The Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast

In this episode of the Smoking Hot Confessions BBQ Podcast, I get into it with Paul King, the Head Pitmaster of The King and his Q. Last year was their very first year on the competitive BBQ scene and what a year it was! But Paul had a few tricks up his sleeve that I'll let him fill you in on! I learn all about Paul's history in the food industry and the BBQ scene before diving into his 2019 year...

Butchers Axe BBQ have had an absolutely incredible 2019 on the Australasian Barbecue Alliance and Kansas City Barbecue Society (Australia) circuits. They had a seemingly endless run of back to back Grand Champion wins and were heads and shoulders above the competition.  In this episode Michael and I break down the 2019 that the Axe boys had - the good, the bad, and the... oh who are we kidding, 20...

This is a bonus episode for Season 5. There is one comp on everyone's lips right now - the Cairns BBQ Classic. And there's one reason why. The Grand Champion winner is going to walk away with a cheque for $20,000. This will make it one of the richest BBQ competitions in the country! The total prize pool is $50,000, equal to that of Australasian Barbecue Alliance's Invitational.  But where has this...

This is Episode Fifteen of Season Five. And this episode is very different from anything you've heard from Smoking Hot Confessions before. Typically, SHC podcast eps are quite structured and have a clear purpose and outcomes. For this episode, I was chatting with Nick from Scotch n Smoke and Matt from Shire Smokers when we decided to flick on the audio recorder. Shark Island Brewing saw what we we...

This is Episode Fourteen of Season Five. The last ABA comp of the year is always the Kangaroo Valley Craft Beer & BBQ Festival, and fittingly, it's always a great party. With meat, mates, beer, pigs, helicopters and racing ride on lawn mowers, this year was the best by far! Located 2 hours south of Sydney, the festival drew competitors from as far as Brisbane and Adelaide. Some came for a last cha...

This is Episode Fifteen of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II. If you haven't heard of the Steak Cookoff Association, you might well be living under a rock. It is the fastest growing competitive cooking association in the world and is borne completely from the work of Brett Gallaway and Ken Phillips. In this interview we're going to get into the nitty gritty of the SCA and learn some shortcuts...

This is Episode Thirteen of Season Five.  2019 is winding down, which means it's the perfect time of year for me to head across to WA for the Smokin in the Valley Charity BBQ Competition put on by the Mondo Community Warriors. This year, the funds raised were going direct to Lifeline WA who do some incredible work over there, helping out the most vulnerable people in our community. It was however,...

This is Episode Fourteen of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II. Kathy Pullin is a dynamo in the world of BBQ. She's the owner and founder of renowned BBQ catering setup 'Pullin's Premium BBQ'. She's got a regular TV spot as 'Grillin' with Kathy' and she's a successful Brand Ambassador for not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR separate brands. All this is in addition to her work raising awa...

This is Episode Thirteen of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II. Legends of the BBQ scene don't come much bigger that Ray 'Dr BBQ' Lampe. He got involved with the competitive BBQ scene when it first kicked off in the '80's. He's apparently 'Retired', and I use that term very loosely, he's still extremely active in the comp scene as a Brand Ambassador for Big Green Egg , is frequently involved in...

This is Episode Twelve of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II.  There is one world champion BBQ'er who has done so much to grow the BBQ scene in Australia that we should just make him an honorary Australian. And that man is Andy Groneman, Pitmaster of Smoke On Wheels Competition Team. Born and bred in Kansas City, Andy preaches KC Style BBQ around the US and indeed the world. And so he was the p...

This is Episode Twelve of Season Five.  As you're aware, I've spent a lot of time this year in the southern states, working with BBQ Promoter Rob Moir. He started with one competition in 2018, four competitions in 2019 and 2020… well… I can't tell you about that until he makes it public, but it's going to be big and will change the BBQ scene in the southern arena. For this episode of the podcast,...

This is Episode Eleven of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II.  While I was at the NBBQA Conference, there was one name that seemed to get called out more than any other at the Excellence Awards, and that was Veterans Q. So naturally, Steve was one of the people I had to grab for a deep dive episode of the podcast. A Veteran himself, Steve has founded a BBQ business whose sole purpose is to supp...

This is Episode Ten of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II. This is the third and final episode recorded live that the NBBQA's annual conference in Kansas City. The last day of the event was a double-headed Steak Cookoff Association competition. That's right, two rounds in one day. The competition was fierce as all of the professionals who'd just spent two days cooped up in the Mariott for two d...

This is Episode Nine of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II.  In this episode I once again head to the Marriott in downtown Kansas City again for the second Day of the NBBQA Conference. Not only was I able to record a series of killer interviews, but you'll also find the recording of the Excellence Awards Ceremony where the who's-who of BBQ were recognised for all their hard work.  Before we get...

This is Episode Eight of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II. This episode sees us hit up Kansas City for the NBBQA Conference . The full event was four days long. There was a pre-event on the Wednesday where we hard core BBQ junkies jumped on a bus and headed to Plowboys , Slaps and Joe's . That was an incredible experience and I was super excited to find the person sitting behind me on the bus...

This is Episode Seven of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II.  In this episode, Saffron Hodgson, the woman behind Bush Cooking steps into The Confessional. Saffron is an Aussie expat, living in Seattle, Washington who is taking the US by storm. It was actually Saffron who kicked off this year's trip to America when she invited Smoking Hot Confessions to be part of the official media team coverin...

This is Episode Six of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II.  In this episode I get to have a good yarn with my old mate the BBQ Ninja. You know the guy. Bushy beard. Wears a bandana. Has a real thing for flame throwers. The plan was originally to record this session on site at Hogs for the Cause, but he arrived into New Orleans a little late and I had to leave New Orleans a little early. However...

This is Episode Five of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II. It is party time in this episode, as you might tell by the time we get to the last interview! In this episode I head to the University of New Orleans for the annual Hogs for the Cause BBQ competition. This is a charity competition who's sole purpose is to raise money for kids with brain cancer. The beautiful people from Ubon's BBQ Of Y...

This is Episode Four of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II.  In this episode I jump back in my Chevy and head across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway again to head up to Covington, about an hour north-ish of New Orleans. If you've been watching my videos for a while, you will have seen me using a bunch of Grill Beast gear. Well, in this episode I meet with Dave Johnson, Founder and Owner of Gril...

This is Episode Eleven of Season Five.  In February this year I went to Adelaide for the incredible Up in Smoke BBQ Festival and you can catch up on all that action in episode two of this season. It was an incredible weekend of meat, and mates so when promoter Rob asked me if I'd like to come down to Horsham in Victoria for the Meat Meet BBQ Competition, you'd believe I was all over that. It was a...

This is Episode Three of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II.  In this episode I head down to the National Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans. There I chat with Dan Robert, the curator of Meat Science Programming. Dan was born into a family-owned meat processing and smokehouse business in Louisiana and after earning a degree in Food Science, had a 25 year career with the USFDA, tra...

This is Episode Two of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II.  In this episode I head downtown to the #1 voted BBQ joint in New Orleans - Central City BBQ. There I met James Cruse Jr, the head Pitmaster of Central City and also team captain of the all-conquering Aporkalypse Now Competition BBQ team. After a tour of the very impressive facilities, we grabbed a couple of local microbrews and a plate...

Welcome to Episode One of Season Six, my U.S. Road Trip Part II. In this season I kick things off with two weeks in New Orleans where I head to a couple of competitions and spend some time hanging out with the who's who of Southern BBQ. From there it's up to Kansas City for four days of BBQ Nirvana at the NBBQA's Annual Conference and Excellence Awards. The final two weeks of the journey see us he...

This is Episode Ten of Season Five. Once again, it's a local competition for me: the Brisbane BBQ Festival . This year marked the fifth year that this festival has run. The first year was my first ever judging experience and you can read about that on the website. I've been involved every year since and this year was perhaps the biggest yet. There were two stages running - a live music stage and a...

This is Episode Nine of Season Five. For this episode, it's a local comp - just a quick drive up the motorway to Brisbane for the BBQ & Beer Roadshow . This year's festival marked a hat trick for BBR, marking three years in a row of a great weekend of BBQ, Craft Beer, live music and good times. And, it was the first ever KCBS competition in Queensland so that was exciting to see all the teams gett...