The barbecue content creator from the RGV

Timothy Chapman

The comments read “Everybody’s favorite Tio” In just about every “Arnie Tex” video, with millions of followers combined across multiple social media platforms stars Arnie Segovia from Edinburg Texas.

Segovia hosts weekly videos which feature his cooking skills, recipes, and advertises his brand named American Pitmaster Company which sells products such as seasonings, merchandise and pitmaster classes.

With many accomplishments to his name, Segovia said he has competed and won in many barbecue cook-offs and was one of the first inductees into the International Barbecue Cookers Association Hall of Fame.

He said he and his wife originally started the content creation just to promote their products, but eventually the videos started to get popular which is how it ended up like it is today with the main focus being traditional hispanic recipes and classic barbecue.

“There was a lot of serendipitous moments along the way where things just fell in place,” Segovia said. “People wanted to learn how to cook, you know, the things that we like to cook, that we like to eat in our culture, in our family, in the barbecue world, and in the backyard and stuff like that.”

Segovia said he is currently working on a cookbook to further expand his teachings which is expected to be released in the summer of next year.

He described his cooking style to be similar to his mom and grandparents where he tastes as he goes along, adding hints of seasoning without much measurement. This technique has proven to be a little bit of a challenge when getting the fine details ready for the book.

“We’re literally cooking two recipes every day for the cookbook, just to nail the exact ratios and the exact spice amounts,” Segovia said.

He said the amount of followers and views his social media accounts has gained over the years has definitely been rewarding.

Segovia offers a word of advice for people who look to get into barbecue competitions, content creation, or anything anyone aspires to be good at.

“Anybody can do it, if they find whatever their drive is, they can do it,” Segovia said. “But it is a job, it’s still work. You have to plan, execute, think of everything you’re going to say, how you’re going to say it and then you gotta get it all edited and make it look good and put it out there and it’s challenging, but it is fun and like I said if it’s something you like and you enjoy doing, that’s something anybody can do quite frankly.”

For more information about ArnieTex visit arnietex.com

This is Timothy Chapman for Vaquero Radio.