Meet Yorktown's Alan Pinto: Doctor by Trade, Chef by Hobby

Alan Pinto is a doctor by trade, but he has a few tricks up his sleeve that make him a great chef. Winning the  at this year's  prove just that.

Pinto, 51, started cooking during high school and college at several restaurants to help pay for college. He grew up in Glenside, a suburb outside of Philadelphia, went to LaSalle University for his undergraduate studies and Hahnemann University for medical school.

Despite his passion for cooking, Pinto, who is the associate director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital in Valhalla, said he always knew he wanted to be a doctor. 

Pinto moved to Yorktown in 1999 and lives here with his wife Ellen, daughter Francesca, 16, and son Christopher, 11.

Patch caught up with Pinto to speak to him about his passion for food.

Patch: What do you enjoy about cooking?

Pinto: I like to experiment around with recipes to change the flavors. The best enjoyment is when I see people like the food. 

Patch: I bet there was a time when things went wrong. Do you have any funny stories you could share? Or perhaps a story of success when you tried something for the first time? 

Pinto: My wife will see something in a magazine and ask me to make it. Sometimes they just don't come out right, so I try again. She really likes the gumbo I make that I got from an Emeril recipe. With any recipe you can always change the spices up to suit your taste. I make this grilled corn and avocado salad (my mom sent me the recipe) – I decided to add cumin to it and it just ruined the taste. My wife now tells me to follow the recipe the way my mom wrote it. I still can't make a good polenta even though it seems easy to make.

Patch: Who inspired you to get in the kitchen?

Pinto: My mother (definitely not my wife!) My mom is a great cook. The holidays are always the best – especially Christmas. I remember my dad and I always sneaking a taste of the Sunday spaghetti gravy with a piece of bread mom was making on the stove. My dad said he had to make sure mom was making it right.

Patch: You're a doctor by trade, chef by hobby...What are some similarities and differences between the two?

Pinto: With both careers you have to pay particular attention to the details.

Patch: With doctor hours, how do you even find the time to cook?

Pinto: Mostly on the weekends when I do not have to be in the hospital.

Patch: How did Big Al's BBQ originate? 

Pinto: I started experimenting with BBQ about six years ago. I always liked to grill food and found the whole concept of barbeque (low and slow cooking with smoke) intriguing. I began to try different types of dry rubs and sauces to come up with my own recipe.

My BBQ sauce also evolved over time and I began to sell my sauce at local market as Big Al’s Q Sauce. Although the sales were good, New York state wanted me to pay too many licenses and fees to make it profitable. 

I only sold my BBQ sauce and some of the different rubs (rib rub and pulled pork rub). My friend John Pratt (owner  in Yorktown) convinced me to bottle up the sauce and sell it – I sold the sauce for two years. In order to go the next step I would have had to have the sauce made at a processing plant and devote a lot more time in sales. I guess I wasn't ready to quit my day job.

Now I just have big barbeques for friends and family. For a typical BBQ party I would make 20 racks of ribs, 60 lbs pulled pork, 40 lbs brisket plus all the sides.

Patch: What's your favorite grill gadget?

Pinto: Weber Smokey Mountain smoker.

Patch: What's the best bottled sauce?

Pinto: Most of them taste the same.

Patch: What's your secret ingredient to making a delicious dish?

Pinto: You can’t rush the dish and you can’t be afraid of adding seasoning. A little bit of salt and pepper can really bring out the flavors.

Patch: What advice could you give someone who's got a passion for something? What should they do to follow their dreams?

Pinto: Go for it and never stop trying to become better.

Patch: Besides cooking, what are your other passions or hobbies?

Pinto: I started hunting three years ago. I am going back to Montana in September for another elk hunt and hope to get another elk. 

We were having our annual Christmas party at our house and my friend Brad Dyslin was talking about this elk hunt in Montana that he just came back from. He got me hooked on hunting and I bought my first gun (my mom wouldn't let me have a BB gun as a kid). I now bow hunt deer here in Yorktown, and have been on a couple rifle deer hunts in western New York. Brad and I went to Montana in 2010 and I got my first elk. Great trip. We went to the Bob Marshall Wilderness in western Montana. It was a seven-day hunt in the wilderness all on horseback.

Patch: Please share a favorite recipe for a homemade BBQ sauce!

Pinto: I can’t – it’s a secret, but I will share my dry rub that works well for ribs and pork.

Basic Dry Rub

8 tbsp paprika

2 tsp cayenne (add more for extra heat)

6 tbsp black pepper

6 tbsp garlic powder

3 tbsp onion powder

5 tbsp salt

3 tbsp oregano

3 tbsp thyme

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp celery salt

Patch: Is there anything we haven't ask you about, you'd like our readers to know? Is there something people would be surprised to learn about you?

Pinto: I like the Philadelphia Eagles and Phillies.