"He was the greatest barbeque man in the world," [Arthur] Bryant said, "but he was a mean outfit." Perry used to enjoy watching his customers take their first bite of a sauce that he made too hot for any human being to eat without eight or ten years of working up to it. What Bryant said about Henry Perry, the master, only corroborated my theory that a good barbeque man is likely to tend toward the sullen--a theory I had felt wilting a bit in the face of Bryant's friendliness. (A man who tends briskets over a hickory fire all night, I figure, is bound to stir up some dark thoughts by morning.)
From American Fried by Calvin Trillin
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