Pitmaster Champion Junior Urias of Up In Smoke BBQ
The National Pitmaster BBQ Champion tells the story of how he won the Destination America Channel’s Pitmaster Championship and was heckled a bit by BBQ icon Myron Mixon.
“I started cooking when I was young, I love the passion of cooking,” Urias said. “I wasn’t real good, I was burning stuff, but the passion was there so I kept on doing it until I got better. When I was 17 or 18 I started attending barbecue cook-offs locally. I had fun and invited all my family and friends, they were out there having fun with me. A lot of people were enjoying my food and they would tell me my food was awesome and that I ought to open a restaurant. At the time, 18 or 19 years old, you’re not thinking about that stuff but it stuck with me over the years. Then I started catering and was doing one or two a week maybe. I did just catering only for about six years and we were doing real good, so that’s when we decided to open the restaurant in Midland. We did it from the ground up, we built the restaurant and ran it successfully for a year and a half until the COVID hit. We sold the restaurant and the property, but not the name. Up In Smoke is mine and it’s staying with me until the day I die.”
Urias stated his appearances on multiple TV shows, but especially BBQ Pitmasters, has helped his business tremendously.
“Being on TV shows, it helped my business a lot in Midland,” Urias said. “Not only there, but people know me all over the United States, especially in Texas, and also over in Europe. Making the transition to move here to Early, the only reason I did that is because I think my name and business is well known and I’m able to come in and open up a business without any hesitation.”
Urias recalled how his stint on BBQ Pitmasters almost didn’t happen.
“We auditioned for it in 2012 but we didn’t get on it then,” Urias said. “But in 2014 I got the call. I was at the San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo cook-off, which has more than 200 teams, and we already set up and I got the call on Friday night. They asked if I could be in Florida Sunday morning, and at first I thought it was a joke and hung up. They called back and said please don’t hang up, this is serious, but I didn’t know if I could be in Florida by Sunday. I didn’t know how I would make it happen but I said yeah. The first person I called other than my wife was a friend of mind that lived in Florida. The reason I called him is because he cooked on a similar smoker that I was at the time. I contacted him and told him I didn’t know where I was going in Florida, but first can I borrow your pit and then was it possible for you to deliver it to our location. And he said he would do whatever it takes to make it happen.”
Saudi Arabia And Iran To Jointly Exploit Oil & Gas Fields
Back in March, Saudi and Iran announced they had agreed to restore diplomatic ties in a deal brokered by China, ending a seven-year rift.
The Saudi Arabia-Iran deal–one of the latest in a series of geopolitical realignments that have lately been going on in the Middle East–has been widely lauded, with the U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying, "To the degree that this arrangement can lead to an end to the war in Yemen, to the degree that it can help prevent Saudi Arabia from having to defend itself against attacks, to the degree that could deescalate tensions - all that's to the good side of the ledger."
Tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran reached a fever pitch in 2019 after an assault claimed by Iran-backed Yemeni fighters on Saudi Arabia's Abqaiq facility temporarily knocked out half the production capacity. Last year, Saudi Arabia sounded the alarm for an imminent Iranian attack, eliciting a swift response from the United States. And now it has emerged that the two nations are willing to take their newfound friendship to a new level.
The head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Mohsen Khojastehmehr, has told Tasnim News Agency that preliminary work for bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the oil industry has already kicked off. The two will now explore oil and gas fields they jointly own but have neglected for years due to previous animosity.
Why North Texas Gas Prices are $1.30 Lower This Year & What Could Happen Next
Adam Ross needs his heavy-duty pick-up to tow his 30-foot speedboat to and from the lake.
So, he's relieved the cost of diesel has dropped by nearly two dollars a gallon since this weekend a year ago.
"This thing really sucks it dry," Ross said. "It's crazy."
It's a similar story for his boat, which takes unleaded regular.
"That one was about $520 to fill up," said Ross. "This year, it was around $340 to fill up. I mean, the difference is drastic this year compared to last year."
Permian Oil Rig Count Rises After 4 Straight Weeks of Decline
Oil and gas operations in the US’s Permian Basin in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico, which contains the Mid-Continent Oil Field province, is releasing methane at twice the average rate found in previous studies of 11 other major US oil and gas regions.
The Permian Basin accounts for more than 30% of total US oil production and 10% of total US gas production — 3.5 million barrels of crude and 11 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.
These findings were published on April 22 in the journal Science Advances by scientists from the Environmental Defense Fund, Harvard University, Georgia Tech, and the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research.
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It’s a BBQ Special on The Crude Life and today Junior Urias, Up In Smoke BBQ, shares the story of his championship BBQ on Destination America BBQ Pitmaster Challenge. Urias has been a staple in West Texas for over a decade now
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Gas Prices Down, Russia Ramps Up, Oil Invests and a Legit BBQ Pitmaster Champion