Robert Pearson, Hair Stylist Turned Acclaimed Barbecue Chef, Dies at 87

Robert Pearson, who never lost his cockney accent through a career that began with combat service in the Royal Air Force followed by nearly two decades as an acclaimed hair stylist in London and New York, and that then took an improbable turn into Texas-style barbecue, where he earned renown as the best pit master north of the Mason-Dixon Line, died on July 8 at his home in Manhattan. He was 87.

His niece Gale Gand, herself a well-known pastry chef, said the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

Mr. Pearson opened his first restaurant, Stick to Your Ribs, in 1983, a time when most New Yorkers assumed it was enough to grill some meat and slather it with sauce to call something barbecue. Over the next 20 years, he showed them how wrong they were.

Though he lived on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, he chose to start in a rough-edged corner of Stratford, Conn., halfway between Stamford and New Haven. The rent was cheap, he said, which gave him the flexibility to hone his craft with exacting precision.

He purchased a $13,000 custom-made pit from Texas. He bought mesquite wood at $800 a cord, which he blended with local green oak (at just $110 a cord); after much experimentation, he found that a one-to-four ratio created the right balance of smoke from the mesquite and moisture from the oak to fuel the six- to 18-hour fires he needed to cook his meats.

Mr. Pearson was a purist: He insisted on wood, and only wood, as fuel. He cooked low and very, very slow. He eschewed rubs and sauces, letting flavor emerge from the meat and smoke. He specialized in brisket, the lodestar of Texas barbecue, but also offered half chickens, pork shoulder and the occasional exotic fare, like alligator, elk loin and rattlesnake.