Smoke In Da Eye asks:  Obviously you are best known these days from your new show, "Will Work for Food," but some people may not know that you’re a bit of a barbecue fanatic. What's your earliest barbecue related memory?

Adam Gertler replies:  I first discovered real barbecue in Syracuse at Dinosaur BBQ where I attended school for theatre, actually.  Before that, the only ribs I knew came from Chinese restaurants.  Dinosaur BBQ remains one of my favorite spots in the country and I've since been all over.

SIDE:  What's your grilling or barbecue signature dish, the thing you pull out when you really wanna wow someone?

AG:  One of my absolute favorites to prepare is a bone-in, brined, smoked then grilled double cut pork chop.  Wow. The brining takes time, but the cooking is lot shorter then picnic or butt and, I think, better suited to a home smoker/grill.

SIDE:  You actually had a barbecue joint in Philly for a bit with your brother. I would imagine your place to be a bit wild, no? I'm imagining Senor Frogs with a smoker out back...

AG:  Yes, you're absolutely right.  The Smoked Joint was a lot of fun.  Rock-n-Roll through and through.  I miss it very much.  We actually had our big smoker off premise and that was a huge problem and played a part in our eventual closing.  It was very wild.  Maybe too wild...Nah, it ruled.

SIDE:  You recently trekked to Texas to work the pit at Muellers. Is that something you'd be interested in doing permanently if the TV thing gets too monotonous? And I assume the sausage grease burns have fully healed?

AG:  The burns have healed and anyone that works in barbecue knows that burns heal and get replaced frequently by new ones.  All part of the process.  By the way, I thought the sausage was the best thing at Muellers, amazing.  I would love to have a barbecue spot again some day.  Smaller and and fewer people involved than the original Smoked Joint.  It’s a lot of work though, some one always has to work through the night babysitting smoking meat. 

SIDE: Yep, that's usually me when we're on the road cooking.  Care to share one barbecue or grilling experiment (a recipe or technique) that failed miserably?

AG:  Recently I tried grilling some polenta that hadn't properly set up.  Not good.  It just sort of melted through the grates.  When we first got the big JnR smokers for The Smoked Joint we smoked a bologna, something I understand is a bbq classic.  The bologna we used was cheap, really cheap and the result was awful.  I've always wanted to try this again because I kinda like bologna.

SIDE: What's not to like about bologna?!!!!  You had a restaurant, you made the top 2 on "Next Food Network Star", got a great prime time show and have something like 2 gazilion Facebook friends. What's left on your "to do" list?

AG:  I really just want to keep going.  I've always wanted to perform in some way so I hope that I can keep doing it because it’s too much fun to stop.  Also, it is my hope that after continued petitioning to President Obama, children around the world will be enjoying a day off from school in observance of national smoked meats day.

Cool.  Thanks, Adam.  For anyone who had yet to check out "Will Work for Food", what the h*ll are you waiting for?  Tune in Mondays at 9:30pm EST, 8:30pm CST. - SmokeInDaEye, home of Bigger, Badder, Bolder BBQ