Latest / BBQ Therapy / Steph Franklin - Simply Marvelous BBQ | Granting BBQ Wishes

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Steph Franklin - Simply Marvelous BBQ | Granting BBQ Wishes · BBQ Therapy

• 0:00
  So it started crumbling, it was going to tear apart.
• 0:02
  It was just I was sitting up there cussing and fussing and
• 0:06
  thinking. I ran it through that shit in
• 0:09
  the freezer in the RV Got third place spice after that too.
• 0:16
  I put it in there for about 5 minutes.
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  Attorneys, so never give up. Just never give up.
• 0:25
  Nobody told me that. Never give up on the box and
• 0:29
  they had me think. Definitely that was a good
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  That's what BBQ is, BBQ. Barbecue, BBQ, BBQ, BBQ, BBQ.
• 0:43
  Ever notice how the sound of sizzling meat and the smell of
• 0:46
  smoke can silence the noise of the world?
• 0:49
  Now that's BBQ therapy. If the fire moves you like
• 0:53
  subscribe, share and help spread the message because growth, like
• 0:57
  good BBQ, takes time and patience.
• 1:00
  Welcome to your therapy session. Welcome to the BBQ therapy.
• 1:05
  Podcast, I'm your host, Tavis. Bryant And today I'm honored to
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  sit down with a true innovator in the world of BBQ.
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  My guest is Steph Franklin, better known as the man behind
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  Simply Marvelous BBQ. Steph Journey is 1 of
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  transformation from cooking during his graduate studies to
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  winning more than 25 GCS and RGCS, to building a rub line
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  loved around the world to cater and unforgettable events.
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  He's been inducted into the California BBQ Association Hall
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  of Fame, partner with Snake River Farms on exclusive rubs,
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  and continue to shake the flavor game in both competition and in
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  people's backyard. Steph, welcome to the show.
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  I got one rule, make yourself at home.
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  I had no sponsors so speak. But I appreciate you having.
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  All right, no problem. All right, let's take it back to
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  the beginning. Before it's simply marvelous.
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  Before the championships and the rubs.
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  Who is Steph Franklin and what shaped your love for food and
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  fire growing up? To be honest, I learned to cook
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  because my mom couldn't cook, so if I want something that was
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  going to be edible, I needed to learn how to cook it myself.
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  So that started me cooking, to be honest, and it kind of
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  developed into the Nisha BBQ. I started reading a lot of
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  books, old school books, Mike Mills and John Willingham and I
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  can go on forever with the books I read.
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  And so I started barbecuing. Their friends asked me to start
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  barbecuing for their parties. The stuff started charging them
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  into that from a catering perspective.
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  Spice, spice wise, I just think I got a pretty good palate and
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  it really started with me trying to recreate a Jamaican spice
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  that I got when I went to Jamaica back in 91.
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  And I was in love with the flavors out there.
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  And so I that's how my first spice, sweet and spicy, was
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  developed. Yeah, wow, that was a long time
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  ago too. Yeah, yeah.
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  But it took me to when I say I it went to market in O 8.
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  So I got kind of OK barbecue and early 2000s kind of skyrocketed
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  at that time. OK, And back then when you who
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  were you grilling on? Was it a kettle or?
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  I had a cheat bullet I had when I'm Home Depot smokers with the
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  little side box. I had one of those.
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  I had a ugly drum. I had a Bubba cake.
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  I had ah, man, I'm gonna smoke a whore.
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  So I just did. I unboxed Humphreys and hottest
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  thing out now is the Humphreys hot box.
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  So it's if I had to describe it, it's definitely drum style
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  cooking, but also looks like a hasty bake.
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  So. Neat.
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  I did a little burn in last night, burn out rather, and do
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  some chicken sausages on it just for the inaugural cook.
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  But I think I'm going to get in depth with it this weekend.
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  But yeah, I got a lot of smokers, had a lot of smokers.
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  None of those smokers I mentioned earlier are still with
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  me, but I graduated significantly.
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  And who introduced you to a competition BBQ?
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  I don't know if Neil Strotter Big Mr. You ever heard him?
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  It sound name sound. At a restaurant in LA and he was
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  in the competition and we used to be all be on this website.
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  I met him on the website BBQ Brethren.
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  So story goes him and another friend.
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  I had a tragedy in my family and they came to check on me 'cause
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  my cousin was killed in Chicago and this is like in O 7.
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  So they told me to come out to this BBQ competition with them
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  and that was like my real first exposure at the end of the
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  contest and I wouldn't cook it. So I partied the whole weekend.
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  It was a going to be another BBQ contest either the next, the
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  following week or two weeks later, probably 2 weeks later so
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  I can get my crap together. But anyway, make a long story
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  for it, Neil asked me. He's you drinking or competing?
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  And I looked at him. Challenge me.
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  That's it, I'm competing. So that was my first contest and
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  I got first place in pork and I've been hooked every since.
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  Oh wow. Wow, that's without even class
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  any classes. Or Nah, they had classes back
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  then. Man, that was a long time ago.
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  They have a lot of classes back there.
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  It's totally different. Yeah, definitely.
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  So did he give you a rundown like a presentation and all that
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  or you just it? Was the IBCA competition so
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  presentation that is not as valid anyway and everybody's
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  just doing pulled pork. Then you just put pork in the
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  box. People wasn't doing money.
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  Yeah, really that didn't start till a couple of years later.
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  Probably. If they weren't, they wouldn't
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  do it out here. And so that I threw some pulled
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  pork in the box with that Jamaican inspired, and then I
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  added a little extra dash at Allspice in it and it was first
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  place pork. You.
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  Oh wow, if you tried 'cause it's just too polarizing, the odd
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  spice and everything. I think anyway.
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  OK. And how long did it take you to
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  get a groove and feel that you can compete with some of the
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  best out there? So in 2011 I got my first RGCI,
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  lost my point to Sylvie who got GC at the contest and Vista, a
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  little steam engine and it was a double header.
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  And the first day I think I, I was top ten.
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  I think it was my first, No, my second or third top ten call.
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  And then the next day, I mean, we were just going back-to-back.
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  It was either me or Sylvia, first place, second place,
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  whatever. And she beat me by about a point
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  and I told her I'm glad it was you, not me, because she had
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  been at it longer than me to get a first.
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  But then I knew I was, I can cook with everybody.
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  That kind of reassured me. And of course there was some
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  struggles before I got my first GC.
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  My first GC happened a year later in 2012.
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  And I would do good in three categories and screw up one
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  category real bad. And so I'd just be in 9th place
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  and 7th place or something like that.
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  And then Santa Anita, it was at Santa Anita 2012.
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  I just had this before I get to that, I had a good cooking.
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  Dana Point screwed up ribs. I cooked some baby bags needle
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  and if I had to cook St. Louis Spear ribs a day I think I
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  would have won that one. And then the next contest was
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  Santa Anita. I got rid of the baby bags.
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  I got first and chicken 3rd and ribs 1st and pork and 3rd and
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  brisket and at the time highest score in California with a 691
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  or something. So I was the first one to
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  California ever to get to six 90s.
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  So that was pretty cool and special.
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  And now you got people 7/18. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
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  You got a contest where 15 people have over 700.
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  I had to know that one, Yeah, but.
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  It's I read that I was like, wow.
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  They gave me a 718. I take it too.
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  Yeah, I had no complaining. Yeah, they might as well just
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  gave him. 4 you got 318, you got 7th place chicken and I was
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  like, hey man, you need to get your chicken together.
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  No joke between Facebook. That's wow.
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  All right, so California has its own flavor and vibe.
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  How do you see it compared to Texas, Kansas City, Carolinas,
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  other places? Competition wise are just in
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  general. You can do it both.
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  Competition wise, I don't think it's too much different.
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  Wins in California, wins in Kansas City, Texas.
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  I don't think it really matters too much.
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  I think where it comes in is commercial BBQ, meaning
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  restaurants and stuff like that and pop ups or caterers like
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  myself. And I always say I'm a eclectic
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  barbecue and meaning I take a little bit from every region and
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  combine them together to get the the profile I'm looking for.
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  Also, I asked the customer if they want Texas style,
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  competition style, etcetera. But I think California is just
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  we're a grilling state more so than the smoking state.
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  I really believe that because of Tri tip, so do Salim rear style
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  out here, which is probably one of my favorite way to cook ways
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  to cook. And I like to burn logs
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  sometimes in my stick burner. So I actually think that cooks
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  better Tri tip than the Santa Maria quietest cap, Yeah.
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  OK, that's good. Did you travel over to US,
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  Mexico, Caribbean? Was there a dish or a technique
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  on those trips that completely shifted the way you thought
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  about BBQ? Other than that, spice.
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  No, I think it was more just the spice I was looking for 'cause
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  I'm going to tell you a secret, I don't eat a lot of BBQ anymore
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  every night. And then I'll get the urge to
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  practice and then our smart friends and family wants some
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  BBQ. But my wife and I, you know,
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  mess around too much. I, I grill more.
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  So did I smoke meats now? Yeah, for a lot of people that
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  grill they, that's how I used to do, just make it just to play
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  around and then give away and yeah, after a.
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  While I. Was like.
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  I was thinking today I was like I got 7 briskets Snake River
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  farm reason I'm like I need to do a practice but man I don't
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  feel like pulling one of them out.
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  I found out 'cause they high beef is high across the board.
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  So it's not snake anything to do with Snake River farm.
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  It's just feed is high, gas is high, beef is high.
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  That's how it goes. Yeah, OK.
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  How much is gas? I'm in Georgia by the way.
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  But how much is gas is? That I got diesel, so 479.
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  Oh wow, wait, ours real ours is for premium is probably 2,
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  probably like 3-18 or something like that.
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  So these are probably like $3 you.
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  Get tax on tax. I'm not getting involved in that
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  but but I love living. I'll pay it.
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  All right, so I heard a story about I guess you saved a
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  brisket by sticking it in the freezer of RV.
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  Oh, yeah. Oh.
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  Yeah, that was like my third GCI.
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  We was at the this comp called, we used to affectionately call
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  it the dump because it was literally like a old dump yard
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  or something. I don't know.
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  They had Cougars and snakes sightings that weekend.
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  But anyway, we I was a little hot cooking wise and that I had
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  a great cook up into brisket and I knew it.
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  I was like man, and my brisket was too hot.
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  So it started crumbling. It was going to tear apart.
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  It was just I was sitting up there cussing and fussing and
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  thinking. I ran it through that shit in
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  the freezer in the RV Got third place like like after that too.
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  I put it in there for about 5 minutes at the room attorneys.
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  So never give up, just never give up.
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  Somebody told me that never give up on the box and they had me
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  think. That was a good just with BBQ
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  ears. As far as I mean anything, when
• 13:43
  it goes smooth, anybody could do that, but it's how you react
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  when different stuff happens out of the ordinary.
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  Do you panic or do you know what to do?
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  And that stuff they don't teach you at BBQ classes, they just
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  teach you directly. I I thought, that's my BBQ
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  class. I told him.
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  I said, maybe you overcooked that brisket in the freezer,
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  refrigerator, something for the last minute.
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  Do what you got to do. I ran, I was running behind and
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  one of my barbecue friends at the time, Aaron, still for him.
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  I just haven't seen them in years.
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  Aaron Black, he played fullback for me while he was turning to
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  my boxing 'cause it was a crowd. So he was, he helped me and he
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  was competing, but he had turned.
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  Oh wow. He ran back 'cause he knew I was
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  trying to turn mine in and it was a crowd.
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  He just played fullback for me while we were running to turn
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  take his left. Sometimes you had to, yeah.
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  Alright. And when you have a bad cook,
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  how do you personally process and bounce back from it?
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  I just get back on the horse a lot of times.
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  A lot of times I'll take some stuff away.
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  Maybe I'm doing too much. Sometimes I'll take a break
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  'cause you could. I cooked over 200 contests.
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  It's hard to, it's hard to I'm hard headed.
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  That can be hard headed 'cause I'm at the point I don't even
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  take notes 'cause it's just like I got muscle memory out the ass.
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  So it's and I thought about going back to notes sometimes
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  and I do sometimes I write down actually what I put in the sauce
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  and and then make some tweaks. I don't keep a lot of data logs
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  and I throw away my score sheets that I process what's going on
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  and you got to process two days later at the conference.
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  I don't want to hear shit. They have.
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  Although I am getting better, I find myself sitting there like
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  letting it go real fast. Now it comes.
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  But yeah, you practice. OK.
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  And I heard you say, I guess that on another podcast, you say
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  you don't add things when stuff go wrong.
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  You take things away when you're struggling, go back to basics
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  and focus on tenderness. Can you break that down so
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  everybody can understand what? You're yeah.
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  So you know how we get all carried away with this new spice
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  and that new spice? You try these, all these
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  combinations and they hit, then all of a sudden they don't hit.
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  So I'll just start taking a spice away.
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  Instead of combining 3 sauces, I'll take one, combine 2 sauces,
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  maybe even just use one. That's pretty much what I'll do.
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  I'll think about and just maybe putting less meat in the box and
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  focusing on what I'm doing. Sometimes we call them a few
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  boxes where we just fill the whole box up.
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  I won't hear when I'm struggling.
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  I only when I'm feeling myself and just what you're trying to
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  do is get it, get back to your baseline and then build back up.
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  So that's just go back to basics, right?
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  I'm not saying go to salt and pepper 'cause that's not going
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  to help my cause. But instead of using pecan,
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  spicy apple and sweet seduction, pull out the sweet seduction.
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  I'll pull out the pecan and see if see if they like that.
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  Maybe it's too much sugar or something going on.
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  It could be. Yeah, that's true because it
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  comes down to tenderness if you ask me, because a lot of people
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  do the same thing. But it just come down to do you
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  know, what it is to be when it gets tender or not.
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  And everybody just don't, they don't have that feeling to know
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  when it's tender and you can take and stuff like.
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  And your tenderness can change the next year.
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  They might want more bite one year, then the next year they
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  want it soft, like the judges don't have no teeth or
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  something. So yeah, sometimes I do pay
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  attention to the judges going to the tent.
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  If they real old, I'm cooking real tender.
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  I just for GBA and I judged the contest like a few weeks ago and
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  probably 3/4 of the judges were probably like 70 and.
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  A Yeah, that's when you cook tender.
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  And I think the oldest was like 8, yeah.
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  We got a couple out here. I see them without their teeth
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  or sometimes up, like yeah. Yeah, alright.
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  And you said also you don't cook the wind, you cook for
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  consistency, shooting for the top 10 every time.
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  Why is that mindset so powerful in BBQ?
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  Cause consistency means so I just want to be consistent and
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  if I'm cooking, if I'm consistently hitting top ten,
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  the GC will take care of itself or the RGC or whatever.
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  Just be consistent from cook to cook.
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  If you improve that consistency that's even better.
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  But just being consistent, cook to cook.
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  Yeah, and like when you made that comment about Kingman your
• 18:41
  home run or striking out instead of Tony Gwynn.
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  Getting basic, yeah, yeah, I just try to, I just try to get a
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  call in every category. That's my goal in 10th place
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  chicken. Hell, you could have a 176 and
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  be tough place. So you I just try to get a call
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  and the other three meets is lower scoring usually.
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  But just get a call. Just get calls.
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  That's all you. My goal is to get a call.
• 19:09
  Exactly. And then?
• 19:11
  I'll shoot for first. Even.
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  Yeah, I don't shoot exactly first happens right on, but let
• 19:17
  me get a call. Tony Quinn hit the hole right
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  every now. Yeah, Alright.
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  And where did the name Simply Marvelous come from?
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  How did you come up with that? My my business is based out of
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  Santa Barbara County and this is a lot of vegetarians in Santa
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  Barbara. So I wasn't going to put no pig
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  mooing no ink and under that in my and I don't know why I got
• 19:41
  sent Billy Billy Crystal coin, but that is not where I went
• 19:47
  with that. I just wanted everyone to know
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  that they were getting superior food from simply Marvel's
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  barbecue. OK.
• 19:57
  And the concept of the genie, does it represent anything?
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  I know you said you couldn't use an animal, but did the genie?
• 20:03
  Mean. But the genie came here because
• 20:05
  I couldn't use no animals. I didn't feel comfortable.
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  So I got name, I think his name Patrick Carlson or something.
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  He does the little cartoon designs and stuff.
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  I think he he came up with that concept or anyway I came up with
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  it. He came it's so long ago talked
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  to 2006 and and they stuck and then people started calling me
• 20:31
  the genie. No teeth like the genie does and
• 20:36
  everything else. They was like that actually
• 20:38
  looked like Steph. That's how I got my BBQ.
• 20:43
  That's like name is the genie because of the rubs.
• 20:48
  OK, OK, that's cool. And when you go and sit down and
• 20:52
  start a process of making a rub, do you have a plan or do you
• 20:56
  just mix it? Do you come up with something or
• 20:58
  how did it go? So what if I come when I'm
• 21:01
  working for myself, making my own product, I and just sitting
• 21:09
  around and sometimes it happened in the shower.
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  I'm like, oh, that'd be interesting.
• 21:15
  So I'll order some the the like pecan meal, the cherry meal or
• 21:21
  something like that and then put some traditional sugars and salt
• 21:25
  with it and play around, get a sample, send it out to my Co
• 21:29
  Packer and they replicate it. Sometimes it's better, sometimes
• 21:33
  it's not as good. Just depends 'cause it's they're
• 21:37
  not going to use the same spices I am.
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  So we just work together and get the final product.
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  They find a product 95% of the time going to be better than
• 21:45
  mine because they have the actual mechanisms to create the
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  granules that are unique in size.
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  So they come out to Shaker well and things of that nature and
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  the actually process the ingredients together where I'm
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  just mixing. So the whole different process
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  for them than it is me. Oh wow, oh wow.
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  And that's big thing because a lot of people just put seasons
• 22:14
  together and it you get to use it, it doesn't come out to shake
• 22:18
  her and you have to beat it on the side and everything it.
• 22:22
  Really is so you, you really. It's a process.
• 22:25
  I Pepper cow was one of one of the rubs that I'm real proud of.
• 22:33
  We, Sylvia and I used to kill it using pepper cow because I would
• 22:36
  only give something to her. And that time we GC in the RGC
• 22:41
  respectively. I decided to bring it out 'cause
• 22:44
  it, it was just killing brisket. She, she and I was every time we
• 22:48
  cook, we was the top five in brisket.
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  And I was like, OK, I got to make some money off of this now.
• 22:54
  And so I brought yeah, it's a, it's a arduous process in terms
• 23:01
  of developing rubs, right? Anybody could put them in the
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  bottle and put their label on it.
• 23:06
  But do it right. Look at sweet seduction.
• 23:09
  Sweet seduction. Probably one of the most unique
• 23:11
  rubs there is. Nobody can replicate it.
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  Many have tried. And that's because their Co
• 23:21
  Packer don't have the same equipment as my Co Packer.
• 23:24
  Yeah, or the same. Not so much equipment.
• 23:27
  They don't have the same person. I'm working with the food
• 23:31
  scientist. Yeah, it's a.
• 23:33
  How long did it take? Go ahead.
• 23:35
  How long did it usually take as far as time frame when you start
• 23:39
  to? Man I've hit 25% of my rubs I've
• 23:43
  hit the first time out like. Oh wow, the.
• 23:48
  Under 75 give me fits gave me nightmares.
• 23:53
  Perfect perfect example is like a cherry.
• 23:59
  My cherry rub took a while because in that throwing shade
• 24:05
  on anybody else's cherry rub, but a lot of them tastes very
• 24:08
  medicinal because they they trying to put the cherry in the
• 24:15
  forefront and dairy powder for instance, it leaves a medicinal
• 24:20
  taste. But I'm using cherry meal
• 24:24
  basically which is a whole different thing.
• 24:27
  So mine doesn't taste. It's more expensive to make than
• 24:32
  cherry powder, but the results have been amazing with that rub.
• 24:37
  And that's actually the, you know, the market made sure I was
• 24:40
  going to be here to stay as a rub producer.
• 24:46
  And you say which one was your first one?
• 24:47
  Sweet and spicy. OK, OK.
• 24:51
  And back in 2012, you partnered with Big Pop of Smokers for what
• 24:55
  was it like back then? Because that was I heard of back
• 24:58
  in the day like that. We were the first ones to try.
• 25:01
  To do something. Yeah, it would.
• 25:04
  Look, I I'm not a marketing genius.
• 25:07
  He is. I was a educational
• 25:10
  administrator at the time. I had no time and running a
• 25:13
  catering service, I had no time to do rub sales and none of that
• 25:17
  other stuff. And I was like, I'm just going
• 25:19
  to give it to you. You could have it exclusively.
• 25:24
  And that helped drive his sales and help help me.
• 25:28
  So as a mutual partner and during COVID, things just got
• 25:32
  not weird between us, but weird in the market per SE.
• 25:38
  And I needed to separate out and but we still great friends.
• 25:44
  I talked to him today. Yeah, I'm trying to get him to
• 25:48
  come on 'cause I would love to talk to him too, 'cause he, he's
• 25:51
  an innovative person also, yeah. Yeah.
• 25:56
  So I don't know ones that you created, how many?
• 25:59
  First off, how many do you have you total created total yours
• 26:03
  and other companies? How many different ones have you
• 26:06
  created that you I? Think I'm now 30, something like
• 26:09
  that. I should have looked it up
• 26:11
  before I got on the show, but yeah, had a 30 'cause in with 12
• 26:17
  or 14 of them being mine and then half of them are mine and
• 26:21
  half of them are made for other companies.
• 26:26
  OK. And you do one for Snake River
• 26:28
  Farm and any what other companies?
• 26:31
  Yeah I do 5 for Snake River farms.
• 26:33
  I do know that I think 5 West Coast BBQ shop they got some
• 26:38
  great rubs. I just finished up a Maple rub
• 26:43
  and the steak rub for them and they are outstanding.
• 26:47
  Art Gourmet Woods, KRB, Rustic blends, They at new company and
• 26:53
  somebody else I'm forgetting. So they give you a meat or they
• 26:58
  give you a certain idea and you just go with it, or they just
• 27:01
  say come up with. What you Yeah, they tell me what
• 27:03
  they want, what they're looking for, and then we go back.
• 27:06
  It might take 8 samples before we get it right.
• 27:09
  So we, I get a recipe going with my Co Packer.
• 27:13
  Co Packer sends out samples of both my customer and me, and
• 27:19
  both taste it. Ultimately, the customer is the
• 27:23
  person who makes the final decision, but I have some
• 27:27
  influence. OK, OK, You a bad man?
• 27:31
  Almost 30 what? Yeah, yeah.
• 27:35
  I should have counted them up, but yeah, it's somewhere around
• 27:38
  there. Yeah, And I was like, not to
• 27:42
  bring racers to it. When I saw you were black.
• 27:44
  I was like back in the shower. I was like, as you go bad, man.
• 27:47
  Yeah. And.
• 27:48
  I stayed low, out of the fray. Exactly which one do you think
• 27:54
  is your most underrated seasoning that people sleep on?
• 27:58
  From my brand. That's a good question.
• 28:02
  Seasonal, My seasonal, it's all-purpose spice, basically.
• 28:08
  The people that know about it rave about it.
• 28:12
  Just like Larry's on crack, basically.
• 28:16
  I've had to check, 'cause you when I went to your actual
• 28:19
  website, I would like there were so many that I haven't seen
• 28:22
  there. I've seen, but I haven't seen
• 28:24
  the whole variety and then the glaze and stuff like that.
• 28:27
  And I was like, wow, I didn't even know you had all this.
• 28:30
  And I definitely had to try out get the rest of them and try
• 28:34
  those. Out of your all your blends,
• 28:35
  which one do you use the most? There's no such thing.
• 28:41
  I vacillate between several of them and it also depends on what
• 28:47
  I'm cooking. But in competition if you wanted
• 28:51
  to talk, probably use spicy apple the most right now.
• 28:54
  Right now that could change down the line.
• 28:57
  Sweet seduction, I'm using that a lot on chicken and had some
• 29:02
  successful chicken this year with that.
• 29:05
  Went back to it from after years.
• 29:08
  Wow, that's a real good question though.
• 29:11
  I yeah, it just depends. Are you season all a lot?
• 29:14
  Obviously, 'cause it's just I, I don't eat a lot of sugar stuff.
• 29:19
  I'm trying to, I'm trying to be felt as I go into my 60s.
• 29:22
  Yeah. So I, I like savory stuff.
• 29:25
  So that's why I will use pepper cow on everything for a while.
• 29:30
  I would tell you pepper cow, 'cause I used to put that on
• 29:31
  chicken at home, pork chops, it didn't matter.
• 29:36
  Then he's like, ah, OK, I got to move on to try to do something
• 29:39
  else is up in the house and then I use someone else.
• 29:41
  Yeah, after I get on a bench with some of the other
• 29:43
  companies. My favorite is the Trinity is
• 29:46
  the Peach and the mix and I was like.
• 29:50
  I love that. Well, where you live, the Apple
• 29:52
  I. Think I got my first perfect
• 29:54
  score in chicken the first time I used Trinity.
• 29:58
  Yeah. Oh wow, it blew up.
• 30:02
  To me, like that's the perfect mix for me.
• 30:07
  Yeah, but just have Avery man. To be honest, the fruit I
• 30:10
  usually if I'm practicing and cooking for others I'll use.
• 30:16
  OK, OK. And if someone listening wanted
• 30:19
  to try to create their own seasoning, what's the first step
• 30:22
  you would tell them to take? Call me.
• 30:26
  Yeah, call me. Actually, I probably would tell
• 30:30
  them that because it's but if they didn't want to go through
• 30:32
  me and they just wanted some advice is don't rush to process
• 30:37
  that it happened organically. I seen a lot of people come into
• 30:40
  the game of rub business and a lot of people exit fast.
• 30:46
  Oh, they rushed it. And here's the other thing, man,
• 30:50
  don't try to come into the game stealing someone else's product
• 30:54
  and trying to replicate it. I think the key to because
• 30:57
  everybody's, a lot of people do that and I'm not putting
• 31:00
  judgement on nobody, but I'm just saying if I was to give you
• 31:03
  advice, come up with your own unique blend.
• 31:07
  Hey, somebody who knows how to do it?
• 31:11
  Yeah, it definitely. I had an idea.
• 31:14
  Tell them. You tell them what you're
• 31:15
  looking for. But you can always have
• 31:19
  something in your head, but you don't know how to get it out.
• 31:22
  You know what I mean? Definitely good.
• 31:24
  That's good information, all right.
• 31:27
  And you don't also compete, you then and cater.
• 31:29
  Also you don't be in, you just cater.
• 31:35
  Trying to retire man. Hey, back in the day when you
• 31:38
  started catering, did you get any mentoring or did you just
• 31:41
  trial and error as you did it? Just trial and error.
• 31:44
  I'm a bit, I had a couple of hiccups when I first started,
• 31:50
  but when I cater it's I'm not a detailed person.
• 31:57
  But when I cook, I'm detailed cooking and fishing.
• 32:01
  I can be detailed as hell and my wife is like, how can you be
• 32:05
  detailed with that? And you can't be detailed with
• 32:07
  doing the laundry and all this other stuff 'cause I'm
• 32:10
  competing. Exactly you're.
• 32:13
  Doing something to do. Have you always competed by
• 32:16
  yourself or did you have anybody?
• 32:19
  Sure. No.
• 32:23
  People come and help me. I'd rather use that term.
• 32:25
  Nobody. I do the cooking.
• 32:28
  If you want to come and assist and all that other stuff and
• 32:32
  help prep and all that, but they're going to be my recipes.
• 32:37
  I'm a control freak and I know it.
• 32:41
  When it comes to that, I'm a control freak, yeah.
• 32:46
  Ain't nothing wrong with that. Why would you tell them up front
• 32:48
  they know it? Yeah, I like them because I'm
• 32:49
  myself. It's as I age, of course, it's
• 32:52
  getting more difficult. So all the young competitors,
• 32:55
  they always help me load my trailer with the smokers, not
• 32:57
  because I can blew out my knee a couple times, but it's not it
• 33:03
  helped me still when I need it, right.
• 33:07
  Have you ever taught any? Classes or anything?
• 33:09
  Plenty of classes over the years.
• 33:11
  Competition. Regular backyard style holiday
• 33:15
  classes where I get going to the vault and get my aunties and Mac
• 33:20
  and cheese and dressing. Get back to class.
• 33:24
  Yeah. Yeah, alright.
• 33:30
  And I guess you've been a competitor and you're a caterer,
• 33:34
  roadmaker, consultant. What role do you see learning
• 33:37
  next, Sir? You're just going to ease it to
• 33:39
  the sunset? Anything else you haven't done
• 33:42
  that you wanted to do? Yeah, I'm sure there is.
• 33:46
  I don't know off the top of my head right now.
• 33:48
  But first of all, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing,
• 33:51
  growing that, making reals for other companies.
• 33:54
  That's what that's primarily my business now.
• 33:57
  And I want to grow that and I want to focus on that.
• 34:02
  And then I think about some other things along the way that
• 34:05
  I can venture out to. But I'm not at a place where I
• 34:08
  need to whack and can't give that 100% right now.
• 34:15
  And how did it feel to get inducted in the California BBQ
• 34:18
  Association? That crap, I knew it was right.
• 34:24
  Because it it used to be some rough years, it used to be very
• 34:28
  cliquish. That was the first brother to
• 34:31
  get in there or so. But it had been some people that
• 34:35
  was qualified before me and they got in after me when I was
• 34:41
  president of the California BBQ Association.
• 34:44
  And I just kept pushing them to get in and me and Sylvie kept
• 34:49
  pushing people to get in. She got in as well after me.
• 34:52
  So just takes 1 to get in and then all of a sudden things
• 34:56
  start happening. So it's, it's very diverse now.
• 34:59
  I think I, I don't know, I just thought they were very, it was
• 35:03
  cliquish back in the day. But that's just my own personal
• 35:05
  opinion. I could be wrong.
• 35:07
  Whatever. I don't hold nothing against
• 35:08
  anybody about that. Yeah, my thing is with BBQ
• 35:13
  period is just the record keeping, because if I wanted to
• 35:18
  know Johnny always stats from his rookie year or if I wanted
• 35:22
  to know anybody's stats, I could go look it up.
• 35:25
  But if I wanted to look at somebody's stats from 2000, I I
• 35:30
  have no. Way to look.
• 35:33
  Yeah, and I was told that KCBS have records but it won't give.
• 35:38
  Probably a microfiche. And I like BBQ data only goes
• 35:44
  back in. 2009 or something? Yeah, and we don't know the
• 35:49
  history. There's so many people back
• 35:51
  then, like I just until recent, like when I got in really into
• 35:56
  BBQ around 2000, I only knew what I seen online or on TV.
• 36:02
  I didn't know who Darren was and I'm they just popped about the
• 36:05
  blue ones. I really got into it.
• 36:07
  Now they're talking about to go to barbecue and I'm looking like
• 36:10
  I've never heard of it. Then when you look on his stats,
• 36:13
  you really can't see what he actually doing because on it's
• 36:17
  partially there and some of the other folks back then that you
• 36:21
  don't even know about. So yeah, that's what bothers me
• 36:26
  because you can't really research and see what people
• 36:30
  actually did and how good they really worked.
• 36:33
  Andy TO had a 715 back in the day, back in the early 2000s, I
• 36:39
  think it was. I don't even think nobody even
• 36:42
  realized he had. I think he was a wreck this past
• 36:45
  weekend. And the old trick he'd been
• 36:48
  cooking for years. Admiring and all that stuff.
• 36:50
  It's like a man cooked over 800. He cooked over 800.
• 36:54
  Yeah. And like, it's just crazy.
• 36:58
  Yeah. And they probably don't have
• 36:59
  half of it. Just nowhere.
• 37:02
  I'm a ass. I supposed to be talking to Ryan
• 37:04
  Grace. I'm asking about it next week.
• 37:06
  So I have a question about it because I'm like, how are we
• 37:11
  supposed to know who? Deal.
• 37:13
  With Yeah. It just take.
• 37:14
  People to make people's word for it.
• 37:16
  Yeah, yeah. So it's just, I guess come up
• 37:20
  with whoever they think. But the people that cook, they
• 37:23
  know, but people outside, they don't know, which is sad.
• 37:28
  I got a question. If you had to construct an All
• 37:31
  Star team, you and three other people and you had to choose
• 37:36
  what meat each of y'all cooking, and you could choose anybody,
• 37:39
  dead or alive, who would be cooking with you and what meats
• 37:42
  are y'all cooking. So, sterling ball, I'll let them
• 37:48
  cook pork. Sylvie cooking brisket.
• 37:58
  And let me see. Probably Darren cooking ribs.
• 38:05
  He's a good friend of mine. All right, that's a good
• 38:11
  solitaire. Right.
• 38:14
  And I got 2 quick games and I get you out of here All right,
• 38:17
  You know how they got the college basketball, They got the
• 38:19
  tournament brackets. I created a tournament bracket
• 38:23
  of 16 meats that you cook on the grill and you just let me know
• 38:26
  which one that you prefer to eat.
• 38:28
  We'll see which one to winner. All right, match up 1 is pork
• 38:31
  belly versus Turkey. I'm.
• 38:35
  Going to say Turkey. All right.
• 38:40
  Next matchup is lamb versus pork ribs.
• 38:43
  Pork ribs all. Right.
• 38:47
  Next matchup is smoked ham versus sausage.
• 38:52
  All right. Next matchup is hamburger versus
• 38:55
  steak. Steak.
• 38:58
  Yes, sorry. Next matchup.
• 39:00
  All right, Burt ends versus beef ribs.
• 39:03
  Burt ends all right. Pork chop versus smoked Bologna.
• 39:10
  Pork chop. Yeah, that's my favorite.
• 39:14
  I don't want no part of that. That's it.
• 39:18
  I tell people a lot of people pick Bologna, but I don't know
• 39:21
  how everybody else grew up. But being a black man, we
• 39:26
  weren't there rich. We ate that Bradley with the red
• 39:28
  ring around. It might got a piece of cheap to
• 39:30
  go with, it might. The cheese that don't melt under
• 39:34
  the heat. Government cheese.
• 39:39
  Exactly. Alright, you got hot dog versus
• 39:42
  BBQ shrimp. Shrimp.
• 39:48
  Alright. And brisket versus smoked
• 39:51
  chicken. Probably chicken 'cause I'm
• 39:54
  probably going to eat that more than brisket.
• 39:58
  Alright, next round, Turkey versus pork ribs.
• 40:03
  A Turkey. All right.
• 40:06
  And sausage versus steak. Steak.
• 40:10
  Right. Bernie's versus pork chop.
• 40:12
  Pork chop. All.
• 40:15
  Right. And shrimp versus chicken.
• 40:18
  Chicken. All right, Final four, Turkey
• 40:22
  versus steak, steak, all right, and pork chop versus chicken.
• 40:31
  Now you get happy pork chop all. Right and.
• 40:39
  Found around the steak versus pork chop.
• 40:41
  The winner? That's my split decision.
• 40:46
  Let's say pork chop. All right, that's the first way
• 40:51
  for pork chop ever. All right, got another quick
• 40:55
  bracket. Top 16 athletes, greatest
• 40:57
  athletes of all time. It might be.
• 41:01
  It depends on who you figure it is, but there's only one right
• 41:05
  answer. But round one, Michael Phelps
• 41:07
  versus Simone Biles. Simone Biles, All right, Ali
• 41:15
  versus Lionel Messi soccer player.
• 41:17
  Ali all. Right.
• 41:21
  Tom Brady versus Roger Federer. Tom Brady.
• 41:27
  All right. Barry Bonds versus LeBron James.
• 41:35
  LeBron. All right, Usain Bolt, Tiger
• 41:43
  Woods. Tiger.
• 41:47
  All right. Kobe Bryant, Cristiano Ronaldo.
• 41:51
  Kobe all. Right.
• 41:54
  Wayne Gretzky, Dale Earnhardt, senior.
• 41:58
  Gretzky. Alright, and.
• 42:02
  Michael Jordan versus Serena Williams.
• 42:06
  That ain't right for a few time ago, Jordan.
• 42:13
  Alright. Next round, Biles versus Ali.
• 42:18
  Ali. Right.
• 42:21
  Brady versus LeBron. Brady.
• 42:28
  Alright. Tiger versus Kobe out of
• 42:32
  California up in this list. I'm from Chicago though.
• 42:36
  Tiger, Tiger. OK.
• 42:40
  And Gretzky versus George Jordan.
• 42:43
  All right. And Ali versus Brady?
• 42:48
  Ali. All right, Tiger versus George.
• 42:53
  Michael. Michael.
• 42:56
  All right. Ali versus Jordan in the Finals.
• 43:05
  Jordan. I'm about to say, thinking
• 43:09
  there's only one correct answer. I'm going to take you a long
• 43:13
  time. It's hard.
• 43:19
  Yeah, but Jordan? Exactly.
• 43:27
  Back then I was a big Utah fan. I would hurt I.
• 43:31
  Had back in the day. Little Stockton of alone.
• 43:35
  And we keep. It never worked out.
• 43:40
  All right, your therapy session is over.
• 43:42
  If you got any websites or anybody that you want to shout
• 43:45
  out, you could do that. Now, hey, check us out.
• 43:48
  It's simply marvelbbq.com. Check out snakeriverfarms.com.
• 43:53
  Big Papa smokers, they doing things.
• 43:58
  Yes, definitely. And definitely I appreciate you
• 44:01
  coming on and sharing your story and hopefully it motivate people
• 44:05
  and inspire people. And I just appreciate you giving
• 44:08
  your time to me and seeing in my vision and just coming on and
• 44:12
  period. So I definitely appreciate that.
• 44:15
  And are you going to be an American?
• 44:17
  Role No, no, no. Not this year.
• 44:20
  OK, OK, because I will go. I was flying out there to meet a
• 44:23
  lot of people. So I know Luke, actually Luke
• 44:26
  told me to come cook the the side categories for.
• 44:31
  I was thinking about that, didn't I?
• 44:32
  Got so much going on though, family wise out there that time.
• 44:36
  But yeah, you never know, I might head out there.
• 44:40
  OK, alright, so hopefully I'll run into you somewhere along the
• 44:45
  way, but it definitely nice meeting you and especially all
• 44:50
  that you've done. You've been a pioneer in this
• 44:53
  thing because I've been hearing spicy apple more so long and
• 44:58
  then I finally got to see who make them spicy apple and all
• 45:02
  that. And it's it's just an honor to
• 45:05
  meet you and those that are legends in this thing because
• 45:08
  you are a legend because your product has been out there for a
• 45:11
  long time. And.
• 45:14
  Yeah, definitely. Like I said, I mean, I probably
• 45:16
  definitely try to get you back on in the future and stuff like
• 45:19
  that and for different little things just to talk and just to
• 45:23
  keep up with you. I would love to stuff.
• 45:25
  But all right, all right, definitely appreciate you and
• 45:29
  we'll see everybody next episode.
• 45:32
  We just wrapped. Up another session of BBQ
• 45:34
  therapy. Remember, stay patient, stay
• 45:37
  passionate and keep that fire burning.
• 45:39
  Hit subscribe, share the good smoke and pay the secretary on
• 45:43
  your way out. Have a blessed day.