Latest / BBQ Therapy / Bob Harvey | Big Daddy’s BBQ Pit - Northern to Southern Hospitality

Transcript

Bob Harvey | Big Daddy’s BBQ Pit - Northern to Southern Hospitality · BBQ Therapy

0:00
Welcome to another episode of the BBQ Therapy Podcast.
0:03
I am your host Tavis Sprant and today we have someone who's been
0:07
turning his backyard passion into a full blown BBQ brand.
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Joining us is Bob Harvey of Big Daddy's BBQ Pit.
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Bob, thank you for joining us on the show.
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I got one rule, make yourself at home.
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I have no sponsor. So speak freely and enjoy
0:23
yourself. Thank you for having me.
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I really appreciate the opportunity come on here and
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tell a little bit of back story about Big Daddy's BBQ Pit and
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our vision on how we want to do things going forward.
0:35
All right, no problem. No problem.
0:37
All right, take us back to Pennsylvania.
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You mentioned about hot dogs and burgers, mostly when it
0:44
considered BBQ. When did you first run across
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something like ribs or pulled pork?
0:50
Did y'all sprinkle that in or you never?
0:53
I grew up in AI, was the youngest of eight, so there
0:57
there was a lot of meat and potatoes meals.
1:00
When we had a picnic or a BBQ that you call it down here,
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there was a lot of hamburgers and hot dogs and potato salad,
1:07
macaroni salad. It wasn't until we moved to
1:11
Georgia in 2011, but it wasn't until about 2009 that I'm aware
1:18
of the first BBQ restaurant opening in a town I grew up in,
1:21
so I knew of it. Me and my buddies would get
1:24
together and had an excuse to maybe drink some beer and burn
1:28
some meat up is what it amounted to a lot of times.
1:31
But the traditional low and slow BBQ that down here in the the
1:36
compassion people are the how passionate people are for.
1:40
It just it. I didn't see it where I grew up
1:42
up there. Oh OK, now you sure that you
1:45
don't consider yourself a traditional competition
1:48
pitmaster but you have a deep passion for cooking that started
1:51
back before competition. Could you talk a little bit
1:54
about your early influence? Was it your parents past cooking
1:57
skills or did you learn from somewhere else?
2:00
Yeah, a lot of it was my parents.
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My mom growing up was the cook during the week and there was
2:06
always a cooked meal on the table at 5:00.
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If you were there, you didn't eat.
2:12
I was there every day and then on the weekends my my dad did a
2:16
lot of the cooking and being off from school on the weekends, I
2:21
hung out in the kitchen a lot and watched him.
2:24
He would cook big pots of soup or spaghetti sauce, homemade
2:28
meatballs, things like that. Listening to Charlie Pride on an
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8 track. That's really where my influence
2:34
from cooking came from. And really for a big part of my
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life, from probably 1011 years old until I moved to Georgia,
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every year we would make homemade sauerkraut.
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It was a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition and we'd make with my
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grandmother sometimes up to 50 gallons worth of sauerkraut
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every year and for the family and we just give it away.
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So there was a lot of tradition with that.
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There was a lot of cooking, like I said, my mom during the week,
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but and my dad, they were the main influences on me cooking
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early in my life. OK, OK, so when you moved to
3:15
Georgia, I guess it was eye opening experience as far as
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when it came to barbecue. How did you go from the early
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days of the burgers and dogs to the appreciation of slow smoking
3:26
and traditional BBQ when you introduced to it?
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That was when we moved down here.
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It was right around the time of BBQ pit masters, which I was I
3:39
would watch religiously over and that's what really got my
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interest. You guys on there like Meyer mix
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and and Robbie Royal and Dave David Bosca and you'd watch week
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after week. And then I started messing
3:53
around a little bit in the backyard here with different
3:57
smokers and whether it's a Weber Smoky Mountain at 1st and or
4:01
Weber kettle and just really starting to learn.
4:04
This was even really before really YouTube took off and you
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had you had that to where you could go and look something up.
4:13
But really, my passion started with those BBQ Pitmasters, the
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television series. Yeah, back in the day I didn't
4:22
when it was on, I guess I don't think I had the channel.
4:26
I used to catch it here and there.
4:28
But I think when COVID hit and then Discovery Plus came out, it
4:33
was jackpot because I was stuck in the house.
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So it was time to start playing in and figuring out, but still
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did. I didn't know BBQ competitions
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existed at all until later on. But I was back there playing
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around and that's what I also ran across the pellet grill
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because I've never seen a pellet grill until I went to somebody
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house during COVID and saw they had one I'm looking at what is
4:58
this? Then when they got a stimulus
5:00
check, I was like, I'm going to get me one.
5:03
It made life easier. Yeah, Yeah, I.
5:09
Transitioned through a whole bunch of different smokers and
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it's, I look back on how many I've probably had if I had a
5:15
nickel for every one of them. But yeah, that's where it really
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started was with the BBQ pit masters.
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And like I said, I was completely into that series.
5:25
Yeah, yeah. So once you got to Georgia, you
5:27
said you started tweaking recipes and playing with
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different smokers and making things your own.
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What was that process where you getting recipes from somewhere
5:36
and just practicing them or making your own?
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And what type of different smokers were you using back
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then? Back then it was like a Weber
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Smoky Mountain. I had AI think it was called a
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Brinkman. Had a little water pan in
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between the fire pot and the grate and then Weber kettle.
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And it was really just what I was picking up from watching
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those shows because like I said before, moving down here and at
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that point we were new to the area.
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The friends we had at the time, we were meeting through our kids
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for sports or school activities. So a lot of the weekends were
6:16
spent just messing around and figuring things out as I went.
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So it was. It obviously took a long time
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because I'm still trying to figure it out.
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It seems like you're doing a good job to me.
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All right, and you said Big Daddy's BBQ Pit officially came
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to life with help of your friends and your wife.
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What were the roles of the people that helped bring it to
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life and get it started? But we, but it really started
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right around COVID. I, we, my wife and I have always
6:51
been entertainers at our home. We love to feed people.
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My wife is an excellent cook herself.
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So we were always having people over at the pool hanging out.
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And then COVID hit and we are all kind of consolidated into
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our different areas for a time there.
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And we still continue to have some friends over, which was
7:13
Bill and Dorothy, who were friends from the we had both
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moved into the same neighborhood from another neighborhood.
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We stayed in contact and everything.
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And Bill's a very tech savvy guy and he kept you ought to be
7:29
making YouTube videos of all this cooking you're doing.
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And I wasn't one to that's outside my comfort zone and I
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wasn't one right away to do it. But finally after a while, we we
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did a couple on a homemade drum that I had made a drum smoker,
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and it went pretty well, we thought.
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And then it was really me and my wife coming up with the recipes.
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Dorothy did a lot of the social media stuff.
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And Bill, he's still a very big part of it.
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He's doing all the filming, the editing.
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He has a lot of great ideas when we're doing different shots or
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whatever in the yard with the cooking.
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So it's really been a team effort getting it rolling and
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trying to keep it rolling. OK, OK.
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You're doing a good job. Your recipes and videos is a big
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part of your brand. Yeah, Last time I checked, you
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had 247 videos on YouTube. What kind of content do you
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enjoy creating and what can people expect when they come to
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your channel as well as your website also?
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Because I see you have a lot of recipes on there also.
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Yeah. What they what I'm even though
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the title of the channel is Big Daddy's BBQ Pit, ironically,
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that we were sitting around thinking about what can we name
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it? Probably about a year or two
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prior, one of my sisters from Pennsylvania sent me down a sign
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and it said, was it look like something you would buy in like
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a Knick knack store or an antique store?
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It said Big Daddy's BBQ Pit get you some and there's a character
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on there. I said, let's just name it that.
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And that's really where it stuck.
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But when you come to my channel, you're really seeing a lot of
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home cooking. I do a little bit of everything.
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I know not everybody wants to go out and cook in their yard and
9:18
or has a smoker. So I really try to mix it up.
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I don't necessarily want to be a me too and follow the trends
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that you see. What videos are doing good that
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could be detrimental to me. I don't know.
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But I want to keep it to where people can go there and find
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anything from a how to do a brisket on a pellet smoker to
9:40
how to make stuffed shells. That sort of thing is really how
9:44
I've always envisioned it. Because really a lot of my
9:48
knowledge of cooking goes back to in the kitchen.
9:51
It's not out in front of the smoker.
9:54
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely good because you can reach more
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people being versatile like that, whether you can, because
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everybody going to be going to be able to cook on the grill
10:04
every day. But if you teach them something
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in the kitchen, they can practice that also, as well as
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practice whatever on the grill. And it it goes for a variety of
10:13
people, whether male, female, and it spans the globe.
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So it's definitely good to be versatile like that.
10:21
Yeah, if a lot of the recipes, if you wanted to cook them out
10:24
on the grill today, especially with like pellet smokers, you
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could bake most anything in those.
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So you could probably, we, we have a smoked meatloaf recipe.
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Meatloaf was like a staple growing up when I was a kid, I
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thought, let's do it on the pellet smoker and it's been one
10:43
of our best videos. So something that simple, so you
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could do it in the oven or you could do it on the pellet
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smoker. And what's y'all process like
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when it's y'all planning to cook?
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Do y'all rehearse it a couple times or script did or you just.
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Yeah, hopefully if you if you watch it, it appears to be a
11:01
little scripted. But sometimes I tell you the
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process of it is really recipes we enjoy.
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Sometimes it's a tweak to something that we have been
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doing that we do on video, but it's really something.
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Usually if I'm working on a recipe, by the time I shoot the
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video, although most all the time it's very good.
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I'm done eating it because I'm usually practicing it and trying
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to get it just right a few times before that it's there.
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There is more to it and it's just not buying the stuff.
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One time for that video, you're practicing ribs.
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I may have done that three or four times before I got to that
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video to to shoot the video. So it's a process.
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Some of them come quicker than others there.
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There's some weeks when I know we're going to be filming that
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I'm sitting there thinking, man, what can I make?
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It's going to get people's that it's going to pique their
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interest. That's really the toughest part
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of it. Yeah, yeah.
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And what has been the most unexpected challenge of building
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a YouTube page channel? The biggest challenge really we
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look at all kinds of analytics week over week and it's really
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getting folks to hit the subscribe button.
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We see a lot of traffic on our channel and they're first time
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viewers and it's, it well outnumbers our sub views.
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And just if they'd hit that subscribe button, we're trying a
12:39
few different things during the video to try to make sure they
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hit it. And I'm guilty of it too.
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I've looked at a lot of YouTube channels that I haven't
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subscribed to, so I understand it.
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A lot of times people are looking for something one time,
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but you have to be able to get them to hit that subscribe
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button when they're on your channel and that tends to be the
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toughest part of it. You're definitely true.
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I'm learning that now and because I've done this, I watch,
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I watch a bunch of somebody's video and didn't realize, OK, I
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haven't subscribed to them, but I'm watching all these videos
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and then go back and hit it. But it's definitely my thing is
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it's just like social media. If you go and like my if I post
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something advertise or something and you like it, why not go and
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listen to it or watch it and give it a chance.
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You just like it just to like it and not giving it a chance to
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listen to it. I was like, understand that you
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got something to get 50 likes and not that many listens or
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something like that. But I'm like you not, that's not
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support. That's not supporting somebody.
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You got to give it a chance before you put it.
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Just check it out and if you don't like it, that's fine.
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Everything is not for everybody, but there's somebody else out
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there for you. But at least give it a chance
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before you knock it down. But and at least try to watch a
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whole the whole video or something like that before you,
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because you don't know what may catch your attention or what's
14:05
meant for you or something that it it may pique your interest in
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it. It's it's definitely AI don't
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know YouTube is. I thought it was simple until I
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start playing around which I was like just say.
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It's a grind. It is truly a grind is that you
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just got to my main thing. The main thing is being
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consistent. Yeah, yeah, and definitely doing
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that. And I guess the happening thing
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is the shorts now you got to do the shorts and catch people with
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attention and just a lot. It's definitely a whole process
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and it's not as easy as people think just throwing videos on
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there and be done with it because there's behind the
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scenes stuff is prepping, the recipes that you have to do,
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there's the editing that goes into it, downloading, there's a
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whole different thing 'cause sometimes it takes a while to
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download these videos on here and.
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Oh yeah. It's word it, you got to word it
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right, the title and hashtags and all this stuff and it, it's
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just the whole process and you got to do your homework before
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you get into this stuff and not think as easy and anybody can do
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it because it, it's a grind just being consistent because you've
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got 200 and almost 250 videos. That's when did y'all start?
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When did y'all started? We started in, I believe it was
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2020. So five years y'all.
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Y'all been grinding? It's 50 video, 50 videos a year,
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a year. It's that's a lot of work.
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We start the week and with an idea and kind of put it on paper
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what we're going to do. And then usually we film Sundays
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and a lot of times we'll film anywhere between 2:00 and 4:00
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videos. And then and Bill's handling all
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the filming part of it. I've done a little bit here and
16:04
there on my own on the side during the week to to try to
16:07
catch some content there. But then he takes it from there
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and does all the editing for the video and making it look
16:15
presentable and making sure the sounds right and all that.
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And then it comes back to me and I do a review of it to make sure
16:22
that I hit it all, hit all the points that I wanted to.
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And then we'll write. I'll do a write up for the video
16:29
with the recipe and then we'll that'll be the one we uploaded
16:33
for the week. It starts the week before we
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film Sunday and then it continues to usually Wednesday.
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We have what we want to launch on Thursday, so.
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It's a process, so definitely everybody out there that's
16:48
thinking as easy. It's not easy as you think.
16:52
Your website is loaded with recipes.
16:54
Do you have a favorite recipe that you love to point out to
16:57
people when it kind of tells the story or anything like that?
17:02
I would say there, there's a video on there that I thought
17:05
for sure would get a lot more traction, but it's a homemade
17:09
Salisbury steak with a mushroom gravy and I believe there's
17:13
mashed potatoes, homemade mashed potatoes.
17:16
So it goes back to my roots growing up of a good hearty home
17:21
cooked meal. That one's one of my favorites.
17:24
The stuffed shell recipe that's on there's one of my sister's
17:28
recipes. There's a lot of things on there
17:31
that I've gotten from my my siblings that they shared with
17:35
me, but a lot of the home cook and there's some good rib
17:39
recipes on there we've done and along with some pulled pork and
17:43
things like that. But really, that Salisbury steak
17:45
video, to me, I could eat that probably twice a week.
17:51
I'm a pork chop person. I've seen you had some videos
17:55
with the steak Princess. How do y'all?
17:57
How did you run across from her? That that's going to be a good
18:00
lead in to to the comp side. We met them through Bill and
18:04
Dorothy. That's actually their cousin and
18:07
that's Russell and Karen Wright and Riley writes a steak
18:12
Princess. And the way it started was we
18:14
were I was buying rubs and stuff and they had mentioned, Hey, you
18:19
got to try she's winning steak contest with this stuff and they
18:23
do barbecue and I was like, let's try it.
18:25
And we got some and it's excellent product.
18:28
I use the sweet rapture steak Princess BBQ sweet rapture,
18:35
which is a traditional really a, a traditional sweet BBQ rub.
18:39
Great color. Her beauty and the beef is
18:41
excellent on brisket steak. And then she has a Cajun and a
18:46
Fiesta rub that are also very good.
18:48
But we we met them through Bill and Dorothy and that's what kind
18:54
of spurred me into the competition side.
18:57
And that was probably I'm thinking it was 2022 is when
19:04
that started. Russell has really been a good
19:07
mentor for me. He that year he had did he he
19:11
wanted to cook the GB as big contest.
19:14
One of their big contest every year is the doc holiday in
19:17
Griffin and and he was cooking it.
19:19
It's near his hometown. He's if you want to try BBQ,
19:23
you're more than welcome to join me for the weekend.
19:26
That got me hooked and they are really more focused on like SCA
19:33
and KCBS and I really enjoyed the GBA and I really enjoy
19:39
cooking ribs, shoulder and loin. So that just stuck and that's
19:44
really how we met. We hang out with them.
19:46
She's came up and shot some videos like you mentioned with
19:49
me. But yeah, they're great friends.
19:52
I can bounce anything off of them.
19:54
Some once in a while they'll come help us at a contest, but
19:58
yeah, that's how that came about.
19:59
That relationship was through doing starting the channel.
20:03
Yeah, I saw she has she'd be having articles in the BBQ News
20:07
magazine that I get and I think I I bought some of her seasoning
20:11
at the I guess Atlanta BBQ store competition.
20:16
I bought some of her room. So I see if y'all doing things
20:20
together. Plus, I think she was just at
20:22
the NASCAR race because I was out there with the Blues.
20:26
I was actually there with Blues All.
20:28
He invited me out there down there in Hampton.
20:31
She was down. There, but that was a blast.
20:33
It was that was my first time going.
20:35
Most of the time they usually have the fair there and I
20:37
usually go, but I've never been to a NASCAR and there was so
20:41
many people there. I was like wow.
20:45
But it was cool though. It was a cool experience because
20:47
they were out there just promoting the brand.
20:50
They were given sample bottles of the sauce as well as they
20:53
cooked some of the sausage that he just brought out and handing
20:57
that out as well as the steak. And it was a cool atmosphere
21:01
because most people probably think I'm crazy because I was
21:03
out there handing it out with them and as well as just handing
21:07
out samples and stuff. But I told him this experience,
21:10
you never know what you'll learn going to do stuff like that,
21:13
just being around people and it shows you, if you got your own
21:17
business, it shows you how to promote and just you never know
21:21
what you're going to learn if you don't take that chance and
21:24
get out there and do it. I'm like, it was work, it was
21:26
hot, but it was fun. It was enjoyable.
21:29
And just to see people's faces and stuff getting excited about
21:33
BBQ, like we excited about BBQ, it was enjoyable.
21:38
Yeah, they're great ambassadors for the sport, They really are.
21:41
Exactly, exactly. And they've been so welcoming to
21:45
me. I have no choice of being get to
21:47
go help you. You came on the podcast.
21:50
I'm going to show my things that I know a lot of people try to
21:54
ask more from him than help him. So I'm like, hey, it doesn't.
21:59
I'm going to get my hands dirty for you.
22:00
It doesn't. Everybody don't want something
22:02
for you from I'll help you. I don't mind because I'm going
22:07
to learn something in the process.
22:09
I guess they'll give me the fishing pole.
22:10
You can have the fish. I want to learn to fish on my
22:13
own so I can sit back, watch, see what you do or see what the
22:17
other people do and how they promote.
22:19
And hey, I'm taking notes so if I have a company I'll be able to
22:24
do the same thing. I completely understand that.
22:28
Before we go to comp for backyard cooks, what's one thing
22:31
you think that people are overthinking and overlooking
22:35
when it comes to backyard cooking?
22:37
The one thing, the biggest thing I've learned is relying too much
22:42
on time or going by time too much.
22:45
The big thing with the 321 method I'll bring up in ribs.
22:50
I was to me it's time, but it doesn't need to take that long.
22:55
I prefer it to take. I'm a low and slow cook on the
22:58
competition side, but I've been messing around a little bit
23:02
cooking things faster, particularly at home just to try
23:07
new things. But I think that's a lot of it.
23:10
And just take your time and understand the craft and try to
23:14
get mostly most everybody I've met has always been very helpful
23:19
to to me if I would have questions or whatever.
23:22
But if it was me, it would be don't necessarily cook on time,
23:27
cook on temp and color. Things like that is a big thing
23:31
that I learned. Yeah, definitely.
23:33
And I don't know who came up with a 321.
23:37
They destroyed a lot of people and they messed a lot of people
23:40
up with that. Who is the fuck?
23:42
I don't know who the first person that started that, but
23:45
hey. Calling that trap, I admit it,
23:47
For a long time I thought that was the.
23:49
Idea too, when I ran when I first started doing it and I was
23:52
like, OK, this ain't right. OK, let's move into the comp,
23:58
the comp scene right now you, you content create and you
24:02
compete as well as you got a home life and you got a full
24:05
time job. How do you balance?
24:07
How do you balance all that? I got a great wife and that's
24:14
she lets me balance it and helps me.
24:17
It's not easy and that's really why I prefer cooking GBA because
24:23
it typically they're within three hours.
24:26
Now there's a lot of other sanctioning bodies that have
24:29
comps close, but the GBA season tends to be anywhere between
24:35
since I've been cooking GBA between 10 and 15 events a year,
24:39
which is manageable. Typically during the when we're
24:43
competing, which right now GBA is on a break.
24:46
They take a break in mid-May to the end of August.
24:49
So our next contest will be in Sylvester in at the end of
24:53
August. So now is really the time for me
24:56
to get a lot of content created and get ahead a little bit plan
25:00
for. I'm already thinking about what
25:02
are we going to put out in the fall, things like that.
25:06
But it's it's not easy to try to keep everything going at once.
25:12
I feel like sometimes you're going in 10 different
25:14
directions. But at the end of the day, I
25:16
love to cook. It's something I'm going to be
25:18
doing on the weekend anyway. So whether it's at a contest or
25:22
I'm filming content or I'm just at home cooking for myself.
25:27
But it's a balancing act, this little breakthrough.
25:30
Summer's been good so far. I got to feel it's going to be
25:35
hot. Yeah, but are you in the north
25:39
or South part of Georgia? I'm in the north Georgia up by
25:42
Lake Lanier. Oh, I'm in Stone Mountain, so.
25:46
Yeah, we're not far apart. That's why I'm a judge for GBA
25:50
until I start competing. Once my daughter get up in age,
25:52
I'm going to start competing. But I'm a judge and everything
25:56
up here I'll judge, but sometimes it's a grind going
25:59
weed down there. Yeah, definitely.
26:05
I think the furthest we've been away is like 4 hours and that's
26:10
Donaldsonville, which is typically the farthest contest
26:13
away. Yeah, it's a ride because when I
26:15
went down there, the things I would like, the judging class
26:18
and Robbie class and Myron class, and I'm riding by myself
26:22
in the Long St. and I was like, Oh my goodness.
26:26
I was like, I had to think this over again.
26:28
But for those that don't know, I met Bob and Robbie Roll's
26:32
cooking class. And how did you come in contact
26:35
with Robbie? Through competition or?
26:39
Originally I was doing ASCA event at the Shed down in Ocean
26:46
Springs. They have a huge contest down
26:49
there. I think it's in January every
26:52
year, January, February, something like that.
26:55
And I was down there with Russell and Karen and Riley from
26:59
Steak Princess and he, Robbie was like AI guess a celebrity
27:05
judge or whatever. And Karen and Russell knew him
27:09
of course, through GBA and, and I think everybody knows him from
27:13
the BBQ Pit Masters. And I always, it was all he was
27:17
always somebody I wanted to meet.
27:19
And we met there. And then that year is when I
27:23
cooked the first GBA event with Russell.
27:27
And then from there, Michelle and I started competing on our
27:30
own. But that's How I Met Robbie.
27:32
I took his class and I took his class the year before you did.
27:38
And then we became with competing and everything with
27:41
GBA, we got to be friends and we offered to go down and help him
27:47
at that next class that you were at.
27:49
And we were down there just helping out in the kitchen any
27:52
way we could. But all great people, all the
27:56
folks that that we compete with and GBA have been great.
27:59
They're like our second family. That's How I Met him.
28:02
Was that actually an SCA event in down in Ocean Springs, Ms.
28:09
and surprising you? It's it's amazing that people
28:13
might think, oh, he might not talk to me or anything, but it's
28:17
just as regular people and just as friendly and hey, come on,
28:21
take a picture with the trophy and all this.
28:23
You'd be like. Wow.
28:27
Oh yeah, very down to earth. I still think, I still think
28:32
back to watching BBQ Pit Masters and some of the folks that I met
28:36
that were on there. If you would have told me back
28:39
when I was watching those shows that I'd be cooking with them
28:43
because Michelle and I helped out Robbie the last couple years
28:46
at the Big Pig Jig on the Rescue Smokers team or competing
28:50
against them, I would have told him you're crazy.
28:54
It's just weird how that all worked out and we got, we've
28:58
been able to meet some of those folks.
29:01
Yeah, people are nice, friendly and off the chain BBQ.
29:05
I met them at the class and then coincidentally I went to Chris
29:09
Shaffer's class in Illinois and they were up there and then he
29:14
was like, hey, come on in the truck, come in the truck.
29:18
So during the Sip and Swine, they allowed me to come in and
29:21
watch and then see how it operates and stuff like that.
29:25
And I was like, wow, most people.
29:28
I like these people friendly. I was like, this is amazing
29:32
during the competition. So, Chuck.
29:34
And Kerry are both great people and I still Chuck's been cooking
29:41
KCBS. Now you mentioned the sip and
29:43
swine and he does a couple, they'll do a couple GBA events.
29:47
We still talk and I, I just had talked to him last week and it's
29:52
just you stay friends with folks.
29:54
Usually if I go to a KCBS contest, some of my buddies are
29:57
cooking, I'll stop in their trailer and see him.
30:00
And but you're right, great folks, and everybody I've met
30:05
has been like that GBA. Exactly like I said, I brag on
30:09
BBQ people all the time. Like some of them are better
30:11
than people you see every day that they give you the shirt off
30:15
their back to help you where there's a cup or outside of a
30:19
cup. They're, they're just friendly
30:21
and helpful and inviting and answer any questions that you
30:25
have. No hiding, no anything, just.
30:27
No. I said, and I enjoy that and
30:31
that's why I said I don't mind going to help somebody if they
30:34
need help or anything like that because people showed that to
30:38
me. I definitely love that and I
30:41
love helping people also understand stuff that I, it took
30:44
me a while to find the answer for, to make it easier on them.
30:48
That's the main reason why I started the podcast, to help
30:50
people learn quicker than having a search of me in Youtubes all
30:55
over the Internet back in the day.
30:56
Like I was trying to figure out, OK, what's the starting point of
31:00
this? And yeah.
31:02
Yeah, you asked me about kind of what the eye opener was in the
31:05
backyard or advice Robbie's class.
31:10
To me, the techniques that he's using more than the recipes help
31:17
me. Some of the things, a lot of
31:20
things he does that he teaches in that class, I still do.
31:23
I haven't changed and that's what I practice with.
31:27
So to me, a lot of those classes are more about the technique
31:31
than the recipe themselves because the recipe a lot of
31:33
times is going to change with the judges, the taste, whatever.
31:37
But the techniques you know, of how they're doing things,
31:40
whether it's trimming a butt or injecting A loin or whatever
31:44
those are, are really the big takeaways from those classes.
31:48
I would recommend his class to anybody.
31:50
Yeah, definitely. I recommend it also for anybody
31:54
when you get to it because you get up, he doing stuff to other
31:57
people don't do you get a whole booklet with pictures and
32:01
information in it to take with you and he tell you each
32:06
organization instead of just one organization depending on what
32:11
you want to cook for. And it's friendly, it feeds
32:15
good. But it's definitely a fun class,
32:21
a welcoming class. And like I tell everybody that
32:24
most of the time I'm the only black guy in the class, but you
32:27
can't tell because I feel like one of the group And it is not
32:31
that feeling awkward or anything like that.
32:33
It's just like everybody's just shooting the breeze having fun
32:36
and like when I miss you, Hey, you need anything?
32:39
Hey, hit me up. So I was like, hey, let me hit
32:42
Bob up until come on the bike popped in my ear and I was like,
32:47
let me hit him up. So I was like, yeah, get him on
32:51
here. Get Robbie on here and just
32:55
enjoy and hear these stories and let everybody experience what I
32:58
experienced when I went down there.
33:00
So let's talk about the competition.
33:02
You're actively competing. How is it going against Myron
33:06
and Robbie and competitions and stuff like that?
33:10
It it's at first it was surreal because like I told you, I would
33:15
never guess watching BBQ pitmasters that I'd meet half
33:19
these people, let alone compete against them.
33:22
It's a lot of fun because you're particularly in GBA, you're
33:26
coming up against very good pork cooks every week and it's a
33:34
stack field at every contest you go to.
33:38
Everybody's very good at the craft and they're usually on
33:42
point, particularly at the big contest.
33:45
But it to me it's, it's I enjoy it.
33:50
It's a little, it was a little intimidating at first,
33:53
particularly if they walk, if they walk up to your trailer and
33:56
you're in the middle of doing something and they kind of, you
33:58
know, they're like, what's he's got to make a face or something
34:01
like what's it, what's he trying to do with that piece of meat?
34:05
But I would say it's surreal and intimidating, but at the same
34:09
time, they're so welcoming and and open that it it it make you
34:14
feel completely comfortable and part of the group.
34:17
Yeah, they try to whoop your behind.
34:19
Yeah. If you Chuck told me one time,
34:22
if you're not going there to beat the best person at the
34:25
contest, then you might as well not show up.
34:28
Exactly. You, you want to go there to
34:29
win. We're all friends, but we're all
34:32
competitors as well. Exactly, but I got to get
34:36
Robbie. That's a good and you'd be on a
34:38
whole another level. You know you're on a whole
34:42
another level and people are trying to downplay how good
34:46
Georgia BBQ people are. I would put us up against some
34:50
of the other people in the other states as far as what we have
34:54
here and what and as well as what we attract to our state
34:58
from other states as far as coming and compete.
35:01
But just Robbie and Myron alone and all the other people here,
35:05
they try to downplay it, but we got some bad people here.
35:10
Oh yeah, there there's any in every GBA event or any team that
35:15
goes there, there's some very good cooks that that are there
35:20
every week. It's a lot tougher than I think
35:23
it gets credit for GBA because there's some excellent cooks,
35:29
all of which I look up to. Whenever they can give me a
35:31
little tip or whatever, a little throw me a little bread crumb, I
35:35
try to take it and work it to my advantage.
35:38
Most everybody there, if you need something, if you need help
35:41
with something, they're going to be more than happy to help you.
35:45
If, of course, they're not in the middle of building a box or
35:48
whatnot, I'm going to ask them, you know, get.
35:53
Out All right, you have a motto that says make it yours and make
35:57
it fun. Tell us what that phrase mean to
35:59
you and why it's important. That really goes back to the
36:03
channel. To me, cooking is fun.
36:06
I think it should be fun for everyone.
36:08
I think we need to get the young ones in the kitchen.
36:13
I'm always trying to get my daughter to help my youngest
36:15
daughter to help me cook. So you want it to be fun.
36:18
But anything I put out there, there may be something in the
36:22
recipe somebody doesn't care for.
36:24
Somebody don't like mushrooms in their gravy?
36:26
Make it your own. If you want something a little
36:29
more spicy, add what you want to it, but it's really just a a
36:33
base recipe that that can be tweaked and that's where that
36:39
came from. Make it your own, make it fun.
36:42
If there's another flavor profile or whatever it is you
36:44
want to try that you're cooking, do it.
36:47
That's what's that makes what being in the kitchen fun because
36:52
but you're canvas exactly. And you could do whatever you
36:56
want with that, those ribs or whatever.
36:58
But but yeah, that's where that came from.
37:01
OK, OK, and finally, if someone's listening who loves
37:04
BBQ but hasn't taken the leap into cooking or competing or
37:09
sharing what they do, what advice would you give them?
37:12
Practice, practice, and when on the competition side, if you're
37:16
going to practice, you practice. I always practice.
37:20
My advice would be to practice what you're cooking on in a
37:23
competition and practice the same meat.
37:28
So if I'm buying a brand of meat to compete with, I would
37:34
recommend practicing with that same brand just so your whole
37:40
process is consistent On the influencer or the social media
37:44
side, I would say is be consistent, be yourself and have
37:49
fun with it. Don't take it so serious.
37:51
Sometimes I do that, I'll let some things slip in the video
37:55
and I'll be like, I'll take that out when I probably, it'd
37:59
probably show a different side of me if I would have left it
38:01
in. But I try to keep everything.
38:05
I don't want to say family friendly, but I'm I'm always
38:08
concerned who's going to see this?
38:09
It could be my grandkids, it could be my great grandkids,
38:12
however long it's out there. But no, just be consistent and
38:16
have fun with it. Exactly.
38:17
I agree with that because we're doing the podcast.
38:20
I'm like, I'm not a podcast host.
38:21
I'm just a guy with a podcast. I'm just I'm just going to be
38:25
myself and just otherwise I speak freely because I'm not
38:29
going to be all super proper and all of that.
38:32
I live in Georgia, so I'm be talking country and it is what
38:36
it is. That's how you have fun.
38:39
Just be yourself and not trying to however you ask.
38:42
Somebody will like it and somebody may not like it, but a
38:45
lot of people will like it so. If people are thinking about
38:50
getting into the competition thing and they're nervous or
38:53
whatever there, there's nothing. We've met, like I said before,
38:58
friends that we'll be friends with for a lifetime.
39:02
And we, I don't want to say we didn't expect to because, but we
39:06
didn't know. I'm going into it, man.
39:08
These people and you're checking up on them, You're texting them.
39:11
I'm in a group chat every day with Scott, Kenny, Chris and
39:15
Keith that I compete against every weekend or every weekend.
39:19
We have a comp in GBA from their cook teams.
39:22
And we're just chatting back and forth about whether it's sports
39:25
or cooking or the next contest that's coming up.
39:29
So you're going to meet a lot of good people.
39:31
You're going to make some really good friends.
39:34
And all of them, my experience has been is they're all willing
39:38
to help you in any way they can. At the end of the day, a lot of
39:41
these guys are going to tell you exactly what they're doing.
39:44
You still got to cook it. You still got to.
39:47
You still got to make it happen with whatever smoker or cooking
39:52
device you're using at that competition.
39:54
Yeah, and my advice to people is don't go into it looking to get
39:58
information. They're good people.
40:01
Go in to make connections. Make friends and find out how
40:04
great these people are. You can get the they'll get the
40:07
information, there's no problem, but without even asking.
40:10
But The thing is, make those connections.
40:13
You'll have friends for a lifetime and that's pretty much
40:16
what it's all about. You go and compete against each
40:18
other, but it's like a gigantic family.
40:21
You just meet more people and more people adding on and more
40:24
people adding on and it's like a big family.
40:28
Oh yeah, it is. And whether it's getting
40:32
together for lunch or dinner at a comp with the whole group of
40:37
people, that's very common. Going over to their cook site
40:40
and hanging out the night before, cheering for each other
40:44
at awards. You know it all goes hand in
40:47
hand and it's and every one of them are willing to give back to
40:50
the sport, which makes it great. Exactly.
40:55
Even though I met you one time in person, you told me if you
41:00
need anything let me know and I'll try to answer the best I
41:04
can. But that meant a lot to me
41:06
because I'm like he don't even know me but he's willing to help
41:11
me and get information if I need it.
41:15
And that I want to thank you for doing that because that meant a
41:18
lot to me. You might have it might not have
41:20
been much to you, but it meant a lot to me.
41:23
I'm like that he willing to help me and I'm just new into this
41:28
and I'm trying to figure out what's going on so I definitely
41:32
thank you for even saying it to me.
41:35
Oh man, you're quite welcome. It was new people.
41:40
I'm the, my voice is a quiet one.
41:44
I'm the talker. So I always look forward to
41:47
meeting somebody new. I'm not shy and reserved at all
41:51
and just getting to talk to everyone at those classes and
41:54
some of them I've talked to since.
41:56
But when you brought that up, I didn't know what I didn't know
42:00
if you were going to start competing.
42:02
I didn't know if you're going to start doing videos or or what at
42:06
that point. But I've still been following
42:08
you on Instagram and with that, but I look forward to seeing you
42:13
out on the BBQ trail. And if you, like I said to you
42:16
before, if you need any help, by all means let me know.
42:20
At the end of the day, you got to cook it, right?
42:22
Exactly, exactly. And that goes and that too goes.
42:27
I'm by no means no expert in competition and I'm no expert on
42:32
the YouTube content creator thing.
42:35
A lot of what we've learned has been through trial and error.
42:39
I'm always willing to help people.
42:42
To me, you got to keep, you got to keep the sport alive.
42:44
You got to keep giving back. That's what means the most.
42:49
But it's great to go there and win.
42:51
But just having a camaraderie again with all the with all the
42:55
people and hanging out with your buddies, it makes it big, it
42:58
makes it great. Even if you lose, it goes away
43:01
like a bee sting. At least some of them do.
43:07
But definitely we thank you for your recipes because you just
43:10
freely giving recipes to people out there that there's a lot of
43:14
people that don't know how to cook and there's and you making
43:17
it easy for them to learn and follow along and stuff like
43:20
that. Or you can easily charge for it.
43:22
But you freely giving all these videos away.
43:26
You got a website with all the video recipes and stuff on it
43:29
that people can freely access just because that's the type of
43:34
person you are. Just giver and just type of
43:38
people we need out there. Just not hoarding information,
43:41
but freely giving it and inviting people to hey, do this
43:46
recipe I got or you can change it up to do it the way you want.
43:50
But I'm giving you the basis so you can get started.
43:54
Yeah, yeah. So definitely we appreciate
43:57
what. You know that.
43:59
Yeah, I watched. I kind of binged on how to
44:03
barbecue Malcolm Reed and I think a lot of folks have.
44:08
So a lot of his, a lot of what he does in his videos and how he
44:12
does things. I, I respect how he does things.
44:15
I respect where he's at and how long.
44:18
I think he's been out of 10 years now he's over 2 million
44:20
subscribers or something. Puts out tremendous content.
44:25
There's just a lot of people I still look up to.
44:28
You're always chasing, right? You're always chasing somebody
44:30
you want to be that. And he was definitely one of
44:34
them and we've become ambassadors for him.
44:38
We got to meet him this year. So we have this year we have
44:42
Steak Princess. We've been really with us since
44:44
the beginning. I had a BBQ, right?
44:48
The Killer Hogs and Heath Riles, we got on this year on their
44:51
influencer ambassador side. We use a lot of their products
44:57
in both the video content and the competition side.
45:02
OK, so excellent, excellent. I also noticed that your work is
45:07
good and you providing content for those out there.
45:11
So I definitely am happy for you that they're noticing your work
45:15
because those are the some of the big dogs in the game.
45:18
So it's a good feeling. Before we go, I got one quick
45:23
game that I'm going to play that do this with every person that
45:26
comes on. You know how in college
45:28
basketball they got the tournament bracket?
45:31
So I came up with a 16 meat bracket that meats that you cook
45:36
on the grill and I just randomly mashed them up and just pick
45:40
whatever one that you prefer to eat and we'll see which one
45:43
comes out. The winter match up #1 beef ribs
45:46
versus lamb. Beef ribs.
45:50
OK match up two smoked ham, smoked Turkey I've.
45:56
Been on a Turkey kick? Smoked Turkey.
45:59
OK, burnt ends versus hot dog. Oh.
46:06
Man, I gotta go with burnt ends. Alright, pork ribs versus steak.
46:14
Pork ribs. OK, next matchup is smoked
46:19
Bologna versus brisket. Brisket all day.
46:23
OK, I like smoked Bologna, but it's not a it's not top of my
46:28
list. Bologna to 1 a few times.
46:32
You'd be surprised. Barbecue shrimp versus sausage.
46:38
Sausage OK pork chop versus smoked chicken.
46:45
Pork chop. OK Pork belly versus hamburger.
46:53
That depends on how it's cooked. I'll tell you what, I'll go with
46:56
hamburger because man, I'm but you'll see it in a couple weeks
47:00
of video we just did. Right beef rib versus Turkey.
47:08
I got to go with beef. Ribs burnt is versus pork rib.
47:16
Pork ribs OK Brisket versus sausage.
47:24
Brisket. OK.
47:27
Pork chop versus hamburger. Pork chop.
47:31
OK. All right.
47:33
Final four, beef rib versus pork rib.
47:35
Oh man. I got a guy.
47:42
If I'm just going to be eating it, I want a beef rib, OK?
47:47
And brisket versus pork chop. Brisket.
47:51
All right, finale beef rib versus brisket.
47:57
I'll beef rib all day. I'll take a beef rib.
48:00
I think it's like the Dino ribs or even the the beef, I guess
48:04
they call them. They're like beef back ribs and
48:08
those are some of the best bite I think in BBQ because the
48:13
cooker. Definitely.
48:16
All right, Bob, your therapy session is over.
48:19
If you have anything to promote or you can tell everybody your
48:21
website also at this time. Yeah, just go to Big Daddy's BBQ
48:27
Pit on YouTube and hit that and subscribe button.
48:30
We're also on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
48:36
But go out there and hit that and subscribe.
48:38
Leave a comment. If you have any recommendations
48:41
for a video or have a recipe you'd like us to try, put it out
48:45
there. We'll give anything a shot once.
48:50
Just once. Just once.
48:54
But I definitely appreciate you coming on the show and sparing
48:57
your time and stuff like that and giving advice and telling
49:00
your story to motivate and help people.
49:02
So I definitely appreciate you coming on and everything that
49:06
you doing for BBQ also. Thank you.
49:10
I appreciate it very much that you've offered to have me on,
49:13
and as I said before, if anything I can do to help you,
49:16
you just let me know and I'll do everything I can.
49:19
All right. I appreciate it, you know.
49:21
You want to come? You want to come see the comp
49:23
side of AGBA event? You're welcome anytime.
49:26
OK, OK. I'll definitely take you.
49:27
I definitely we. Got 2 that are that on the back
49:33
half of the year will be up this way a little closer.
49:36
OK, OK. And y'all doing the winning
49:38
Griffin. Yeah, we got.
49:40
So there's four left there. Sylvester, Griffin, Perry and
49:46
then Canton. Oh, Canton, Yeah.
49:49
OK, OK. I definitely make.
49:50
Canton's the closest one to us. Yeah, because I work in
49:54
Kennesaw, so yeah, you're. Welcome anytime.
49:59
Come see get the experience of what it's like.
50:01
I definitely appreciate it a good deal.
50:04
All right, Appreciate that and we'll see everybody next
50:07
episode. Y'all have a good night.