Partner, there ain’t nothin’ better than a home-cooked meal alongside the chuck wagon. Or so I’ve been led to believe from watching Cowboy Kent Rollins’ YouTube channel. The closest I’ve ever come to an experience like that was having a picnic lunch in the back of my grandpa’s 1972 Ford station wagon. Still, we all know that food tastes better outdoors.
Kent Rollins has had a long career as a live-fire cowboy cook and has been featured on several Food Network cooking competitions. With his YouTube channel, we have the opportunity to welcome him, his wife Shannon (who usually remains a voice behind the camera), and their pups into our homes.
Also a historian and storyteller, Kent often shares a story about the people who depended on these simple meals, or the outlaw who ate it as his last. If he’s been making improvements to his chuck wagon or touring an old ghost town, he’ll talk about that too. But more often than not, he’s cooking up something good. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a copycat of a drive-thru classic, as long as it’s not fancy (as Kent likes to say, “You can’t get full on fancy”), he’ll fix it.
Even though I have no desire to cook my dinner in a Dutch oven over an open fire, the air fryer being more my speed, Kent radiates enough warmth that I’ll watch anyway. Weather is often a factor, so we’ll see him cooking out in the snow, with only Bertha (his 385-pound cast iron and steel wood-burning stove) to keep him warm. Or perhaps a hot Oklahoma wind has him adding spices at an angle and fighting a losing battle with plastic wrap.
Every Wednesday, there’s a new, roughly 20-minute video. At the end, Cowboy Kent expresses his thanks to “all the servicemen and women who keep that old flag a-flying” and gives a big virtual hug to the viewers. That, of course, is after he samples his dish and does a happy dance that might alarm his dogs, who are always nearby for taste.
In Proverbs 16:24 we read, “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” While Kent’s dancing is anything but graceful, his words are as gracious as his food is doubtlessly delicious and nourishing. He doesn’t preach, and yet he often joyfully expresses thanks to God for all of life’s simple blessings.
As I grow older, I find myself appreciating the company of wise, godly, older men who are filled with gratitude and joy. Like Roy Rogers and The Lone Ranger, the man on the screen—a very different sort of cowboy, but a cowboy nonetheless—gives us something to aspire to, whether we cook or just like to eat. (YouTube)
About the Author
Trevor Denning is an alumni of Cornerstone University and lives, lifts weights, and spends too much time in his kitchen in Alma, Mich. His first short story collection is St. George Drive and Other Stories.