By Julian Higuera | Reporter
After 14 hours, Phillip Helberg’s brisket is finally ready to eat. That brisket is an accomplishment not many people can say they have mastered like the highly acclaimed Helberg Barbecue but can now attempt with Helberg’s new brisket cooking classes.
At the restaurant, located at 7809 N. U.S. Highway 6, customers can now experience how the professionals work the pit.
This class is only offered a few times a year. Fortunately, the Helberg family ensures students learn all the secrets to make barbecue just like that of the restaurant.
Phillip and Yvette Helberg co-own the restaurant. Phillip teaches his class with the hope of guiding his community through each step of the process.
“The idea is to hopefully help them skip a lot of the heartache that I had early on when I was learning to cook brisket,” Phillip said.
On Sunday, Phillip introduced a new test run of a brisket course. Typically, his barbecue class focuses on easier cuts of meat, from sausage to ribs, because they only take a couple of hours to grill.
At first, brisket was part of the course, but Phillip mostly discussed the process rather than demonstrating it in-depth.
“When I first started out, I tried to fit more information about brisket and rib-cooking, but there’s so much,” Phillip said. “Usually so much of the time is used up talking about brisket, and that’s what most people are really there to learn about because it takes so long to cook.”
Phillip plans to offer an all-day experience learning to cook brisket step-by-step.
Phillip’s wife, Yvette, said her husband is the instructor you want for this subject.
“My husband is really great at public speaking, just his ability to give information in a way that makes sense and isn’t like talking over your head,” Yvette said. ”Being relatable and trying to meet people where they’re at. If there’s a question, there’s no dumb questions.”
Phillip’s cooking lessons began about five years ago. Over the years, the lessons have brought in a long list of customers who have learned to grill a variety of meats. Only a few have met the same standard as Helberg Barbecue.
“I’ve done at least 15 to 20 classes over the years, I’ve only had one student over those years tell me that they don’t really come to our restaurant anymore,” Helberg said. “A lot of them end up shaking my hand and saying, ‘You know what, I’m just going to keep letting you do it and I’ll come buy it from you.'”
The fully immersive experiences are available to sign up for on their website. The next one will be 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Feb. 22.
“Most people that are wanting to take the class just want to improve what they do at home for their families,” Yvette said, “which is so fun. That’s how it started with us — cooking for friends and family.”
