Adam Glick is perched on a rock looking out at the expanse of Joshua Tree, California, his rescue dog, Tex, at his side. We're in the area shooting photos and video, and talking to Glick about his life as a chef on the road. But we're here to do more than talk—we're here to eat. Glick brought along a couple ribeyes from a local butcher, fresh vegetables, and some ingredients that will later become a bananas foster dessert I’m still thinking about.

The whole meal was unforgettable. Our seared steak,roasted potatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and grilled asparagus all made it on to one big platter. There weren’t any serving plates, or silverware. When he finished, we all gathered around the Cowboy Cauldron and picked at the platter, Glick waxing poetic as he shows a few members of our crew a handy trick for testing if a steak is done.

Oh, and he cooked it all for us out of the back of his truck.

“You can really learn a lot about who you are as a cook by taking away the kitchen,” Glick tells me. “You learn to let loose, be yourself, and strip back a lot of the junk you don’t need.”

It’s a practice Glick has gotten familiar with since he left his life as a super yacht chef (where he spent two seasons on Bravo’s Below Deck, too), after 15 years at sea. Tired of grinding in the galley, Glick set up a new home base in a remote part of Oregon, got himself the aforementioned big ass truck (equally equipped for scaling boulders, sleeping in, or making meals) and hit the road.. But it wasn’t just escaping the bottom of a boat that inspired this new lifestyle. It was a couple of hungry Swedish hikers he randomly encountered in the Pacific Northwest that provided his a-ha moment.

“I caught a little trout, I filet it, start cooking it. And this couple comes hiking through and they go ‘What are you doing here?’” “I don’t remember what came over me that day, but I asked them to sit down. It was in that moment, feeding these two Swedish people who spoke barely a word of English. That’s when I realized I’m supposed to feed people outside.”

Back in Joshua Tree, Glick’s doing just that. And all he needs is a hot grill, the right ingredients, a cast iron pan, and some hungry friends.

At the end of the meal, he grabs the steak bone out of the cast iron pan and gives his dog a look. Tex knows it’s his turn, and then they’re off to their next adventure: A little overlanding in Baja—and surely some more damn-good meals down the road.

Low-Key Legends: For Adam Glick, The Kitchen Is Everywhere