The Story Behind the Grill

In late 2001, I boarded a plane to Florianópolis, in Brazil's Santa Catarina state, as a newly-called missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I lived there from 2001 to 2003.

Little did I know that, out of everything I would come to love about Brazil and the Brazilian people, the food and culture would stay with me for the rest of my life. As a missionary, I had the opportunity to sample cuisine from hundreds of people, including restaurants, meals provided by church members, new friends, and street vendors. I sought out to learn everything I could about the Brazilian culture and food.

After returning home, I continued learning by surrounding myself with Brazilians living in the United States and spent 17 years studying the craft. For the last five years, I have dove deeply into churrasco do espeto, specifically working with butchers to source authentic Brazilian cuts and perfecting both traditional recipes and my own variations.

The Espeto Grill is the answer to a question people in Utah County kept asking me. I fire up a custom-built nine-zone churrasqueira, load it with 50 skewers of picanha, fraldinha, linguiça, and whatever else is on this week's menu, and cook for the neighborhood.

This is better than a restaurant.

In January 2026, I returned to Florianópolis for the first time in more than twenty years. It was not a nostalgia trip — it was a working one. New butchers, new kitchens, old friends, and the same fires I fell in love with as a nineteen-year-old. Brazil is not something I remember; it is something I am still learning from, and every skewer that leaves this grill carries a little of that ongoing conversation.