Pulling out a fresh batch of dutch oven cooked cinnamon rolls, chuckwagon cooks Lauren and Wheeler Hughes often find themselves the main attraction at cookouts and catering events around the Hill Country. Photo by Phil Houseal

Details:
To contact Lauren and Wheeler Hughes about catering with their chuckwagon: ziacross@yahoo.com, 210-464-8433

Read about Wheeler's cowboy cartoons.

webmaster: phil@fullhouseproductions.net

Meals on wagon wheels

by Phil Houseal
Dec 2, 2009

Brisket, beans, taters, prime rib, chicken fried steak, fajitas, homemade apple pie a mile high and apricot crisp dripping with rum sauce. Throw in the smell of wood smoke, the creak of an authentic chuckwagon, and maybe a cowboy story or two and you’re living the life of Lauren and Wheeler Hughes.

This 20-something couple seems to have been born a century too late. But thank God and the Gregorian calendar they were and that they brought their chuckwagon with them. I bumped into the cowboy-clad cooks at a barbecue thrown by Charlie Gray, and I couldn’t stop watching as they pulled cinnamon rolls out of the dutch oven, their border collie laying in the shade at their feet. It was a meal from another century.

It’s a natural state for Lauren.

“As a kid, I always liked to cook,” she said when she had time to sit down from serving guests. “But I’m definitely a tomboy, so I’d rather be outside. So a chuckwagon and outdoor cooking go together perfectly.”

She always was comfortable cooking over a wood fire, but she saw her future in the flame when at 17 her folks were remodeling the house and they spent about a month cooking everything outside.

“We ate a lot of pie,” she laughed. “That’s where I perfected my apple pie.”

Wheeler nodded in agreement. “That’s my favorite,” he said. “Once she made one for church, and it had to weigh 50 pounds. It was a big ol’ skillet.”

Wheeler assists in cooking chores, and also serves as after dinner entertainment, spinning tales from his life on a cattle ranch in New Mexico. Their cooking hobby became a business around 2000, when they started doing catering jobs for parties. It soon became a full time job, year round.

The Hughes are nothing if not authentic. The wagon is a 1905 Weber 3/4-ton, built heavier than most wagons. In fact, it was the chuckwagon that brought them together. Lauren first caught Wheeler’s eye when she was serving beans in the food line at the San Antonio Stock Show.

“I saw her taco hat ,and high top boots and thought that’s how we dress where I come from. I thought, wow she looks kind of punchy.”

“Punchy” means ranchy, or a cowboy, as in “cow puncher.” In this case, it was a compliment. They met up again at Cowboy Church in Kerrville.

“Someone invited us to an event, and some way or another we got to sit right beside each other,” Lauren said. Wheeler finished the story. “Seven years later, here we are.”

Sometimes old-fashioned tools make the most sense in a modern world.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast, the Hughes hauled their wagon down there with two stock trailers full of food and clothes, and cooked for 3000 people over four days.

“They had no water, no electricity, and no way for people to prepare meals,” Wheeler said. “We thought - we can go, we got the wagon. And as long as we can build a fire, we can cook for as many as we want.”

In their catering business, the food is good, the atmosphere authentic, and the reaction of the guests - priceless.

“Our favorite is probably people around the hill country, especially when they are having guests from other countries,”Lauren said. “We cooked for a whole family from Germany, and they loved it - they just wanted to hang out.”

Wheeler notes that while “city people” appreciate the chuckwagon, they don’t understand it like the ranchers and farmers do.

“Ranchers know something about it - they are always interested,” he said. “They want to find out the history of the wagon.”

And Wheeler is the exact right guy to ask about that.

“Where I grew up in New Mexico, as a kid, we always wanted to ride with the wagon; the big dream was to go out with the wagon. There is a lot of tradition and history. Ranchers like that part of it.”