Aloha, First, I want to thank you for taking the time to visit our restaurant and insert photographs onto this website. It appears that this culinary website is so well linked that by using Google Search, this review appears as either the first or second item. However, I feel compelled to respond to your review becuase it seems to take jabs at the very heart and soul of our restaurant business by second-quessing the way our food is prepared and smoked. My husband is the Chef Jake, owner/chef of Big Jake's Island BBQ. He puts alot of pride in his work and spends countless hours making sure every plate that is served meets his high standard of quality. It is very disheartening for me to read your theory on how you think Jake smokes his food. I am very sorry that he was not there that day, becuase if you had met him, you would have instantly recognized what pride he takes in his cooking, and had also seen what a genuinely nice guy he is. He would have been happy to answer any of your questions. Alot of work goes into smoking up the food he serves. You have made the assumption, based on your review of our food, that Jake uses our Winston Alto Sham to finish off the smoking process. Why would he do that when we have a smoker? Perhaps I should give you a glimpse of what it takes to smoke up the food that Jake prepares on that smoker. (And by the way, the Winston Alto Sham sole purpose is to keep food hot at the required temperatures of 155-165 degrees F. The maximum temperature of the Winston Alto Sham is 180 degrees, therefore your theory of using it to cook any meat is not advisable in any form of public food service). Our smoker is fed with enough locally grown keawe wood to keep the temperature at 250 deg. F for up to 20 hours at a time. Jake has the smoker going at least 3 days a week. Each day requires that he chops up enough keawe wood to keep the smoker cooking at the right temperture. Once he has the smoker going, he preps the food with his various seasonings, much like a dry rub. The half chickens come off the smoker first, they only take about 2 hours. The ribs are rubbed in seasonings, wrapped in foil, then placed into the smoker. They generally require about 4 hours. The pork butts and beef briskets take much longer. The beef briskets will stay in the smoker for up to 16-20 hours before they are done - depends on their weight. I hope that if you visit our restaurant again, the smoker will be in action. Apparently, it was raining the day you were there, and Jake tries to avoid using the smoker on those days because it is much harder to keep the temperature high enough. Aloha, and thanks again for the great photographs. Roz Newlon Big Jake's Island BBQ 808-328-1BBQ and 808-334-1211 We have 2 locations now, one in Honauanu and a second location in Kailua-Kona at the Swing Zone (a family recreation center with a 9-hole golf course, putting green, miniature golf course, and batting cage).
