Australian fire cook and writer Jess Pryles has planted roots in Texas, and her status as queen of the beef continues to grow.
Once upon a time in Texas, a young Australian woman who knew nothing about meat sank her teeth into a barbecued beef rib for the very first time. Fast-forward 17 years: She’s now a certified meat scientist and expert live fire cook, co-founder of the Australasian Barbecue Alliance, and author of the cookbook Hardcore Carnivore. She has a line of meat seasonings and travels the planet teaching cooking classes and judging barbecue competitions. She’s grilled in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza on the Today show, and she hosts the TV series Aussie Barbecue Heroes. In her free time, she’s the opening speaker at Texas A&M’s Camp Brisket, brand ambassador for Gerber Knives, and spokesperson for Kingsford Charcoal and Lone Star Beer.
And it all started with one bite of beef.
Jess Pryles moved to Texas after its barbecue changed her life: “All I wanted to do was get back to this place that seemed to feed my soul” (PHOTOGRAPHY: Scott Slusher/Courtesy of Jess Pryles).
One of the busiest barbecue wizards in the West, Jess Pryles is an unapologetic meat lover and advocate who never hides her opinion and can’t contain her beef-born enthusiasm. She’s garnered a massive fanbase by pulling back the curtain on meat myths and mysteries, sharing her newfound knowledge on TV and online — and having a whole lot of fun in the process. Quick-witted and vivacious, the self-proclaimed “sarcastic meat nerd” brings expertise to prestigious events, like the 2024 Buffalo Gap Food & Wine Summit at Texas’ legendary Perini Ranch Steakhouse. As the guest star, Pryles guided a trailblazing tasting of beef flights that compared grass-fed and grain-fed, dry-aged and wet-aged, and American and Japanese Wagyu.
“It was a big deal for me,” says Pryles, who now lives in Austin. “When I moved to Texas, I started this journey into all things Texan, whether it be learning to hunt or driving a truck or going to Friday night football games. Everyone said: If you’re into meat, you have to eat at Perini Ranch.” She did, and soon became friends with Tom and Lisa Perini — and a huge fan of the Perini Ranch magic. “Tom delivers a great meal and an amazing atmosphere with authenticity. So much of what he does is rooted in that chuckwagon tradition, and his cooking carries a legacy for a reason — not because it’s romanticized, but because it just tastes damn good.” Like Pryles, Tom Perini is a speaker at Camp Brisket. “It is kind of wild to me that I get to call him a colleague now, considering the provenance and history and gravitas that he comes with.”
I set out wanting to eat more barbecue, then wanting to understand how it was made ... and that led me down the path to learning about the cuts, learning about the industry, learning about the butchery, and learning about the live fire cooking. — Jess Pryles
Of Sausages And Snags
Long before Pryles was hobnobbing with James Beard award winners like Perini, she was living in the coastal metropolis of Melbourne, Australia. “I come from a super-urban, white-collar, European-leaning city,” says Pryles, who always had a knack for ingredients and food. “I liked cooking, but I didn’t cook meat because I was intimidated by it. I wasn’t very well educated on the cuts or how to cook it.” It all seemed too hard, and her homeland’s barbies (barbecues) provided scant inspiration to learn.
“Honestly, the cultural tradition of barbies in Australia is terrible,” she admits. “You buy the cheapest supermarket sausage and just burn the shit out of it. There’s actually a tradition at Bunnings, our version of Home Depot. Outside of every Bunnings is a pop-up tailgate tent, and every weekend, a different kindergarten group or kids sporting charity can rent it and do a sausage sizzle. You literally get a piece of white bread, one of these shitty burnt sausages, and some ketchup or crappy barbecue sauce. And that is, for the most part, the history of Australian barbecue,” she laughs. “It’s only in recent years that they’ve taken it a bit more seriously and not just dried out some snags, as we call them.”
Pryles had often heard stories about Texas from her father, an exchange student at Dallas’ Southern Methodist University in 1968. “He always talked about how great his time was in Texas, and the big hats and the boots, and the cars with the horns on the front,” she says. “I was always sort of fascinated with the States.” In 2008, she embarked on a road trip through the Deep South “because I’d seen all those photos of Spanish moss hanging.” She loved it but felt like she didn’t belong.
And then she arrived in Texas. “The first time I came to Austin, I was like … this is great! I was taken two-stepping,” she remembers. “It was all about small businesses, and people being polite, and howdy, and dancing, and football. And the main thing with Texans is: They are welcoming to anybody who loves Texas as much as they do.”
Jess Pryles has proven that she can thrive in any cooking space. Her latest feat is a Graduate Certificate in Meat Science from Iowa State University (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Jess Pryles).
A Pivotal Plate Of Slow-Smoked Beef
Pryles also tried the food that changed her life: Texas barbecue. “You can imagine why: It’s one of the greatest taste experiences you can have.” It ignited an obsession that burns brightly to this day. “I set out wanting to eat more barbecue, then wanting to understand how it was made ... and that led me down the path to learning about the cuts, learning about the industry, learning about the butchery, and learning about the live fire cooking.”
The mysteries of cooking meat began to melt away. “I was figuring out that it was actually not difficult,” she says. “There was something very empowering about it.” No longer intimidated, she started sharing her newfound knowledge and posting tips online — and soon, her career caught fire. She also moved to Texas and became an American citizen. “All I wanted to do was get back to this place that seemed to feed my soul.”
Driven by an indomitable passion for all things meat, Pryles has visited cattle ranches and slaughterhouses. She learned to hunt, kill, and dress a deer. “I just like the ritual of hunting; it’s like my meditation. I’m so busy with work that it’s nearly the only time when I go out before the light comes up. You just sit there for an hour and watch everything change around you and really kind of connect with nature,” she says. “There’s also the idea of empowerment again and self-sufficiency … and my husband loves venison chili.”
Meat is on the menu seven days a week. “I love the taste, and I think it has a really great nutritional profile. I’m not eating ribeyes every night; I find a way to incorporate lean meats as well,” says Pryles. “I feel like a meal isn’t complete without a decent animal protein.” Neither is her time off. “Even vacations are meat-centric. I love booking [trips] around what we are going to eat and which flavors to try.”
Flavors figure highly in her line of seasonings, Hardcore Carnivore, sold at Ace Hardware, Academy, Buc-ee’s, and Bass Pro Shops — plus hundreds of independent shops and several foreign countries. “Each new thing that comes out is something I’ve put hands on and come up with myself.” You can also buy Hardcore Carnivore grilling tools and apparel, all designed to incite your inner flame master.
“There is definitely something ‘Neanderthalic,’ if that’s a word, that calls to us to cook over fire. Plus, it obviously just tastes better. From a science perspective, there are different flavor and smell compounds that develop when you cook over fire that make you salivate,” she says. “Science! Taste the science!”
Pryles was a guest and speaker last year at Perini Ranch’s Buffalo Gap Food & Wine Summit. At the event, she shared her quick wit in breaking down beef types and educating attendees (PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Perini Ranch).
Hungry For More
Science is the source of Pryles’ latest achievement, her Graduate Certificate in Meat Science from Iowa State University. For her final project, she investigated the truth behind a viral video claiming the best way to cook bacon was by adding water to the pan. “We did a consumer tasting panel and all of this analysis in the lab, and we cooked I-don’t-know-how-many pans of bacon to determine if that was a superior way.” The result? “It’s not better because it depends on the bacon.” But she enjoyed the experience so much that she’s now talking with West Texas A&M about conducting ongoing studies. “I guess I’m still hungry for answers.”
This insatiable curiosity pays dividends for Pryles’ fans, who benefit from her discoveries and infectious enthusiasm. “I love what I do, whether I’m formally standing at a podium talking or getting down and dirty in front of a fire,” she says. “But what brings me the most joy are the personal interactions where someone is getting something out of what I’ve taught them or shown them.”
From sizzling snags Down Under to a thriving meat maestro career, Jess Pryles’ journey is an inspiration for anyone who wants to fire things up. “It’s not that hard to grill or to get educated about meat choices,” she says. “So if you’ve been intimidated by it, just go out there and give it a shot.”
Hardcore Carnivore: Cook Meat Like You Mean It came out in 2018 (PHOTOGRAPHY: Scott Slusher/Courtesy of Jess Pryles).
Explore Jess Pryles’ world at jesspryles.com. Read Pryles’ breakdown of the beef and fajita recipe.
From our January 2025 issue.
