Victor Matthews is cookin’ up some fine barbecue in that commercial smoker of his. It’s only natural: Matthews grew up in Georgia and loved Southern food, especially his grandmother’s recipes.

“She was the terror of the county fair,” he said at a recent cooking class he taught at Savory Spice Shop. “She won tons of trophies and blue ribbons each year. I still use her recipe for barbecue sauce that I wrote on a paper napkin when I was 10 years old. It’s smudged with oil spots, but the formula still works.”

Many of you already know that Matthews came to Colorado in 1999 after buying Black Bear Restaurant in Green Mountain Falls. He had honed his culinary skills working for several top-notch chefs in New Orleans. When he settled at his restaurant in the mountains, he turned the little eatery into a fine dining destination, which earned him statewide recognition and awards.

As the years passed, Matthews branched out with other ventures, including opening a lounge in Colorado Springs that morphed into Paragon Culinary School. He still oversees the school, which has moved to a different location.

In the meantime, Black Bear Restaurant has been reinvented several ways, including becoming a gastro pub (a pub that serves upscale food), which never really got off the ground, a bourbon bar and now a distillery where Matthews makes moonshine that he calls Mountain Shine.

During the class, he gave a brief overview of regional differences in barbecue styles and sauces.

“The Carolinas have a vinegar thing going,” he said. “The meats they cook are fatty, like pork and chicken. The vinegar cuts the fat.”

His grandmother’s recipe was simple: red wine vinegar and pepper flakes.

“Then she added a ton of butter, salt and pepper,” he said. “That is simmered with a little sugar. It’s a thin sauce that is sort of like a marinade or is used to mop on chicken.”

In North Carolina, he continued, “they add mustard to the sauce. St. Louis and Kansas City, they are great at making ribs. They like them dry without sauce. Sauce is on the side, and it has ketchup in it. It’s thicker, too.”

Matthews put a chef’s twist on his grandmother’s recipe and named it Fusional Barbecue Sauce. Home cooks wanting to make his sauce should start with a store-bought bottle of KC Masterpiece Barbecue Sauce.

“I like Kansas City-style sauce, but it’s a little too sweet for me,” he said. “And I like Carolina-style sauce, but it can be a little bit too vinegar-y for me. So I use the KC Masterpiece as a base and add red wine vinegar, hot sauce and honey.”

Though Matthews has a giant smoker operation at his distillery, there’s no need to worry if you don’t own a smoker.

“You can smoke food without a smoker. That’s why you have this store,” he said, referring to Savory Spice Shop. “They have smoked salts and other blends with smoky flavor in them. Or you can make a stove-top smoker with a pot and some wood chips. You can also use your grill outfitted with wood chip-smoking boxes.”

You can find all sorts of smoking wood options at BBQ Outfitters. And they will have a barbecue class Aug. 13. Visit 719bbq.com to register.