The Pitmaster's Podcast

Where fire meets flavor! We catch up with our favorite barbecue and bourbon connoisseurs! They'll share stories from their recent competitions, cookoffs, and fundraisers.

After climbing the corporate ladder in his family's South Florida car business, Dave Williamson decided he liked making his customers smile, but LOVED making them laugh. Since then, he has excelled in almost every domestic Comedy Festival, making the finals or "Best of The Fest" in the World Series of Comedy, Boston Comedy Festival, San Francisco Comedy Competition, Big Sky Comedy Festival, the SL...

Weez's Groovin' BBQ is a the brainchild of Brian Calhoun Backyard Competition master pit master. He is a caterer and competition BBQ guy who is known for his delicious smoked meats, including brisket, pulled pork, and ribs. They also offer a variety of sides, such as mac and cheese, coleslaw, and potato salad. Weez's Groovin' BBQ has been featured in a number of publications, including Chicago Mag...

7 SINS BBQ is a BBQ Catering Company & Award Winning BBQ Competition Team that competes in the KCBS / CBBQA circuits as well as a producer of Award Winning BBQ Rubs & Sauces in the United States and Australia.

This is starting our 18th year into the cooking journey. We are based out of Sidney in Western Nebraska. I have cooked all my life and it became more of an obsession than a passion. I love to challenge myself and to learn new things. Before jumping into cooking full time I taught at the college level for 10 years and used my students to testing new ideas. Jimmy L's has a team of 13 dedicated indiv...

I'm Raymond Patterson. I've been competing in Steak Cookoff Association events since 2019. What started as a love for cooking quickly turned into a passion for traveling, meeting great people, and building lifelong friendships through the BBQ community. What I enjoy most about competing is the people. The camaraderie, the shared knowledge, and being able to help others improve their cooks is what...

We're Big John's BBQ out of Las Vegas. I am the head pit master - Big John Bowman. My BBQ journey started in Kansas City in 2009 when my wife Kim worked with the marketing agency for the American Royal BBQ—so I got to meet and taste BBQ from top competitors, and I was instantly hooked. I bought a cheap offset smoker, started learning everything I could, and when we moved back home to Vegas, it gre...

Brennon Nielson and Nate Benson tell us about Slab O Rama and their Reserve Grand Champion win to qualify them for the 2027 BBQ World Cup and a shot at 1 million dollars!

A brand-new global BBQ World Cup has just launched, with a $1 million prize purse. The event links 40+ qualifying barbecue competitions worldwide from the U.S. to Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand and the U.K. into one global championship season. The finals are scheduled for April 2027 in Las Vegas.

Named #1 by The Underseasoned BBQ show's 150 most influential people in bbq Daniel Vaughn is the barbecue editor for Texas Monthly and arguably the most influential voice in smoked meat today. He didn't just define what great barbecue is, but helped create the culture of standing in line for it. • Barbecue Editor at Texas Monthly and the only full-time barbecue journalist in the U.S. • Author of T...

I've been in the competitive scene for five years now. In 2022, I clinched the coveted title of Team of the Year in Brisket from the Champions Barbecue Alliance Association. Over the past few years, I've proudly secured two top-3 brisket finishes at the fiercely competitive San Antonio Rodeo, where the stakes are high with nearly 300 teams competing. What really keeps me going, though, is the bond...

At Fat Plate BBQ, everything began with a passion for outdoor cooking. What began as a weekend hobby in our own backyard quickly turned into a passion for creating bold and creative flavors that help make your next cook your best cook. I first caught the BBQ bug over a decade and a half ago, after buying a used Primo Oval XL from Craigslist. Probably 35 different cookers later, Fat Plate BBQ was b...

Let's talk about some BBQ topics that get people engaged on social media.

Chris Bentley of Bentley BBQ—Alabama-based pitmaster and content creator known for bold backyard BBQ, grills, smokers, and rotisserie cooking. From low-and-slow classics to hot-and-fast favorites (and even homemade ice cream), Bentley brings real-deal flavor and fire to everything he cooks.

Misty is a Seattle, Washington native with a love affair with meat. She shares her "Stories of a Seattle meat man's wife" on social platforms and may be better known as @SeattleButchersWife. Her marriage into a 3rd generation meat family was a kickstart for Misty's BBQ journey. Shifting from her long-time career in corporate retail through the pandemic, her passion for grilling became an obsession...

Tony Ramirez, also known as TFTI BBQ on social media, has spent nearly twenty years perfecting his backyard barbecue skills in the Bay Area, California. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Tony is self-taught, inspired by his Filipino and Cajun heritage, his beloved parents, and a passion for BBQ Pitmasters reruns, YouTube tutorials, and personal culinary experiments. What started in 2021 as a hob...

Jared Pullman started How Low Can You Slow back in 2016, with the goal to help everyday grill enthusiasts, make better barbecue in their own backyards. Since then, Jared has worked as a content creator and recipe developer, based primarily on Instagram. Jared is a native of New Zealand, which is where his barbecue journey began. Jared is now based in Boise Idaho and is the founder of the Idaho Bar...

Dustin Jones, along with his wife Amanda and their two daughters, Addie and Anna Lois, make up a hardworking family from Mississippi who find joy in life's simple pleasures: good food, great company, and time spent together around the grill. What started as weekend cookouts and a bit of friendly competition soon evolved into something greater—Southern Char Seasonings, a family brand founded on fai...

My name is Dylan Cromer. I am 31 years old and man, do I love to cook BBQ! I grew up eating BBQ quite a bit with my dad. I used to watch him cook Boston butts, leg quarter chickens, and ribs on the weekends, learning as much as I could in the process. I started cooking BBQ on my own around the age of 18 and have grown from there. I gained an interest in competition BBQ from the show BBQ Pitmasters...

The Kairos origin story began as the culmination of another journey. Over a decade ago I made the decision to source my meat directly from a rancher. We were going halves on a cow before your neighbor thought it was cool. The next step was a journey that took years of learning how to hunt, successfully harvesting my first big game animal and sharing the story with my friends and family.

KRAM Knives is named after my family: Kimberly, Ryan, Andrew, and Makayla. I started my company after my wife was injured at work, which led me to take care of her at home. One day, feeling bored, I walked into the garage, heated a piece of metal, and began hammering it. Eventually, the metal started taking the shape of a knife, so I added a handle. After that initial attempt, I thought to myself,...

We started our journey in 2018 with our first competition at Tomato Days, where we earned a reserve grand champion title. From that moment on, we were hooked. Initially, there were four of us on the team, but as life got in the way, two members dropped out. However, Mitch and I continued to pursue our passion. Our first KCBS competition took place in Bullhead City, where we met Anthony. It was the...

We're catching up with our favorite barbecue and bourbon aficionados!!

Before becoming a BBQ chef, I was a firefighter and worked in EMS. I got into BBQ watching my dad cook on his Weber Kettle grill as a kid. After a nasty divorce, the BBQs stopped, and it became just a memory after watching some YouTube videos on BBQ (BBQ Pit Boys, HowtoBBQright, Meat Church, etc.). I decided to purchase my first smoker on Amazon. Many years later, we developed the Michigan BBQ Add...

Les Hatter, over 35 years of restaurant experience, from the dishroom to the boardroom. Full service to Fast casual and everything in between. Currently Operating Partner for the Franchise of Five Guys in Central Florida. However, my love of everything restaurant-related has brought me extensive knowledge. I intend to grow our "flaseasonings" but we all have to start somewhere! Join us for a live...