The first-ever Pitmasters champions come from right down the road. Here’s how Esaul and Grecia Ramos of 2M Smokehouse won the title, with our own Ernest Servantes at the judges’ table.
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The first-ever Pitmasters champions live just down I-10 from us. Esaul and Grecia Ramos, the husband-and-wife team behind San Antonio’s 2M Smokehouse, won Season 1 of Food Network’s live-fire competition and walked away with $30,000. Burnt Bean co-owner Ernest Servantes was one of the judges who picked them. You can read Food Network’s full finale recap.
Nine teams started the week out in the Southern Utah wilderness, cooking through rain, wind, cold, and very little sleep. Over eight episodes, the field shrank, with challenges like a nose-to-tail cook, a three-hour backyard potluck, and a whole hog. By the last episode, only two teams were standing: the Ramoses and Calgary restaurateurs John Jackson and Connie DeSousa. (Want the full lineup? Meet all nine teams.)
For the final, host Andrew Zimmern asked both teams for a five-course barbecue tasting menu, served at a rolling pace over ten hours. Grecia and Esaul stuck with what they know best: Mexican and Tex-Mex flavors, with a little of their own story on every plate.
They opened with grilled oysters in chili butter, a nod to what they ate on their first date, plus a chorizo-rosemary focaccia. Next came duck carnitas with esquites and salsa roja. The tortillas never made it to the table because Grecia had left them out in the sun too long, but the salsa carried the plate, and Ernest gave Esaul credit for carnitas that were crispy outside and tender inside. Course three was smoked shrimp aguachile with fried tortillas, which Ernest called a textbook version of the dish; after that came a black garlic rib eye with live-fire carrots and porcini soup.
Dessert is where they pulled ahead. Grecia smoked conchas and served them with café de olla, telling the judges to tear the bread open and dunk it, the way her mom and grandma taught her. Ernest’s take was that the Ramoses had “hit our souls.”
The Calgary team didn’t make it easy. Their menu ran from a fire-kissed ceviche to a mortadella-stuffed porchetta and a bone marrow crème brûlée, and Ernest said they were putting out Michelin-level food. When the scores came in, two points separated the teams across all five courses. Ernest summed up his view of the winners plainly: they were making San Antonio proud. Back home, family and fans packed a Southtown watch party to see the win.
This wasn’t the first time Ernest has judged Esaul’s barbecue. Back in 2018, Esaul made it to the final round of Grill Masters: Texas, the season Ernest was on the judging panel. Eight years later, Ernest was at the table again as Esaul and Grecia, married for more than eight years, took the whole thing. (For more on Ernest’s role on the show, read how Texas Monthly covered it.)
If the finale left you hungry, San Antonio is a great place to start, and Seguin is a short drive east. Burnt Bean Co. is at 108 S. Austin St. in downtown Seguin. It’s open Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., or until the meat sells out. Too far to drive? We ship brisket, ribs, and sides nationwide through Goldbelly.
