First of all, thanks for stopping by!

I’m hoping you will find some things here that may be helpful, interesting, or useful if you have an interest in BBQ and food in general. If you want to get right to it, you can start by selecting one of the “Recipes and Tips” to the right. And if you’re bored, below is a little bit about me and why I might know something about this stuff.

The BBQ Bug bit me almost twenty years ago when, on a whim, a friend of mine (Mike) and I entered the American Royal BBQ contest in 1997. When I say we had NO CLUE what we were doing, that is a big understatement. We only entered the brisket category, thought it turned out great, and turned in what we would later learn (after seeing the judging results) was nearly the worst damn BBQ brisket in the history of the world.

Well, I’m a bit of a competitive sort, and having my name near the end of a 500 person list was not much to my liking. So for the next year we set out to practice, practice, and then practice cooking some more. We entered a few contests over the several months and we were making significant improvement. We were actually WINNING some contests, but wondered if some of it was just beginner’s luck. But it all paid off when, the very next year, at the 19th American Royal BBQ Contest in 1998, our name was called as the 8th place BBQ brisket out of 560 teams. Needless to say, we were pleased with the result.

Since that time I have helped two competition BBQ teams win several medals, trophies, and awards over the years. I haven’t done any contests for a couple of years now, primarily cooking for family and friend events, with a little bit of catering thrown in.

My focus now is to help as many up-and-coming BBQ pitmasters to be as successful as I can, and to share some tips that may even help seasoned BBQ veterans. My passion for food goes beyond BBQ, so I like to share inspirational ideas, recipes, tools, and other things as I come across them.

If you have any questions, let me know by commenting and I will be happy to help if I can!

I hope you enjoy!

BBQ Phil