off. And you know, it's a good thing that it's busy because you want to know that people are coming here. And I'm telling you, this weekend it's sold out, and I can see why, because the room itself is picture-perfect. You got a little kitchen in there, kitchenette, and like I said, the view from the, from the room itself where we can sit— and we had all the lights off last night, we were looking at the stars and watching and listening to the water. And oh, I would have left the window open all night long, but I was afraid it was going to get a little too cold because it did drop. Yeah, it was getting a little chilly, which for Florida, you know, is anything below 60 normally. So we were, we were kind of set up to, uh, did not get too chilly last night, but it was beautiful. We opened it first.

So happy you've joined us. And here, what we're trying to show is a little bit of authentic Florida, and that's what Tuckaway is. And we're one of about 160 other little properties like this in Florida. It's more representative of what Florida used to look like. And, but everyone that comes always seems to really enjoy it.

I can see why.

Authentic feel.

You know, and I think that's the big thing you're saying. It's authentic Florida. You know, it's not the glam, the glitz of what people made, you know, things into, you know, you still get the flavor and you still get how things, it's just more relaxed.

And the true hospitality.

Hospitality is genuine, actually the word. And you know, like where I was in Vero earlier at a property that the Mouse owns, we walked in and I didn't get a warm feeling from that, you know? And after being here, maybe that's what it was. If I'd gone there first, but comparing it, and we both of us walked out going, wow. This is a big difference.

It's kind of the difference between corporate America and small town America.

Yeah.

Kind of feel. So if you want to really enjoy yourself and you're not gonna, there's not going to be any lack of pampering and there's not going to be any lack of amenities and you're just going to have a great time.

Well, good. We're enjoying it.

We're glad you enjoy it. I am so happy. You know, I am so excited. I didn't really know what to expect when I came. It's like anything else when you— and like, you had no idea who I was when I came, and we kind of both trusted each other. And that's part of what we're doing, talking about with your association of inns, where sometimes people think they have to go to those name brands, and you don't always get a good value from them because you're paying for that name. And a lot of times you walk away going, "Well, wasn't that great?" So here it's a matter of trusting your association and the people that are really You own it.

You're typically going to find it's the owner on site who really cares about the guests and the guest experience. And if you're a member, as we are, of the Florida Superior Small Lodging, you can be assured you're going to find something very, very clean, very comfortable, well-maintained, all the modern amenities, but still that old Florida feel.

That's great.

We're glad we're introducing you to it.

I'm happy as heck too, and I look forward to visiting, coming back here for sure, and visiting some of the other properties.

Wonderful.

Well, we're— go ahead—

and we're here because we're having an event. Yeah, this weekend. This is the 6th annual year for the Mini Egg Fest, and we have a whole lot of eggheads standing around us, which I love. Let them talk to you about the Big Green Egg and what they do. So I'll excuse myself.

Okay, well, thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right, so if someone wants to jump in and talk in a little bit, and we'll So how you doing?

Good, Chef Dennis. I'd like to welcome you to our 6th annual Mini Egg Fest here.

Why don't you tell everybody who you are and what you do?

My name is Pat McDonough. I work locally. We found Tuckaway Shores.

Here we go.

Look at this pizza. Deep dish pizza.

Pizza right off the grill.

Now this came out of an egg, a big egg grill. Now unfortunately, Chef Dennis has gone gluten-free and it pains me to no end. But I cannot eat that. And last night they gave me one that was topped with corn, and I took a bite of it going, I'll be damned, I'm going to taste it. The crust was freaking amazing. It was like a brick oven pizza.

Oh, the egg is something completely different. And that's what got this whole thing started here at Tuckaway. I stopped by to see Jackie for business reasons, and we looked over and Tuckaway's got a Green Egg out here for the guests. I said, Jackie, do you mind if I take a picture? I took a picture of it. And back then, the forum at the time, which was very active, GreenAgros.com, I posted a couple of pictures. Well, all my friends, you know, hey, let's have a little gathering there. So I asked Jackie, she said, yeah, we'll block a couple of rooms. So we took 13 rooms the first year, 6 years ago. We had such a good time. This place is beautiful. It's clean. It's quiet. We had such a good time that within 2 weeks when we posted pictures on the forum, we had every room in Tuckaway booked. And we have for the last 6 years. By the time we leave at the end of this year, we'll have it booked again for next year. Amazing. Tuckaway loves us. The rooms are clean. The staff is excellent. The friends from all over the country— we've got Miami, we've got Georgia, uh, over Florida. We've got Ohio right there, New Mexico.

Minnesota.

Minnesota. We've had Italy, a chef from Italy. We've had Mexico. All flying in to Tuckaway Shores to cook on the Big Green Egg and have fun with friends.

You know, it's been quite an eye-opening experience and I've learned a lot and I can't believe how easy they are to use. And you know, I hate to tell the people at Weber that, you know, I'd rather have one of them, but—

Some of the Eggheads have Webers at home, but we get here because of Egg. Yeah, we haul our own eggs in, we take over the place, and we cook. Well, you guys, we're making pizza, we're making lamb.

The—

some of the food I saw last night was just mind-blowing. I'm a chef, all right? So when I'm looking at it going, holy crap, how are they doing that?

Well, we actually— that's, uh, there's a few— Tim's wife is a chef, and she's also an instructor at Le Cordon Bleu. Most of us are backyard cookers, but I've learned a lot. There's some darn good cooks in this group.

Well, grilling is a whole different mentality. Yeah, it is. But I mean, using that kind of, let's say, a brick oven type of cooking, outside cooking, it's a whole different mentality. I mean, we can— like, you can give me a sauté pan and I can cook you 400 dinners to order on a stove. But you put me outside on the grill and I'm a little—

I can put that same sauté pan in the grill.

Yes, you can.

Then I could fire it up to 1,200 degrees and do a pizza, or put it at 250 degrees and smoke a butt.

That's right. So I mean, you've got more options, but I really like to welcome you.

It's—

you see what brings it, it's the people and the place.

Well, it's, it's been great. I'm so happy you could stop in. It was a pleasure. Thank you very much. All right, let's have somebody else jump in.

Hey Dennis, Bubba Tim.

Bubba Tim, I sampled some of your food last night too.

Yeah, so it was gluten-free, wasn't it?

Yes, it was.

Yes, it was.

And I, I think a few specks of something not gluten-free might have, might have hit my system now and then too, but you know, I'm not allergic. I'm just trying to improve my health overall, so that's why I'm doing it. But I'm still trying.

I see you have the lychee.

I do. And this is a lychee nut stuffed with chorizo. Chorizo. And I, I saved a couple. I ate one right away because it is, it is spicy, sweet, and just— I'm gonna eat another one.

And it's gluten-free.

Gluten-free.

And the textures were just, mm, mm, mm, mm, happy dance in my mouth.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Now, Pat and I started talking way back when. He says, hey, why don't we get together and do this, that, and the other thing? And so we kind of put our collective minds together and pulled this thing off. And then right after that, or was it before that? I forget now. We were actually organizers for the Sunshine State Egg Fest. And then we, you know, a couple thousand of our closest friends all around the world came up straight up to Crown Plaza. And just this year I turned over the reins to Rossi's Meats. Wow. And they're taking it over.

So it must be quite an event to have that many people cooking at one time. And the hospitality that everyone seems to have is just, just what blows me away.

Yeah, the, the Big Green Egg is based on a 4,000-year-old ancient kamado. This is natural lump charcoal. These now are modern grade. They're made with refractory cement, which, which is a kind of a ceramic of sorts, and they're guaranteed for life.

So they're phenomenal things.

Wow. It's more of a, you know, we call ourselves eggheads, but it's more of a brother and sisterhood of, you know, foodies.

Yeah, absolutely. And nothing brings people together like food.

Yeah, food and alcohol.

Hence another show that I do, the Food and Booze Show. And I will, I will tell you too that Chef Dennis Littley sampled Yeah, unfortunately he did. What did I have? Now see, I can't even— my brain cells— apple pie moonshine. Last night I'm tweeting and I'm going to Lisa, I go, where are we? Where? Because I'm going, I can't remember where we are. After 2 of them, I was feeling no pain. And that was just for breakfast. Yeah. Well, someone brought a little in a little while ago and I had a sip and I'm going, I better just do a sip because I have a pretty reduction to do. And I have been on these a little intoxicated, but we don't want to repeat that again. So we're happy.

Before I came up from the weekend, people saying, well, you know, what is the Fest? What's the Mini Fest? I said, well, Fest is kind of a drinking— or excuse me, eating, drinking, um, eating fest. I said the Mini Fest is a drinking, eating, drinking fest.

There you go.

There's the difference.

That's the difference. There's always a difference. Thank you very much.

How you doing?

I'm doing good. And yourself?

Thank you very much. Tell everybody who you are, what you do.

My name is Kim Youngblood. I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, and this is my wife and I made the apple pie moonshine. So we cooked it in the room, so it was nice and fresh. It's very good, and we love the Big Green Egg. I've been demoing a new egg that's coming out. It should be out this week. It's called the Mini Max. And it's between a mini egg and a small egg, and it has the same cooking surface as a small, but it's more compact, more portable, and we've loved it. We've been baking on it. Sorry, didn't know you were—

that's okay—

trying to avoid gluten, but we've been baking, and we did, uh, you know, biscuits and cinnamon rolls and orange rolls. And we like to, when we go to these fests, we like to show people the versatility of the egg. We're the ones that did the deep dish pizza. And, you know, just everybody enjoys it. And then, as you see, everybody walks around and tries each other's food and taste. And, you know, people are always, well, what do you win if you win anything? It's like, this is not a competition. This is just friends getting together, trying different techniques, trying different foods. And that's what makes it so much fun.

Absolutely.

And then the apple pie moonshine adds to the fun.

Yeah.

And it was just a great time. We were sitting around last night swapping stories, just like we're old friends, and food will do that, and a little alcohol always helps. It helps a lot. But it was such a beautiful evening, and today it's a little breezy out there.

Little breezy. We'd be doing this— Florida.

Yeah, outside.

I don't normally wear sweatshirts in Florida in November.

I know, I got a long sleeve and long pants on. It's new for me.

But, uh, but, uh, I saw this morning, and unfortunately we didn't get to get to you, but I saw you guys going out. You missed breakfast. Was you know, off the charts for a lot of different people cooking a lot of different things. But, you know, it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, late night.

If we do it all, anything you can make in a kitchen can be made on an egg.

Exactly.

Which is really mind-blowing.

The only thing that I always joke is people say that, I say, well, you can't make ice cream. But I did see somebody do a baked Alaska one time. So that's as close. Well, you know, if you can get that fire, that puppy up to 1,200, you can get it in and out really quick, right? Yeah, it doesn't make a— no, you can get it done really quick and that makes it really good. But, uh, glad you guys could come.

Thank you.

I'm so happy to have lots of fun. Sorry you can't try the deep dish pizza. I know, I gotta tell you, it's good. I know, put the Crisco in the bottom of the pan, you get that cracker crust. That's what makes the difference.

Well, that's the— the whole crust is the whole thing to a pizza.

Yeah.

And that's when you get a pizza that could be really good and the crust is isn't there, but this is crisp enough.

Well, it was funny because I was just talking to somebody, it's like, all right, I love the pizza, but I really want to make just the dough. So can I somehow or another make it into a bread using the Crisco?

And I'm going to experiment, probably make like a flatbread.

Yeah, yeah, I would think so.

Easy enough. You feel like a Sicilian kind of crust, double thick or something?

Yeah.

And just have some fun with it.

Yeah.

Even though I need to avoid the gluten too. No, but you know, one of these days I'm going to get the 6 too.

There you go.

I keep trying.

Well, I'm working on some gluten-free recipes, so maybe we can try them in the egg one day.

Sure, that'll be great.

All right.

All right.

Thank you very much. Is there a doctor in the house?

Yes, there is.

How you doing?

I'm fine.

And I'm Chef Dennis Littley, and you are?

Rebecca Payson.

Very nice to meet you, Rebecca.

Nice to meet you.

And so, are you a fan of the Big Green Egg?

A huge fan.

A huge fan. In your spare time?

In my spare time.

Okay. So what have you done fun on a Big Green Egg?

Tons of things. I knew nothing about it when I first got it. I went into a propane gas store and they sold a lot of Weber grills. And outside they were cooking on this giant big green thing, and it smelled and looked so good. And then they gave samples, and the guy said, well, even though we're a propane gas store, this is our favorite thing. It's called a Big Green Egg. I was like, huh. I bought two Weber grills, and one for my mother and one for my sister for Mother's Day. And then the next day it was bugging me and I said, "Send me out one of those extra large Big Green Eggs." And so they did. And then it just caught on and then I bought a small one and then I bought a mini one and it kind of really grows on you. And through attending the Fest, my first Fest was in Florida, and I was so frightened and afraid because these Aggers that I had read about on the forum that could cook all these awesome things, I thought, what am I going to do? And I was welcomed instantly. I came in now like 2 AM in the morning. They stayed up and waited for me. They didn't even know me except people said, take care of her, watch over her, she's new. And from then on, it's just been snowballing. I meet more and more people from around the country and the world, and I learn more and more cooking techniques.

That's pretty cool. And you flew in from Ohio?

Yes.

And, you know, I heard the story, said somebody had to stay sober enough to go pick you up last night.

That was my request, and they did. And surprisingly, Pat did it. I don't know how, but he did it for you.

I'm a little nervous. You've got a weapon on your lap, and I was going to ask you if you were planning on forking me, but I didn't— that somehow didn't sound right. No, I'm done. Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

You're done, you're done.

Well, it's been a lot of fun. I'm so— and I love your— I don't want to say it's a costume in case this is how you normally dress, but I love, I love your outfit.

Well, this shoe, you know, they're easy to run in and they're really comfortable.

Stockings.

And when I don't have my broom, I always carry my fork.

Sounds good.

And by the way, I love staying at the Tuckaway, and if this fest were not here, I don't think I would come because it's a piece of old Florida. Yeah, like it used to be, and it's still here. And now I have my family coming, so— and then I come down by myself now. And so it's, it's a fine thing that I discovered it.

Oh yeah, and it's, it's such a nice getaway. I mean, we're just marveling at it. We're sitting here going, I can't believe we got we got to come here.

Right on the oceanfront.

Oh my.

Right there. And you hear the waves coming in and the breeze. It's wonderful.

I thought my wife was gonna cry last night because she spent her summers in Ocean City and they lost the house in Hurricane Sandy and things have never been quite the same. She can't go back. It's painful. And she misses the shore so much. And we pull up there and I opened that window up and she was just, she pulled the chair up all the way to the edge and was sitting there looking at The Stars Calling, all of her friends and family. It was just really nice.

So hey, Karen, lovely to meet you.

Very lovely to meet you.

Thank you so much.

Egg on.

Egg on. Exactly. It's an eggstravaganza. So anybody else? Come on down. Oh, here's the man. And we have— that was your lychee. Was that your lychee?

That was my lychee.

That was your lychee. And I ate two of them. I got another one here.

And don't leave home without them.

You did a mushroom yesterday that was topped with cheese too. It had a chorizo stuffing.

That's correct.

I remember eating them too.

It was a chorizo stuffed mushroom and it had the mozzarella cheese on it. And of course my carnivore spicy, and, uh, that's the— that's got a lychee with, uh, stuffed with chorizo and with a mirepoix and with a demi-glace over the top of it.

Is the lychee naturally that sweet?

The lychee as part of it, the demi-glace helps it all. Just kind of works on each other.

Okay, so how long have you been working on a Green Egg?

Oh geez, I've been on Green Egg probably, probably over 10 years now. I was back— I've got the old original clay eggs back when they were still literally the terracotta type.

Were they not green then, or—

they were still green, but the inside was terracotta. Now they're the harder ceramic And that old one still holds up?

You still got it?

I've still got the old one and still cook on it. We've done Thanksgiving dinner on it more than a few times.

Wow.

So what is your favorite thing to cook on a Green Egg?

I tell you what, well, when I do a lot of competitions and that, I usually use the Green Eggs and I do the ribs, the pulled pork, the brisket, all those kind of things.

So you can smoke on it, you can bake on it, you can roast, you can do anything.

If you can, you can do everything on that egg that you can do on a pizza oven, everything that you can do on a grill, everything you can do on a smoker, except for microwave. That's— you can do anything on that egg you want to.

Cool.

That's fantastic.

It is.

I know I should have stopped by to see what could be made for breakfast. See, my thoughts, not being a real good grill cook, is I would have tried to make pancakes on it. Forget you got to put a grill on top of it.

We made pancakes yesterday.

I bet.

So, but you put a, you put like a flat top grill on it?

Yes, they, they have different, uh, accoutrements you can put on. And, uh, as soon as you put those on there, you've got essentially a skillet, or, you know.

Now I saw how you were lighting them. You're using like a butane torch, right? And because I have— my question was, well, you know, when you start a charcoal grill, it takes— you got to let it heat up, and it takes really about an hour before it gets up to temperature. Normally how, you know, when you just light it. But this thing, this was ready to go in no time at all by using that, right?

And the other thing is too, is you've got— well, you're using actual hardwood charcoal. With the, with the briquettes that you buy in the store, they've actually got— they're mostly sawdust. They got an adhesion, then they have, you know, the filler, and then they have the accelerant. And so when you get done cooking on them, whether you're cooking just a little or cooking a lot, that whatever you got lit is gone. Yeah, with the, uh, with the Big Green Egg, you can sit there and fill up your basket, go ahead and cook it, shut it down, come back tomorrow, and what you left there is still there tomorrow, ready to be cooked on again.

So you don't lose that wood?

You don't lose— you don't lose the lump. You don't lose the, the lump charcoal. So there's plenty, plenty of this.

Now, is that the only thing you ever use in that egg too to cook on? I mean, would you— you wouldn't use briquettes, right?

You would never use briquettes.

Could you use the lump in a regular— if somebody has a regular grill, a charcoal grill?

You can.

Okay.

You can, you can. But it's, it's just something— it's a— to those of us who really like to cook a lot, and, you know, kind of as a profession as well, it's, it just works. It's a better tool than Kingsford.

Yeah, because I would think they're not as healthy either here with all the stuff they're putting in them.

No, I wouldn't believe so.

Yeah, I mean, we don't want to, we don't want to just disparage them, but I mean, if you're manufacturing something as opposed it's something natural. It's always—

that would be my thoughts as well. I mean, this is, this is the wood. They take a hardwood, they make, uh, they push it together, they light it, do not let it incinerate, so it just turns into, you know, lump coal. When you light, you've got the flavor there, and, uh, it's just— it works real well.

It's—

yeah.

Can you buy different flavors? Lump?

They have, absolutely. And it depends on the type of hardwood that you use. And they've got maple, they got oak, they've got all the different flavors. And then of course we also add our own smoking wood.

Yeah.

In addition to that, most of us don't use chips, we actually use chunks.

Yeah.

Because the egg— you could use sawdust in the egg because it's so airtight when it cooks, it would never ignite until you opened up the thing, up the dome on it.

And you can turn them off easy enough so they stop.

Burning pretty much, yeah. As soon as you shut it back down, you know, you're going to have a little bit of an influx of smoke. And then as soon as you go ahead and cut the oxygen off, it's going to do exactly what it's designed to do. It's essentially a mobile brick oven.

That's cool.

And that's, that's why there's so much versatility to it.

Very good. Yeah, I'm learning a lot. I'm excited.

Well, good deal.

And everything's better with the carnivore sauce.

And that's right. And I want you to have this. This is—

oh, thank you.

This is my barbecue carnivore company here, Carnivore Barbecue Sauce, and we win a lot of ribbons with that. We win almost every rib competition we ever go to, and it's so good it will make your tongue slap your brains around. Well, with me, that's right. We've won Iron Chef competitions using that. We've done really well with this. A small company we started.

Excellent.

About 3, 4 years ago, and the Eggers loved us, embraced it, and really helped it just grow. And we're still growing and hope to keep growing.

I, I would think so. This sounds really good. I, I can't wait to try it at home on my— maybe it'll make my, my barbecue stuff taste better, because although I am a chef, my barbecue is my weak point.

So, well, that, that was— should take you up a few notches. And the thing is too, if you You pull a little bit of that behind your ear, your wife will not be able to keep her hands off you. I'm just saying.

Tonight we're trying it. I may rub a little bit more behind my ears. I hope it doesn't burn.

We'll keep an extra fire extinguisher around just in case.

Thank you very much.

My pleasure, buddy.

Great talking to you.

Have a good day.

Appreciate you being here.

Well, guys, we're having a great time. I see Greg Trullio's in the house. Kim Baltman, Coach Moore, thank you so much. Dennis Littley for coming in and everybody else that's watching. Stop in and we'll talk a little bit. I'm just saying hi to people watching.

Okay.

I wasn't getting ready to sign off. I see some viewers watching, so I always like to say hi to them.

A couple of them. I'm George Dunham. I'm from Winter Haven. Tim Reeves got me into the Green Egg and been cooking for years on it. I didn't resist to buy one for years. Finally, my wife said, just go buy one. So I did. And we've gotten cooking. We've had the best time. So people, it's just amazing community that we've learned about.

I would love to go to one of these major fests simply because if you guys are this friendly here.

Oh, it's amazing. You know, you can imagine 500 or, you know, John puts on the Georgia Mountain Egg Fest. He has like 1,800, 1,900 people go to that.

Wow.

It's amazing people. They just, they're from all over the world.

And all the different foods, like, you know, they were talking about walking around to get the food. I didn't even have to walk around. People were bringing things to me and other people were telling me to follow them. I would see, they just follow me, like, okay, you know, if there's food involved, I'm there.

You can probably start eating at daybreak here and quit eating when the last person goes to bed at 2 o'clock or whatever time. It was late last night.

Well, I know my wife woke me up to go to bed because I was intending on coming back down. It was— she was up late. She said, they're still out there.

We were waiting on Rebecca, and so we were kind of staying up with Pat, and Rebecca didn't get in until like 2:08, and so it was, it was pretty late. And when she got here, of course, you know, she kind of wanted to see what was going on and have some food, whatever. We just had a good time. It's just a good family.

Oh yeah, and you know, that's exactly— when you say family, that's exactly how I felt. And you know, like in any family, you're going to have a few of those, the strange members of the family, but there's always those guys. And I had people warning me last night, oh, I'm I'm sorry I introduced you to him. Don't, don't listen to what he said. So, you know, it was fun, and, you know, I was just happy I got to sit at the adult table last night at the family picnic, and we had a great time. But I'm telling you, the food, just the camaraderie, and I can see why you guys enjoy it so much and why you look forward to coming back.

You end up buying one egg, and before you know it, you got two. Before you know it, I've got three eggs myself. I won one at one of these fests when we were cooking, in a drawing. And then, uh, so I'm ended up with 3, and I'm fixing to buy— when that Minimax comes out, I'm gonna buy the 4th. My son has really gotten into it, and he's got 4 of them now himself.

Now, what do you do with the different sizes?

Well, you could cook multiple things at one time. Like, you can get your, you know, slow cooks going over here, you do your vegetables, you can do your bread, and all of it can come off the grill.

So it's just like thinking of different burners on a stove in the oven, pretty much.

Okay. Yeah. And, and, you know, like, if there's only two of you, well, you may not fire up the big grills. You just fire up the small grills. And it's just a way of, you know, the smaller grills heat up faster. You can do things on the smaller grills quicker. And, you know, it's not as big a cooking surface. Like, I've been using my small out here. We cooked a lot of food this weekend so far. My wife came up with a couple of recipes. One of them was macaroni and cheese. I never had hers, that particular recipe, and It was amazing.

Let me ask you a question. Like, one of the things that I've learned to do on a grill because I tend to burn things is indirect cooking. Do you have to worry about that? I know they said you don't have as many flare-ups, or you don't have—

you don't have flare-ups, you know, even, even, well, even on direct cooking, you know, you've got the fire below you, but by shutting off the oxygen the way you're doing it, you're just cooking with the heat, not with the flame. Okay. And so you really don't have the flare-ups. You don't burn the steaks up. You don't burn the chicken enough. Yeah, so hamburgers, you don't burn up.

So you're gonna cook them till they're done without getting them ugly and charred. That's right. You know, and I think for me, like I said, I am not a classic griller. It's just not my mentality. I try, uh, but that's the worst problem I have. So I try to cook indirect whenever I can because I'll invariably— it will just burn it. But you know, if you can cook something easier and better on an egg— oh sure— without the flare-ups, I think that's probably the problem everybody has with grilling if they're like me, is when the thing flares up.

Yeah, the egg solves that problem.

Yeah.

And I've also learned from coming to all these things all kinds of different ways to cook indirect and to raise your grill up off of the plates, to cook with temperature. Temperature is critical.

Yeah.

Well, they've got different thermometers and I've found a thermal pen by coming to these things. Get a temperature in 2 seconds, boom. And it's just like it's saved many meals. So far, and I've only had it a few months. And it's just— but I learned it here. You learned amazing things. These people are experienced. There's a lot of really, really good cooks here at all these events.

Well, the thing that I see too is no one's afraid to help each other and share knowledge and share recipes.

They don't.

Everybody will help everybody. Somebody gets in trouble, first it's, you know, maybe the fire goes out or they've done something wrong. People do have cheerful people over there helping them. You know, I ran out of lump today. I just left my grill on too long. I was getting ready to do several cooks, and before I know it, I had 3 people there helping me load the lump, pull what I had on there off, put it on hot, you know, you know, cast iron stuff, loaded the lump on there. Before you know it, we were back cooking. It was just— it's a friendly group. It's a family.

Yeah, I see that. Well, thank you very much for allowing me into your family for this weekend. And we had a great time. Thank you. Anybody else lined up want to talk?

Did you talk about something like yours?

We did.

Okay, I forgot to mention the combination that Jackie does here is just amazing. This place, we probably have been here even with a family 10 times. We were coming here before this started with our family, and, and we brought, uh, I don't know how that happened. My wife found it on the internet. We came here and just loved it. Then Tim told us about, and Pat told us about this, and we've been coming ever since. Well, we missed the first year, but we've been coming ever since it started. This is so accommodating, and Jackie's put us up a tent to keep the heat off of us, and you know, she's like, golly, she just treats us like family. I keep saying that, but it's true.

I heard she even told you when the sprinklers come on. Yeah, you guys stay out till like 3 AM.

Yeah, 2 o'clock in the morning. Morning, we were cooking pizza and the sprinklers called.

It was 4 AM last night. Did the time— did the clocks change, or is that tonight? I was thinking I missed it then.

But Tuckaway Shores is by far one of the nicest, friendliest hotels it is, really, you know.

And it's nice to be away from all the craziness sometimes of the tourists. I mean, Coco is beautiful, but I mean, this is nice and peaceful.

Quiet. This is such a small town, even police officers know that we're here same time every year. They will stop by 1, 2, 3 o'clock in the morning and there'll be a few of us out there and they'll come up, hey, how you guys doing? We just want to stop in and say hi.

Do they eat?

Sometimes, sometimes they will.

You know, perfect example was a girl pulled up out here last night about 9 o'clock. She needed a hotel room and she drove by here one time, then went in town looking around, couldn't really find something she felt comfortable with. So she pulls up out here, registers for the room, and she just looks out here. And we invited her in. She ended up— I don't know what time she went to bed, but it was late.

But she had a great time. Well, I said, when we came in, nobody knew who we were. And then when I said— this is— oh, you're the one Jackie told us about. But before then, I got more invitations to come back and eat without anybody knowing. So, you know, that's hospitality, you know.

And it's just what this Turquoise Shores is all about.

Yeah.

I mean, they treat you— keep saying like family, but they really do.

Well, yeah, at this point, you know, in the game, I think with all these that are being done, and it's nice to see that there's still this kind of business that can exist in today's world.

That's right.

Of all these mega companies owning everything, where you can still go to a family-oriented location and enjoy yourself and not have to worry about anything. And we left everything up in our rooms. They usually— we go away, we're like packing our iPads and packing everything. Nothing's going away here. I know that. Who's left everything up and out? And I'm not worried. And it's nice to have that feeling the way you used to have it of not locking your doors. You know, in the old days, you didn't worry about people doing things. You know, people are just friendly. They do things the right way. They do things the old-fashioned way. It's old Florida.

And the rooms are extremely clean. I mean, I mean, that's, you know, I've been in hotels because we go to a lot of football games, and I'm telling you, some of these big hotels are just— there's dust behind everything, and you know, it's just, you know, you don't have a clue. Yeah, it looks nice when you walk in, but you pull something back, you don't find that. Yeah, it's spotless, everything.

And I love the towels. Towels were really good to drive, really good to dry with. I'm going like, Oh my God, I don't know what this is made of, but it's really good.

Yeah.

Oh, we talked about them, had them wide open. Love those.

It was a little chilly for that last night.

Well, we had them open until we went to bed and then this one early this morning. So very good time. Well, thank you for coming back.

Yeah, appreciate it.

So guys, it's been a great first On the Road with Chef Dennis. Anybody else? Come on, come on down. We're not shutting down until everybody's talking.

It's probably already all been said.

Well, it doesn't matter, the more they can say it. So, oh, you know, that's right, I like that look.

It's very windy, sorry.

Sunglasses is doing it for me today. Okay, so why don't you— I see an egg. I didn't know where you were going with that, but I was ready.

Go right here.

Get my wife back there. Got me all hot and flustered. Okay, well, what Why don't you tell us who you are, what you do?

My name is Faith. I'm an eggthousiast. I'm from Tampa Bay area, and this is my 5th year coming to the Mini Fest.

Okay, so you're— we're in between, we're in Kissimmee, so from Tampa Bay across. So, uh, how did you get involved in the Egg Fest?

Uh, I don't know, but I've had my first egg for longer than anybody. 1996, I got my egg then, and I started Googling it one day, like in 2008, and that's when I found out there's a huge group of Eggheads that I didn't even know existed. So I went to the Eggtoberfest that year, and then that was it.

You know, that was it. I think there should be an official hat, an Egghead, a big green Egghead, kind of like, remember the, uh, what were the ones on Saturday Night Live, the Coneheads? Oh, okay. Green Bay has got their Cheeseheads. We, there should definitely be an Egghead., for that.

That would be pretty cool.

So what's your favorite thing to cook on a neck?

I cook everything. What I'm kind of known for at these fests is duck breast. I heard about that, but I do— I'm not doing it this year.

I heard that also.

I heard—

wait, but she didn't bring them.

Sorry, maybe next time.

Diane?

Yep.

How do you do that?

Uh, it's a Papuan recipe, right? Just out of the—

okay.

His first cookbook.

I make steak, Diane, but I've never made—

he makes it nice and spicy, so I bet he likes it.

Yeah, he likes his spice. Even before Emerald's Bam was around, was making things.

Yeah, black and red fish.

Yeah, mighty spicy.

Well, good.

I'm glad. And it's nice to talk to you here. And it is— there's a nice blend of men and women here. It's family, it's, uh, couples. It's, it's not, uh, all ages. Yeah, all ages and all walks of life, all different kinds of people. And everybody with that common bond of food, right, and hospitality and just sharing. So it's wonderful.

Yeah.

Did you enjoy it?

Oh my goodness, how could you not? I ate a lot of good food, and every time I turned around, there was more food. And there was stuff, you know, it's terrible to say for a chef, I don't eat beef anymore. And I will if someone, like, if we're doing a show that I have to. I'm not— it's not against my morale, it's just something I stopped eating. But now with gluten-free, it's eliminated even more. But there was no shortage of other things for me to eat. There was a lot of nice chicken dishes. There was some pork and there was just really a lot of tasty food. Scallops I tried. There were shrimp last night. There was all kinds of stuff. So you couldn't not get enough food.

No, no. Everybody's really pretty full by now.

Yeah.

And everybody's proud of what they're making, which is really even nicer. Things are coming out and they want you to try it because they know it's good.

Did you get the macaroni and cheese?

I did not, but I couldn't because it's gluten. Oh, but that's a— yeah, although, you know, I have to—

sorry, I should have brought it up.

Well, it's like the pizza. I took a little bite of it because I had to try the crust, but I knew I couldn't eat too much of it.

Yeah, that was awesome too. That was really good.

Some of the things in here I have— I think one thing I didn't try was a salmon nacho.

That's good.

Oh yeah, is that Tom made that?

But so many tasty things, and I do love my food.

And Dennis, Faith makes the jewelry.

Do you really?

Yes.

Well, Ruth has the earrings.

I heard that there was some pretty fancy stuff too with diamonds.

Everyone— I try to customize it a little bit different for each person.

Wow.

And so Ruth has the earrings, and she has an emerald on each earring, and someone else there has, um, emeralds across the middle where the handle will be. They're all a little bit different.

Pretty cool.

Do you do any like green enameled ones or anything for guys?

That might be coming.

Okay, something coming.

Yeah, or watch.

Wow, that's a good idea.

Every girl has its own jewelry line.

That's right. I don't think any— I don't think any of them. Yeah, so yeah, I was thinking of doing, uh, the emblem, the same design, my design of their product on, on a watch dial.

That would be cool.

I gotta work on that. Need to get to work on that.

Maybe a phone case. I don't know how hard they are to make.

Out of my— that's out of my realm. Okay. Yeah.

All right, I'm just, I'm just babbling on now.

Oh, that's a thought, but not my area of expertise.

Random thoughts pop in my head, so, and I'm like a man, they usually just come out of my mouth too. So, you know.

Yes, I'm aware. Anyway, yeah, on that note, on that note, you're welcome. Thank you. Glad you came.

Me too. Hope you enjoy. I will. And I know, uh, there's more good food to come. The night is young, and I can't wait.

Yes, it is. I gotta go get started on my cooking. All right, thanks.

And we also have— I know I see a note here about the Georgia Mountain Big Greenest Green Egg Fest, which is scheduled for May 16th, 2015. So that's at the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds, uh, and I will post a link to that. So if anyone wants more information about it, they can go and check that too.

So I've been to it, it's really good.

I can't imagine if this is like this on this scale, because when they said Mini Egg Fest, I thought, what do they mean mini? I thought, well, maybe they're using the small cookers.

That too.

But I thought, you know, so I didn't know. And then when they told me how big they get.

I'm going, oh yes, that one's— I'm— how many people? Maybe John said 1,800 people, that one. And just— and it's in a beautiful location, the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds.

It's beautiful.

Good time of year for it, right?

I've been to it twice. It's really— I highly recommend going to that.

Although it's, it's snowing in Georgia now, I heard. Not here, not here. We don't care. I know, sorry.

As long as it's not snowing here in Philly.

Um, yeah, sorry guys, I heard it's going to be another hard winter up there, but oh well. All right, so, uh, anybody else talking or are we done? Want to say hi? Come on, come show your—

I'll show you my earrings.

Show me your earrings. I see them.

Wow, my little big egg earrings.

And I see you won't be able to see them on the camera, but there are little animals on them too. Very nice. So, so what are you doing here? What do you like to do what do you do here?

I'm sort of the gopher for my husband.

Okay.

He does all the cooking, but I plan what we'll cook and purchase it and do all the prep work and fuss at him a lot to get started and to stop and to watch the temperature and just to get it done.

I think you yelled at him yesterday 'cause he was talking to me to go back to check something.

Yes, I probably did. I probably did.

Well, that's good. It's good, you know, we need control in our lives and it's, it's good to have somebody to keep us in line.

Sure, sure.

My wife will tell you that too.

I want to say something else about Tuckaway Shores.

Absolutely.

I, we originally, my husband said we had been here before this started and I originally was looking for a little place on the beach for a small family reunion and came across on the internet, Tuckaway Shores, and looked at the pictures and the website and everything, and it had such glowing reviews, and I thought, well, this will be perfect for our little family reunion. And so I booked the rooms and we came and it was wonderful, just as described, and we loved it. And we came, I don't know, 3 or 4 times. Several years before the Egg Fest started, before we even got an egg. So I already liked Tuckaway Shores because there aren't high-rises everywhere. And if you're here with a small group, I love the little room they have over here by the pool that you could even, you know, if it's not the Egg Fest, you can get something and your family, your little family can go in there and eat together. And have your own little room, and, or you can use the egg outside, and, and it's just very accommodating for small groups. My college roommates and I get together once a year, and we came here too for a girls' weekend a couple years ago, and then one of those girls liked it so much that she got all her family here for her mother's 95th birthday. And so, you know, it just kind of blossoms out, but it's It's just a wonderful welcoming place. Yep.

Anytime.

Whether it's egg fest or whatever.

And they have a beautiful pool here too.

Oh, they do.

You know, and I've almost been tempted to go in that, but it's still a little breezy.

It is.

It is.

It's heated.

It's heated.

There were some in there yesterday.

Well, I know it's not the water. It's getting out of the water.

Right, right.

Yeah, but it is really pretty and it's a big— I was surprised at how big it is too. It's a nice size pool.

It is.

It's bigger than the one we have in our community, so I'm saying this is a nice size pool. Well, great. I'm glad we got to talk, and I'm so happy I could come here and meet everyone and enjoy this beautiful event.

Well, I hope you'll come to some of the other fests that we have here and other places.

Definitely try. I'll do my best. You know, being retired now is a rough life. You know, I got a lot on my plate. I'm looking at those pink flamingos with the hat over there going, yeah, I'm home. You know, it's a funny thing about Florida, I never quite— coming from Texas at an early age, but I never quite felt at home in New Jersey. And when we moved, we moved, I didn't care. When we moved to Florida, it was just something about the location and about the state and about the people that were— seemed a lot more accommodating. And I may be just meeting the right kind of people that made me feel more like home. And then I come around here and I see this and it reinforces that, you know, right? That, uh, there's really the place to be.

So, well, this part of Florida especially. Yeah, the central part of Florida and some of the Panhandle. Yeah, and it's very warm and welcoming.

Well, I know when we came down here was all about the mouse, and then all of a sudden you realize there's a lot more to life right outside.

Right, the mouse is great, but there's other things.

There's definitely a lot of things. We still go and visit every now and then. Oh, sure, but sure, but we're fine a lot of great places, and this is just a gem.

It is, it is. Okay, well, I enjoyed it.

Thanks a lot.

And again, thank you everyone.

Anybody else?

We got everybody in?

We're good.

Okay, so just gonna say that being on the road with you has been wonderful.

It's our first one, right? I know, we had a good time. We're looking forward to a lot more. And if you can get her on camera, the one who hates Google+, oh my God. Okay, so who knows, maybe we'll see, we'll see her again on another show of On the Road with Chef Dennis Littley. This is my premiere episode, and thank you for those that join us, and thank you for those that are going to watch on replay. And I appreciate each and every one of you, and I look forward to seeing you again soon. So have a great day and enjoy the rest of your weekend.