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Roger Mooking uncovers the most innovative ways to cook with fire, from small pits to giant custom-made grills.

Charleston, South Carolina is one of America's top dining destinations, but for traditional whole hog barbecue and low-country oyster roasts, Roger leaves the city and heads into the country. Hemingway is a small town located about eighty miles from Charleston, and is home to Scott's Bar-B-Q. Roger meets pit master Rodney Scott who has been cooking whole hog since he was eleven years old. The smoke-filled pit room can cook up to fourteen hogs. Rodney's mom Ella is in charge of pulling the pork and seasoning it with their secret sauce. Then in fishing town McClellanville, Roger meets Oliver Thames who invented a unique oyster roaster. Local cluster oysters are piled over a metal sheet positioned over a firebox. Blankets of wet burlap rest on top of the oysters which help them steam open.

Hawaii island Oahu is known as the "gathering place," and Roger is invited to two community gatherings abundant with local foods. On the east side of the island, local chef Mark "Gooch" Noguchi teaches Roger how to prepare a traditional Hawaiian imu. Whole pig, local starches and lau lau (packages of cubed pork and salmon) are steamed in a large underground pit lined with hot lava rocks, topped with layers of burlap and tarp, and sealed with dirt. At the farmer's market located at Kapiolani Community College, Roger meets Scott Shibuya who smokes pork, chicken, and turkey tails with guava and kiawe woods, in a unique smoker he cleverly built out of an Air Force cargo container, an airplane food cart, and a computer fan.

Roger's first visit to the 50th state promises big fires and big feasts. Right off of Nimitz Highway in Honolulu is family-run restaurant Koala Moa, famous for whole chickens roasted over fire. The parking lot is filled with rotisserie trailers. Roger and owner Chris Shimabukuro burn wood pallets and unopened bags of charcoal in a thirty-five foot rotisserie trailer. One hundred and forty seasoned chickens are secured in metal baskets that slowly spin and move across the trailer filled with hot coals for approximately thirty minutes. At Ma'O Organic Farms in Wai-anae, Roger meets local chef Bob McGee who roasts half a cow over a custom-built six-by-six foot metal grill. Various cuts of beef, hamburgers, and sausages are cooked on adjustable grates over metal drawers filled with local kiawe wood.

Roger heads to Northern California for two spectacular wood-fired Mediterranean seafood feasts. In Napa Valley, the Seltzner family is famous for their wines and their towering outdoor oven called the Infiernillo. Hot coals are placed on the top and bottom of the Infiernillo and the food is cooked in between. Roger helps encase whole fish, potatoes and onions in salt before they're baked in the enormous oven. In Tomales Bay, caterer Tom Meckfessel prepares a delicious surf-and-turf Spanish-inspired paella over a wood fire right on the water. Roger harvests local clams with John Finger, owner of Hog Island Oyster Farm, which is one of the key ingredients for the mouthwatering paella.

Roger meets two chefs celebrating Argentina's Asado and Brazil's Churrasco in northern California. At Farmstead Restaurant in St. Helena, Chef Stephen Barber built a "live fire" cook area, complete with an eighty-five gallon cauldron, planchas, and metal crosses for Argentinian Asado. Roger and Stephen slow cook spring lamb seasoned with Mediterranean flavors. In Healdsburg, Roger and Mateo Granados, chef of Mateo's Cocina Latina, build an outdoor oven out of bricks and cinder blocks. A large pile of local Manzanita wood is piled in the oven, drizzled with pork fat which serves as natural lighter fluid, and then lit to create coals. Marinated whole ducks, pork loins and leg of lamb are placed onto large Brazilian skewers and cooked on top of the outdoor oven.

Roger heads to the Texas and Louisiana to feast on classic Cajun cooking. In small town Mamou, Louisiana there's a big time smokehouse filled with five hundred pounds of Southern smoked favorites. Roger helps owner T-Boy fill the dark, cavernous room with sausages, tasso, ribs and jerky, and then they fire up the smoker. A selection of smoked meats is then stirred into a pot of T-Boy's famous red beans and served over white rice. In College Station, Texas, a professor originally from Louisiana has transformed a shed into a smoker in order to make Cochon de Lait, a Cajun pig roast.

Roger loves a great barbecue sandwich and when the meat's cooked low and slow and kissed with just the right amount of smoke, he rolls up his sleeves and digs in. Roger heads to The Barbecue Exchange for two sinfully delicious sandwiches - one is called Heaven and the other Hell. Both are packed with pulled pork and bacon. Then it's off to Papa KayJoe's BBQ in Centerville, Tennessee where pork, pickles, slaw and hot sauce are sandwiched between crispy corn cakes.

Today it's all about Roger's favorite animal - the pig. He's hamming it up at some of the country's best suppliers of cured, smoked and aged pork. Roger heads to Edwards near historic Jamestown, Virginia to visit Sam Edwards, a third-generation "ham master" who pays tribute to old world Europe with his cured, smoked and aged country hams. Roger also stops by Benton's delicious Smoky Mountain Country Hams in Madisonville, TN., where Allan Benton has turned the dry curing of ham and bacon into a culinary art.

In the Carolinas, barbecue is not just a tradition, it's a way of life. Roger heads to North and South Carolina to visit a couple of old school restaurants that have upheld a long tradition of mouthwatering barbecue for several generations. At Sweatman's in Holly Hill, South Carolina, whole hogs are cooked low and slow and then pulled and chopped into juicy, meaty perfection. In North Carolina, Roger visits Stamey's Barbecue in Greensboro for their Lexington-style barbecue. Succulent pork shoulders are chopped and piled high on a bun, kissed with vinegar sauce, and crowned with slaw. recipes in this episode

Roger loves exploring cuisines from around the world. Mexican food is a favorite because of its complex, earthy flavors and tradition of cooking over a wood fire. Roger meets Chef Johnny Hernandez in San Antonio, Texas and cooks regional Mexican dishes in the ultimate outdoor kitchen. It's a feast of Lamb Barbacoa cooked low and slow in a pit, branzino stuffed with aromatics, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked around coals, and fresh corn tortillas toasted on a clay griddle. It's the ultimate fiery Mexican feast. recipes in this episode

Texas is famous for American barbecue, but today Roger is making his way through the Lone Star state for live-fire Latin American cooking and to savor the flavors of smoked European-style sausages. Class is in session at the Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio and Roger gets a lesson in preparing Mexican-style short ribs cooked in the ground. Also on the menu is Cabrito - goat roasted over coals. Elgin is a town famous for their German-style sausages and Roger visits Meyer's and helps prepare thousands of sausages that get smoked not once but twice. recipes in this episode

Good things come in small packages and that's especially true when it comes to artisanal food makers. Roger searches the Gulf States for tasty foods kissed with smoke and fire that deliver big flavors. In Austin, Texas a family roasts coffee the old fashioned way - small batches over a roaring fire without any electricity. Roger savors a cup and also learns how they use coffee in Texas barbecue. Then it's off to LaPlace, Louisiana for amazing Andouille sausages, smoked sausages, and tasso. Roger tastes these Louisiana treats in some New Orleans classics. recipes in this episode

Roger heads to the heart of New Mexico where cooking with fire is taken to new culinary heights with mud and steel. Roger visits Comida de Campos in Embudo, a farm and cooking school where delicious feasts are cooked in cone-shaped clay ovens made from mud. He'll help season pork shoulder with spices, wrap it in burlap and then cook it over a bed of corn in the oven. In Bosque, Roger fires up three steel discos and one large jara for two New Mexican pork dishes: carne adovada, which is pork slowly cooked in a red chile sauce, and carnitas where the meat is cooked in cola, citrus and spices.

Roger cruises through central California for two spectacular, meat-filled cookouts. This area is home to many vineyards, but Paso de Record Vineyard in San Miguel has piqued Roger's interest. The vineyard hosts wine release parties for its customers and serves barbecue prepared in a deep pit built in the picture-perfect property. Roger helps season 100 pounds of chuck roast and wraps them in burlap before setting them into the hot pit. In Santa Barbara, Roger visits a local caterer famous for creating an Argentine Asado. Roger helps prepare beef ribs, sausages and an assortment of vegetables for this ultimate meat-filled backyard barbecue.