What’s the secret ingredient to ArnieTex’s success? Easy – it’s family.

“When you’re cooking and grilling,” Arnulfo “Arnie” Segovia tells me as we wait for the grill to heat up in the backyard of his McAllen home, “at the end of the day, it’s super simple.”

Segovia is a champion pitmaster and a natural-born teacher. As he brushes the grill grates with half an onion, he dishes out what feels like trade secrets.

“There’s only a couple of things that are important, really,” he says. “Fire is strictly fuel and air, and fuel is the charcoal or the wood. And then we have oxygen, right?  And then ignition, of course you gotta get it started one way or the other. But that’s really all it is.”  

On YouTube he’s known as ArnieTex. At just under a million subscribers, he’s got more than 450 videos on how to cook everything from refried beans, to award-winning grilled fajitas. His presence across other sites like TikTok, Facebook and Instagram have his follower count at over a 2.2 million and growing.

But despite such internet star power, the goofy, charismatic person seen on screen is the same one patiently explaining Grilling 101 to me, a pure novice.

“And to cook good, it’s just simply the right amount of fire, the right amount of air. You know, that’s really, in a nutshell, it’s that simple,” Segovia says.

“But how do you know what’s right?” I ask. 

“That comes through trial and error, practice, and making mistakes,” he says.

Today, there’s a few things on the schedule, but the main item involves grilling fajitas, making tacos and filming it for the internet to drool over.

Behind the camera is Arnie’s son, Dan. On sous chef duty is Arnie’s wife, Terry. Daughter Sophie is lead editor for Arnie’s videos and packages them together all the way from Chicago.

And around today for moral support, though a star in her own right, is MamaTex – aka Josefina Segovia, Arnie’s mom.

Arnie’s mom is a fan favorite. One of the most popular videos on his channel is where she shows Arnie how to cook Mexican rice. She’s even getting recognized on the street.

“The other day at Walmart, this guy passed right by me and my daughter. He walks right by us,” she says. “And then he comes back and says, ‘You’re the one in the videos, right? With ArnieTex? You’re the one that makes the rice?’ And I’m’ like, ‘Oh, yeah, now I’m recognized,” She laughs. “ It’s a lot of fun. I enjoy it.” 

‘Us against the world’

In the kitchen, Terry Segovia has got a pan of Mexican rice warming up on the stove. It’s got a specific mix of spices Arnie has been testing.

Besides being a grill champion and taking the internet by storm, for the past several years Arnie has kicked off a spice rubs business. Terry is testing the latest idea – a spice blend for making Mexican rice.

“We decided, okay, we would like to have more – a variety of rubs,” says Terry Segovia. “So we want to do some kitchen rubs. You know, I don’t know what else Arnie has up his sleeve. His brain is just going 24/7.”

Dan Segovia, right, and his mom, Terry, take photos and video as Arnie prepares tacos for his YouTube channel. Kristen Cabrera / Texas Standard

Arnie and Terry have been married for 42 years. In the early days, Arnie worked at a car dealership in both service and sales.

“Those were long, long hours, but I got to stay at home, which was awesome,” she says. “I raised our kids at home, got them through school. They both went to college. So, you know, I’m old school, right? I stayed at home. I loved it. That’s what we decided to do.”

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Of course, along the way, life threw them a few curveballs.

The family had financial troubles in 2008. Arnie bought a restaurant but had to sell it when the recession hit.

Then, Terry battled breast cancer for a year and half in 2018. She’s in remission and says being together makes them stronger.

“One of my sisters says, ‘you’re glued to the hip.’ And I’m like, ‘well yeah, I like being glued to the hip.’ There’s nothing wrong with that. So yeah, that’s our relationship really. It’s us against the world,” Terry Segovia says.

It’s that spark that may have even played a role in guiding the family to where they are today. After all, early into their marriage, Arnie and Terry took a trip to Houston and went to see a barbecue competition.

‘I can do this’

“We were both taste-testers,” Terry tells me.

She turns to Arnie: “I was like ‘wow, you could do this.’ And he goes,’ yeah, I can do this.’ And so we did it for I don’t know how many years.”

The competitions would take them all over Texas and the country. Arnie’s mom, Josefina, remembers all the effort that went into prepping for them.

“So my husband would go with him, and his younger brother – we would go,” She says. “And he started winning. So he just wanted to do it all the time, but it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work.

I mean, people think that you go that one day and compete and that’s it. But no, Terry and I, when we were at the ranch, we would start Thursday or Wednesday – get prepared and everything – and then he’d come back on Sunday and there we were again.”

This focus and drive for grilling is on full display during my visit. The fajitas are marinading, jalapeños being cut, and tortillas warming up. 

Dan Segovia, Arnie’s son, is setting up tripods and cameras as Arnie focuses on getting the meat ready. It’s a well oiled-machine, and I’m trying very hard to stay out of the way.

Dan is more than just a cameraman setting up the shots – he’s helping coordinate shoots and interviews, helps manage social media, and plans things out with lead editor and younger sister, Sophie.

“My hands are involved at every rung of the ladder except for the actual cooking, which Arnie takes care of,” Dan says. “I think the word I always use is just I ‘handle operations.’ And that really just means doing whatever we gotta do to get done.”

Arnie had already had a presence on YouTube. But it was the idea of focused content creation that got Dan’s gears turning.

“I see my dad doing that a little bit,” Dan says. “Let’s actually formalize what you’re already doing, which was already hosting classes in Texas. Those classes were 10, 20, 30, 40, 50-people sell-out classes because at that time he was at the top of his game leading Texas competition barbecue.”

Dan went to work on things like branding, figuring out how to film a BBQ class for online learning, going through plenty of trial and error. One such error was the first camera Arnie bought for the shoots.

“Actually, the first one was the one you made me take back. The T7i? He called, ‘what’d you buy that for? Take it back!’” Arnie says to Dan.

“The thing is, it’s a great camera, but  it’s just not the right camera for the job. You know what I’m saying? And it’s like, even if you lose money on the return, you’re going to save money in the long run. So take the L, you know?” Dan says.

“And I did,” Arnie says.

Arnie handles meat he has just prepared in the backyard of his home in McAllen. Kristen Cabrera / Texas Standard

Eventually they hit their stride with the creation of the Pitmaster Class – an online collection of video courses similar to masterclass, but with Arnie teaching the ins and outs of being a pitmaster. It was a years long project which had everyone firing on all cylinders.

“I recorded it all with him, Sophie edited the entire thing. My mom, Terry, is in the kitchen washing, washing, washing, you know what I mean? Helping us keep the ball rolling,” Dan says. “And then when we launched it, that’s when the first money came in. That’s kind of like, ‘Oh, this can actually be something.'”

The Segovia family business was on a roll. When COVID hit, the family pivoted to focusing on perfecting the rubs and creating more videos for YouTube, with Arnie and Terry often filming themselves and setting up their own shots.

One of the most-watched videos on the channel Arnie filmed despite a difference of opinion with his son.

“I wanted to do the refried beans, right?” Arnie says. “And he was like, ‘no, no, no.’ And so me and Terry recorded it in secret. And, uh, I uploaded it and I said, ‘there it is. Do something with it.’

I think that was our first or second or third million views. But that just like blew up. It was crazy.”

» WHERE THERE’S SMOKE: Need a second plate? Check out the Standard’s recurring segment with Texas Monthly barbecue editor Daniel Vaughn

This creative difference ended up being a learning experience for Dan.

“That was our signal that we should actually just be doing what is authentic to us, what is authentic to the region that we come from,” Dan says. “Because there’s a gap there that was not being filled online at the time. And it was to affirm our culture, share our culture, share our food, share our traditions, share our stories.

And that’s what I feel like we’ve become a vessel for. And that’s what I love the most about it now.  But it’s always prefaced on my bullish resistance, too.”

“As Danny said, we’re sharing our culture. We’re sharing what we know, what we grew up with, and stories. I mean, I could tell stories forever,” Arnie says.

Arnie squeezes lime on the freshly grilled fajita tacos. Dan lines up to get the perfect shot, as his mom stands to the side on her tiptoes trying to block out the sun’s harsh light above them with a folder.

There’s no big sound stage, or 30-person crew. Just a family doing their best to support each other and their love for Rio Grande Valley cooking.

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