Latest / BBQ Therapy / #61 How Brian Leigh Built B.T. Leigh's Into a BBQ Favorite | Brian Leigh

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#61 How Brian Leigh Built B.T. Leigh's Into a BBQ Favorite | Brian Leigh · BBQ Therapy

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Paradox to me how you can take all of this time and effort on
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this piece of meat that cost you hundreds of dollars to do right
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and then you serve a $2.59 dollar bottle of sauce with it
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to just it just weird, right? That's like it's putting low
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octane in your Ferrari. Why would you do that?
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Don't do that. Go artisanal.
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If you're spending all the time, go artisanal.
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You don't have to live and die by the sauce, but someone might
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like it. Same thing with the with the
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rubs on it. Listen, learn, get inspired.
0:44
I'm Tavis Bryant and this is BBQ Therapy like subscribe and
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follow to help grow the BBQ therapy community.
0:52
Also visit my website at www.barbecuetherapypodcast.com.
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BBQ. Your BBQ off.
1:01
Get your BBQ off. Get your BBQ off.
1:06
Welcome to the BBQ Therapy podcast.
1:08
My name is Tavis Bryant, and some BBQ stories start with
1:12
trophies, some start with competitions, and some start the
1:15
way the best ones do around a backyard with family, curiosity
1:20
and a kid mixing sausage just to see what happens.
1:23
Today's guest didn't chase trends or shortcuts, He chased
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flavor, inclusion, and connection.
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And along the way, he built something that helps people feel
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welcome at the table no matter what they eat.
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This is BBQ therapy, and this is Brian Lee of BT Lee's.
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But to the show, I got one rule. Make yourself at home.
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Speak freely. I have no sponsors.
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Say what you want. Thank you very much.
1:45
I appreciate being here. This is.
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Great. No problem.
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All right. The first question I have is I
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do mine differently. So I read in your bio on your
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website that y'all were having when you were growing up, having
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days long parties. What kind of parties were y'all
2:03
having that last several days? So my my dad was a legendary
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human being. It seems like everything he did
2:15
to the 11th, like he was out there, If he was working hard,
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he was working hard. If he was partying hard, if he
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was hosting a party, it would turn into this long massive
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things. I, I remember as a little kid, I
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might have been like 4 years old or so running around because we
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were locked out of the house. That was the one rule.
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You're not allowed in the house until you're ready for bed.
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So we were running around and they bring in a big spit, right?
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And then all of a sudden they're digging a hole in the ground and
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they're lining it with with stainless steel and cast iron.
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And then they bring in a beer cooler like a big kegerator with
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multiple kegs. And this is on a Wednesday.
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This is on a Wednesday. The party didn't start until
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Friday. And then it would roll all
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through the weekend. Softball games, volleyball
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games, just people having fun all over the place.
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Everyone would bring their favorite dish.
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But my, my father, Ed Lee and his, his cousin, I think cousin
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Jerry Pfeiffer, they would bring in like whatever they had shot
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that year or anything like that. So there was one, one time when
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we had bear, there was one time when we had wild boar, there was
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one time when there's lots of venison and they would just spit
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it, cook it, carve it. There it is beer based.
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It's the whole thing. That's that's wild.
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It's it is, it is wild. It's something this is like 84.
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Like we didn't even know where we were at that point halftime
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even at five years old. So.
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There were people going home or they just staying there or.
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I so I lived in a in a lake community that was very rural.
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So it was, I don't know, 50 houses.
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The entire lake would come to us and then multiple, multiple 8,
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multiple other communities would end up in the same thing.
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I remember the the front yard of our house was like a parking
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lot. It was like going to a football
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game. So I don't know if they left or
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not. I just, I remember sleeping
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under tables. I remember a lot of things.
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So it was fun, it was a blast, but I didn't know any better.
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All right, when you think about those backyard cookouts, what's
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the first sensory member to hit you?
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Memory to hit you? Is it the smells, the sound, the
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chaos or the sauce on your hands, stuff like that?
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Oh, it's. Probably the chaos for sure.
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Like we just just bodies all over the place.
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The garage and the sunroom would just turn into a big buffet and
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anything you could ever want at that point in time.
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Just running around, people just eating all day.
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Just they had a dumpster for trash like it, they went all
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out. So did your mom say anything
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about it or was it just cool? She was on board.
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She was on board. Matter of fact, after my father
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died, they kept the tradition going for a few years.
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They, they called it the Fat Eddie parties is what they
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called it. And they just, everyone just
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piled in. They did the exact same thing,
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but always ended with a toast or started with a toast or
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something like that. And there was, yeah.
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OK. And you wouldn't watch it.
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Go ahead. No, I was just.
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It's a wild thing for people to imagine.
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But. Sometimes it's surreal in my own
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mind. When I read it on the website I
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was like what kind of parties they have to last a day and.
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They just they did it due to it. Yeah, it seems cool, especially
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y'all get to try those type of animals and stuff that people
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normally don't get to try. So it definitely a good
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experience. All right, let's talk about you
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on the cook Eyes. You weren't watching the grill,
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you were experimenting. What did it feel like a like
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being a kid that's handing out sauces to adults that you didn't
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mix together? You get a lot of nose, you get a
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lot, you get a lot of no's. You get a lot of why do that?
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No, I'm not going to try that. What did you put in there?
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Is that raisins? It just didn't work.
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But I did have a couple people that that always tried whatever
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I put together. And we we would, we'd have
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Tabasco on the table. There'd be ketchup, there'd be
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mustard, there'd be sometimes a fun German mustard would be out
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there, mayonnaise, all the seasonings that you could think
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of. And, and I would just mix stuff
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and want to try this with a plate and they'll be like, no,
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go away, who are you? But what I always had, I had a
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couple uncles that were really in that were really in on it.
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They would do that, they would, they would try anything I put in
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front of them. So.
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You're being a kid is you don't know what you're putting
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together and. Not at all.
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Not at all. I I remember one time I made
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cookies at my friend's house across the street.
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And no, no supervision. There was no parents anywhere.
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I don't know where they were doing, but they were, they were
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salsa cookies. So I whipped together chocolate
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chip cookies, but I added hot salsa to it and we ate it.
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We're hungry. Wow, so you think you were born
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with that curiosity? Or were you doing it just
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because, I mean, you were bored? How did that come about?
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No, I'm pretty sure I was born to, to do a certain set of
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things. Like I always took it too far.
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Like there was, there's a lot of boundaries.
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If I saw a wall, I'd smash it. I'd try and like, why does this
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wall exist? So that kind of morphed into
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flavor eventually. Yeah, I got people got to
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remember back in the 80s, that was before video games and all
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this other stuff and mass a bunch of TV channels and all
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this stuff you like you said leave out in the morning, don't
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come back. You come back, you come in, you
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stay in So. Yeah, Yep.
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Drinking at the water hose, whatever.
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Yeah, we would disappear into the woods for hours.
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There's 20 acres of woods, or we're out there like there's a
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middle of nowhere right next to a State Park.
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Like we could get into a lot of trouble, and we did.
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That's what kids do. Ain't nothing wrong with that.
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All right, let's Fast forward to 2012 with the new relationship,
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new grill and the tech job. Why did you turn that regular
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grill into a smoker instead of just buying a smoker?
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I just saw a stack like it had a pipe on it.
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It was one of those like really small El cheapo brink bins right
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where it had, it had didn't have a firebox at all, but it had
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like the kettle, that kettle, the barrel style deal with the
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smokestack coming off the side on it.
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And I don't know, I was just like, hey, I think I could put
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this into a smoker. The, the, I think BBQ Pitmasters
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was rolling at that point, or maybe it was shortly thereafter
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that and the first thing I did was I got a brisket flat and I
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ruined that. But everyone at work loved it,
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and that's that kind of kicked it off, honestly.
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Wow. That's it.
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Everybody, whatever the people used to, that's what's good to
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them. They don't know what's good or
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bad because they used to have a one thing.
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So if they used to have a bad brisket, it's going to be like
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this is the greatest thing ever. And you like really?
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At that point, I don't really feel like in Northeast Ohio
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there were many places that were doing brisket period, full stop.
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Like they not Texas style smoked brisket.
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You could get like the baked brisket and Jewish jellies and
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all that kind of stuff, but no smoked brisket that I can think
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of off the top of my head. At that point.
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People did ribs, people did pulled pork, but not brisket.
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So I took that brisket and I burnt the shit out of it.
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It was charred. There was like you had the
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criocyte taste to it. I'd nuke this thing.
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I didn't know any better but I shredded it and I put it into
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beef stock and then I served it on top of bagels with cream
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cheese to my Co workers and they were like this is amazing.
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I just took it down a notch and then it was always a thing.
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Cream cheese fixes a lot of stuff.
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That's. Interesting.
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You just you pivot right Pivot. That's a good idea.
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All right, so you started cooking for coworkers who really
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didn't cook for themselves. Did you feel like the BBQ guy or
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did you just enjoy just cooking for the people?
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I just enjoyed the process. I always loved cooking for
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people. I would always do Christmas
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mornings. I would cook the whole thing.
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I would do Thanksgiving, I'd do a lot of it, Easter, a lot of
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that kind of stuff. Sometimes I would just show up
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at people's houses with food and we are we're going to cook it.
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I was, I like to consider myself the chief morale officer of
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where I worked. So I would always show up with
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things like it'd be doughnuts today, or maybe I went to
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Dunkin' Donuts and got a thing of coffee.
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Or like during the Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve time at work
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where everyone else took off, I would come in with a griddle and
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we'd have French toast in the morning.
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So people started doing this tradition of doing French toast.
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This someone would bring bacon, someone would bring some eggs,
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and I would just, I would serve up the French toast.
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However I did it. There it is.
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So cooking for people was never really a problem for me, yeah.
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That's not a bad idea. Do something during Christmas.
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That's where the most people out, but they can brag on you.
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That's true. That's true.
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We had it to the point where some people didn't take that day
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off because they knew that it was going to happen.
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So I consider that a win if you're sacrificing your free
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time for me. Exactly.
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Yeah, it's true. So when the coworkers started
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asking to buy your sauce, how did it feel as far as people
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want your stuff? It was good.
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It felt good. I didn't know what I was doing
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at that point. I just threw everything
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together. I had no solid recipes.
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I was just all constant experimentation.
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And I didn't really, I wasn't really like chasing accolades or
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thanks or anything like that. Like I'm sure the dopamine hit
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was there, but I was like hyper fixated on what I was going to
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do. I was like, what am I going to
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cook this weekend? What am I going to do?
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Oh, Turkey legs are on sale. Turkey thighs.
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Let's go get a bunch of Turkey thighs and we'll smoke them up.
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And my wife, my, my ride or die, She lets me do all these crazy
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things. She was like, let's do it all
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right. And it turned into like sign up
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sheets at work on Thursdays. And there was like, we
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democratized it. So whatever you voted for, you
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committed to the poundage you committed to.
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So I knew what I had to do. And then like sauces started
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coming out. So I'm selling like a jar of
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Eastern Carolina style vinegar sauce for 2:50, which is not
13:40
even covering the ingredients of it, but it was just fun to do.
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And yeah, it, it was fun. It was a good time.
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It was a good time. OK And before we get into you
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handing them out as wedding favors.
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So how did you sparked the interest of you wanted to make
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sauce and seasoning you just doing it just to save money on
14:01
doing it yourself or not wanting to buy at the store or?
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That that wasn't, I was always chasing better, right?
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I'm a ultimately, I'm a person that tries to make things
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better. Leave it better than you found
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it. That's a philosophy, right?
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I was also kind of like in a perpetual weight loss cycle.
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We were trying to cut out like high fructose corn syrup and all
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that kind of stuff. And it just, the alchemy of it
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was also a draw, the creating something from nothing and then
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breaking it down. So it's not just I'm adding
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ketchup, I'm making ketchup for it.
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I'm not just adding mustard, I'm making mustard.
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And then I'm putting the thing I made together with the other
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thing I made together. And then adding XY and Z.
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All of a sudden you got something sauce.
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Like it's that kind of thing was a big lure.
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I love the experimentation. I loved, love, not loved, the
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creation process because you can get lost in it.
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There's nothing like having just a bunch of spice containers out
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in a stove and a whisk. Yeah, your joy and relaxing and
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like therapy. Yeah.
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Yeah, 100 percent, 100%. Like therapy.
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Yeah, yeah. OK, and let's move up to So what
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gave you the idea to give him out his wedding favors at a
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wedding? Oh, that's my wife.
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That's my wife Jenny. That's that was her idea.
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She was like, OK, We were bouncing back and forth on
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whether or not to even get married.
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Like I asked her once, she said no.
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I asked her again, she said no. And then she asked me one day
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and I said, and she was like, no, like we were going back and
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forth. We knew that we were going to be
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there forever. It was never like we're two
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pieces of pot. We just didn't know if you
15:50
wanted the paper or the entanglement or anything like
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that. Because not particularly
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religious, but we decided that we were going to get married.
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And she was doing like a Pinterest board on things like
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that. And she found, she stumbled
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across this couple that did the surprise BBQ wedding.
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And she turned to me and she was like, that's it.
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That's what we're doing. And I was like, all right, let's
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do it. So I low key bought a second
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smoker. I had a Weber Smokey Mountain
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22.5 and I ended up getting like one of those large smokestack
16:23
barrel style ones with offset on the bottom, vertical smokers.
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And we're in an apartment complex at this point.
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I ended up smoking through the night for the wedding.
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I ended up pulling everything off at about 5:00 AM and then
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getting not ready. But it was, there were seven
16:44
people that knew that we were having a wedding.
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We had 75 on the guest list and we ended up with 75.
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Eventually some people came in late.
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I said, hey, we're eating at 1:00.
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I don't know if anything's going to be there by 1:10 or 1:15.
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They fall on it like vultures. So we rolled up, got this
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pavilion all set up, beautiful September day.
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And our friends started showing up and they're in like their
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best concert tease and they're playing bocce ball and all that
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kind of stuff. And one O clock rolls around and
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stand up on the table and say, OK, everybody, food's almost
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done, food's almost ready, but we're going to get married 1st.
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And just like dead silence. My mom didn't even know.
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She didn't even know. So we went to the restroom area
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there, got dressed, went back out, did the thing, which is
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really funny. We, we forgot to turn off the
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playlist while we were getting married.
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So in the background there's like, amazing Blues music
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playing. Just all the people in the back
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of are hearing our vows with Albert Collins and that kind of
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stuff. So it was fun.
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It was good. My niece and my nephew both
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missed it. Yeah.
18:00
They didn't show up on time. They'll never not show up now.
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Never be late. Exactly.
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All right, The Something sauce became your first product.
18:10
Why that recipe and what it made?
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What made you get to the point where, OK, this is perfect, Now
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I can introduce it to the public?
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Oh that's a great question. In Cleveland, when I was doing
18:23
this for my coworkers at the time and for friends and family,
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I had no recipes. I had vague ideas of recipes
18:31
like I knew that it was X&Y and the quantities changed and it
18:35
was a taste and adjust. It was a taste and adjust until
18:38
it was right and we're good. When we left Cleveland and moved
18:42
down to Bowling Green, KY we decided to start 2 businesses.
18:48
One was B.T. Leigh Sauces and Rubs and the
18:50
other one was a Man made Creative, which is our like
18:53
creative agency because I'm a tech and she's a designer.
18:57
And I at that point realized that I had to nail down all of
19:03
the recipes to the gram. We started doing all the
19:07
research necessary to do this thing the hard way or the right
19:10
way, depending on your viewpoint of it.
19:13
So like better process control school, all the FDA
19:16
certifications, registering with the FDA for various products,
19:20
making sure it's replicable, sourcing things that are
19:23
replicable versus just whatever I can whisk together and heat
19:26
up. And because the goal was always,
19:30
no, the goal wasn't always the goal.
19:31
When we originally got down there was we were just going to
19:33
meet people at the farmers market.
19:35
It was just going to be a Saturday.
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Hi, how's it going? We're new in town and find a
19:39
community that quickly went away and turned into a business.
19:45
After we win our won our first couple awards and then
19:47
everything just kicked off from there.
19:51
Something sauce came about because it's familiar and
19:55
unfamiliar. So it is a Kansas City style
19:59
sauce, but it also hit Saint Louis and Memphis at the same
20:02
time. It's got like a very large
20:05
regionality. And so we had people that were
20:08
like from Kansas City. They were like, yeah, that's
20:10
Kansas City. And you got people from Memphis
20:12
feels like home. And someone was like, it's got
20:15
that something. And I was like, ah, there is the
20:18
name. And we just stuck with that, OK,
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you know? How did you feel?
20:24
Did you feel vulnerable putting it into people hands?
20:27
What are they going to think? Did you wreck your brain out or
20:31
when it first released? No, I am bored with the
20:34
confidence of like 30 men when I'm ready to do it it.
20:40
The internal struggle versus the external struggle is stark
20:43
difference. And I've really got this ability
20:46
to just shut down the internal. I don't know if this is going to
20:49
work. I don't know if this is going to
20:50
be good. I was like, it's good.
20:52
I like it. I like it a lot.
20:53
I did it for me. And then people were like, I
20:56
like this a lot. This is really good.
20:58
I was like, see, told you that's that's the way it works
21:02
sometimes. This is all going to sound so
21:05
egotistical, and I don't mean it this way in any capacity.
21:09
I've been called a flavor savant.
21:11
I get it right. I get it right really fast.
21:14
Like some people might take 100 iterations to get their sauce
21:18
done. I did 4, like some of my deepest
21:22
sauces are like 7 iterations before I'm like, I can't touch
21:27
this anymore. It's done and then that's that
21:30
and it works. It works so well.
21:32
I got this great knack of putting together all the
21:36
different notes to make the note the corn.
21:39
It's good you got a gift for it. All right, let's move on to the
21:44
Clevelander, which is more than a sauce.
21:46
It's a love letter. How did you translate city into
21:49
a flavor? So I grew up in the northeast
21:54
section of Cleveland, OH, northeastern Ohio.
21:58
I grew up in Maple Country. The town that I grew up in was
22:04
next to a town that was like called Pancake USA.
22:08
Like they, they actually had at one point the idea to turn their
22:13
water tower into a big floating stack of pancakes got shot down.
22:18
Kind of hope it wouldn't, but it did.
22:20
They had like sugar shack in the middle of town and they would do
22:23
all the stuff and we had the Maple festival.
22:25
So Maple was definitely in the works period.
22:28
Like it's in the blood at that point.
22:30
My my brother from another mother is Italian, so I grew up
22:34
with his family. I was we would always help in
22:38
the kitchen and all that kind of stuff.
22:40
So like prosciutto wrapped chicken breasts that are covered
22:43
in majorum and Rosemary and all these fun herbs that people use
22:50
but they don't like really utilize was there and I'm in
22:54
Cleveland. So Cleveland is notorious for
22:57
its mustard stadium mustard is fantastic.
23:00
If you ever been to a Browns game or an Indians game or in a
23:04
stadium anywhere in Cleveland, sorry, Guardians game anywhere
23:08
in Cleveland, it's that mustard will change your life.
23:11
So that Dusseldorf style mustard ruled everything around us.
23:15
So I like it. Just put it all together.
23:18
You know that with a bunch of green chilies.
23:21
I was really into to hatch green chilies at the time and then I
23:25
kind of kicked it all off the Clevelander.
23:27
All right, when you started winning the wars, did it
23:30
validate your instincts or did it raise the bar for everything
23:34
else you create? Now, since she was up here with
23:37
that, you're like, man, I really got to do my thing.
23:42
It's hard not to feel like you're chasing the top again.
23:47
That's a hard thing. I do find that if I'm chasing
23:52
the success of, say, the Clevelander, I will never reach
23:57
it. So I try not to.
24:00
I just try and make something good and arguably that turns
24:04
into, it might turn niche, it might turn.
24:09
I don't think I have a single product that hasn't earned an
24:12
award except for our salts and then we just release those.
24:15
There's we're perennial annual placers in some contests and
24:22
it's just it's because of the execution is high and the
24:25
quality is see content is familiar and unfamiliar for the
24:32
years. It's turned into solve a
24:35
problem, not get it out of my head because I realized that
24:39
there's a lot of stuff in my head that's got to come out.
24:41
That's the seasonal blends that I do was an answer to that.
24:46
We bought a cement mixer and I was like, I'm just going to do
24:48
some bonkers stuff. And that's where strawberry
24:52
honey Dijon comes in. And we're just now releasing our
24:55
spring blend, which is a lemon pepper, Asian inspired lemon
24:59
pepper takes. So you got cuchigaro, Cechuan,
25:01
peppercorns, all these amazing flavors, but you still got that
25:06
lemon pepper in the background. And I can't, for my own sanity,
25:13
I can't let the top of the mountain always be the goal
25:17
because you never know what's going to hit.
25:19
You never know what's going to hit.
25:21
If you're always Barry bonding it, you're never going to get on
25:24
first base. Yeah, I don't know.
25:27
That was a long and winding answer to say no.
25:31
Yeah, but then you got to Tony Gwynn it get on base.
25:34
Yeah, just got to get on base. Just got to get on base.
25:37
All right, So you made a very intentional decision early on,
25:42
all natural, gluten free and vegan friendly.
25:45
Why was that a non negotiable? Friends and family got a lot of
25:50
vegan friends, a lot of celiac friends and family.
25:55
I don't think that food should be exclusionary.
26:00
It's it shouldn't be exclusive. Good food should be available to
26:03
everybody. And if I'm having if I'm having
26:06
a barbecue and I smoke some tofu or some Seaton alongside the
26:12
pulled pork and someone makes comment about it, I'm just going
26:16
to tell them like it is just because you eat pork, that means
26:19
someone else does. And they should still have the
26:22
ability to enjoy the time together.
26:26
And that's all it's about. Lifestyle choices are lifestyle
26:30
choices. Sometimes they're not choices
26:31
though. And that's the thing.
26:32
Like we have such a large celiac community that relies on us to
26:40
produce these amazing flavors. It's nice, it's nice and we like
26:44
doing that. Yeah, because a lot of people,
26:47
it makes them feel included as far as all right.
26:50
It got something for me where they don't have to sit around
26:54
and and feel left out because everybody enjoying themselves
26:57
licking their fingers and they can't eat nothing because of
26:59
Yeah. Exactly, exactly.
27:03
And as I get older, I find more and more things affect me in
27:08
negatively. Like recently I found out that
27:10
beef is off the table for me just and I and pork actually.
27:15
So I need to go get tested for Alpha gal.
27:17
I haven't figured it out yet if that's what it is.
27:20
Maybe I get bit by a tick, but that changes the game.
27:23
So if I'm not, if I'm not doing ribs anymore, but I still need
27:28
to do stuff for ribs, it's the same thing, it's just inversed,
27:32
right? So cook for everybody.
27:36
Yeah, there's a lot of meals are based on your blood type, and
27:39
with my blood type, I'm not supposed to eat meat.
27:42
But I'm like, ain't no way in the world.
27:45
Yeah, yeah. And it's hard nowadays.
27:48
Like the moment I figured out that pork was messing with me.
27:51
Oh my goodness, that was hard. I swear my mother-in-law about
27:56
had an aneurysm. Which is What do you mean you
27:58
can't have sausage gravy? Can't have sausage gravy.
28:02
What do you mean you can't have biscuits made with lard?
28:06
Can't have biscuits made with lard?
28:08
It's it really narrows the scope.
28:10
But in that narrowing of that scope, it makes it fun.
28:14
It, it turns into a challenge in a way.
28:17
What can I cook? What is good here?
28:19
And like, right now we're so into beans, it's ridiculous how
28:24
much beans we're eating at this point.
28:27
Yeah, you definitely turned to MacGyver trying to figure out
28:30
something. Yeah, yeah.
28:34
I'm never giving up bacon. I don't care what nobody say.
28:36
Man that's the hard 1 bacon. And you know what really hit me
28:40
hardest out of that is hot dogs. Like a good hot dog is really
28:47
hard to not pass up or sausages in general but as Turkey dogs
28:53
work. It's not the same as a Nathan.
28:56
It's. Not the same, not the same as a
28:59
Nathan hot dog or a dog burger or any of those like you can
29:02
pull your head a little bit. Yeah, my wife don't eat beef and
29:06
pork but and so most time we eating chicken or Turkey
29:10
products. So I'm like.
29:13
I don't think Turkey bacon Bacon's real bacon.
29:15
No matter how much I can't, I'll die on that hill.
29:19
You can call it Turkey strips and that'd be great.
29:22
Perfect. Same with duck bacon.
29:23
Fine, Just don't. Call it Turkeys don't have
29:27
bacon, you know. All right, let's talk about
29:31
this. Get into the season.
29:32
So you said you came up with the name of something.
29:35
What made you continue on with all the rest of the products
29:38
using that term? Again, it's just a kind of a
29:43
challenge at this point. Like in the beginning we're
29:45
like, oh really? Something for rubbing because
29:48
you rub it on the meats and it works.
29:50
It's funny. I'm a funny guy.
29:53
Something to cry about, spicy. So yeah, that works too.
29:56
And then and then it turned into a game for us and for our fans
30:03
to come up with different iterations of things.
30:08
And so like my wife came up with something to cluck about.
30:11
So that's her citrus herb blend that was in there.
30:15
The next one, Something to Beef about, was named by our fans on
30:20
Facebook. Like back in the day, we ran a
30:22
contest and we chose the best name out of all of them.
30:26
And that guy got 2 lbs of the rub before it even released.
30:29
Like that kind of thing. Next one was something to talk
30:32
about. Someone came to me with the name
30:35
talk about and I was like, I don't want to make a Taco
30:37
seasoning, but I also have to now.
30:39
You had to do it because you had this thing in front of you that
30:41
was perfect. Something to deal with,
30:43
something for everything. It literally goes on everything.
30:46
So what were you talking about? You can go through each one and
30:49
tell a little bit about it, as well as give it a name.
30:51
So why are we doing? It yeah sure sure.
30:54
Something for Robin is my sweet and savory BBQ blend.
30:57
It's once you start using it, you don't go back, right?
31:01
There are there are BBQ stores in the States that were
31:07
Something for Robin actually outsells some of the larger
31:10
brands out of Fort Worth that I'm not going to name and
31:14
various things like that. Because the owner evangelized us
31:19
and they've tried it. And once they tried it, they
31:22
were like, that's it. This is it.
31:24
This is where we're going BBQ. That's BBQ.
31:27
Something to cry about has is sweet, salty, smoky, savory. 5
31:31
to 10 seconds in you get the first wave of heat in the form
31:34
of Chipotle and cayenne, and then 15 to 45 seconds later you
31:38
get Carolina Reaper. Super sneaky.
31:42
One bone on a rack of ribs is not going to be super spicy.
31:47
About 3 minutes later it'll get there, but the moment you get to
31:50
5 bones on that rack of ribs, it's getting hot.
31:54
And we, for lack of butter words, engineered it.
31:57
So you always get the flavor profile in every bite you take.
32:00
So it's always sweet, salty, smoky, savory, and then the heat
32:02
just keeps voluming up. Something to talk about was was
32:05
answer to Thanksgiving. So we like to call it
32:08
Thanksgiving in a bottle. So sage, sage, thyme, Rosemary,
32:13
majorum, summer savory, chervil, which is a fun one.
32:18
And then this is nutmeg. There's orange peel, lemon peel,
32:22
juniper berries. Like it's, it's great.
32:24
It tastes like stuffing straight up.
32:26
We just sell the living shit out of it during October.
32:32
November beef was how I like to do steaks.
32:40
Right. So everyone out there is salt,
32:42
pepper, garlic. That's all I use.
32:45
I just use salt and pepper on beef.
32:46
But there are things that make it beefier, so we use like
32:52
porcini mushrooms in that. And there's Aleppo Chili's for a
32:57
bit of a bite, and you got apple cider vinegar powder.
33:01
So it tenderizes the meat while it's doing it.
33:03
And you get that little Tang in the background.
33:05
And you still have the onions and the garlic and the thyme and
33:08
the oregano and all that jazz. But it will consistently make an
33:12
amazing steak. Also French fries, great fry
33:16
seasoning. What's next, Taco.
33:18
Like I said, someone came to Taco, someone came to me with
33:21
something to talk about. So I was like, how am I going to
33:23
make a Taco seasoning that can stand up to everyone's
33:28
conceptions of what Taco seasoning is?
33:30
Because everyone's buying like the Ortega packets or the cheap
33:34
stuff that is salt, salt, corn flour, spices.
33:38
So I set out to make a Taco seasoning that was classic
33:46
American Taco night meets the Gatemouth region of Louisiana
33:51
and Texas in central Mexico. So you've got authentic like
33:58
Oaxacan flavor in there, dark cocoa, achiote, cinnamon.
34:04
There's a touch of cinnamon in it to give it that depth of
34:06
flavor on it. And we've got we've got like
34:09
sassafras and thyme to bring it into like the Creole sense.
34:13
And then you got like the cuma and onion, garlic, all those.
34:16
And I use, I use my own chili powder blend because chili
34:21
powder is just a, it's a abstract term.
34:25
You never know what's in it, but I can tell you exactly what's in
34:28
mine. Jujio, Ancho, Chipotle, New
34:30
Mexican, Lombre, chilies, dill, something to deal with came
34:34
about because we wanted an answer to seafood.
34:38
And this blend is, it's like a it's a zesty dill seasoning.
34:43
So we've got dill, we've got lemongrass.
34:46
There's horseradish in it. There's a touch of bird's eye
34:48
chili. There's a apple cider vinegar
34:51
again on the background of it. It makes amazing seafood.
34:56
It makes amazing chicken wings. It makes amazing pasta salad.
35:01
It makes amazing ranch dressing. And I keep saying amazing
35:04
because it's just, it's not a pickle seasoning.
35:08
Everyone's. Oh, it tastes like Pickles.
35:09
No. There's a lot going on in this.
35:12
Yeah, something for everything is a salt, pepper, garlic blend
35:17
with a lot of Eastern European, northern Mediterranean flavor.
35:21
So you've got fennel, you've got drawn a blank.
35:25
Salt, pepper, garlic, fennel, caraway, celery seed.
35:29
There's a lot of that. No chilies, no herbs, mustard,
35:32
broad mustard powder gives it a lot of that back end like a lot
35:36
of bass in this a lot of low end flavor.
35:40
Yeah, it's not just a salt, pepper, garlic blend though.
35:42
It literally will go on everything under the sun.
35:45
So that's, that's my main line. My my seasonals are for the
35:52
Portland, TN strawberry Festival.
35:55
I needed a strawberry item, so I came up with a strawberry honey
35:59
Dijon blend. It is summer in a bottle,
36:02
something for summer, fantastic on any form of chicken, pork,
36:07
root, vegetables. Some people do shrimp with it.
36:10
It's that summer salad in a bottle.
36:13
And then from there we did something for autumn, which is
36:17
fall in a bottle, Warm apple bourbon, touch of caraway, touch
36:22
of Chipotle on the back, back end.
36:23
So if you take a spoonful of it, it's like you're drinking a shot
36:26
of apple William or Evan Williams apple pork, All the
36:30
things that you could do with fall flavors and foods like
36:33
butternut squash, sweet potato casserole.
36:37
We did French toast with it, and that was killer.
36:41
Multiple coffee shops run it to make bourbon crunch lattes and
36:46
apple crisp lattes, that kind of thing we had for winter.
36:50
We originally had a Coco espresso chili blend, but we
36:55
pulled that because we found that it actually sold more in
36:59
the summer than it does in the winter.
37:02
People are using it for steaks. So that's eventually that will
37:05
come out too, if we ever get a name for it because that's
37:08
that's the that's the bottleneck.
37:10
The name is the bottleneck. And so if you y'all know a name
37:14
for a Coco espresso chili rub, that's something too far about
37:18
holler at me. But the new one is a cranberry
37:21
orange Brandy. So that's just killer Christmas
37:27
flavors. We did snickerdoodles with it
37:29
and they're just delicious. And then the something for
37:32
spring is our Asian inspired lemon pepper.
37:34
It's like a kitchen sink Asian rub.
37:37
You could figure out a cuisine from it.
37:40
If you want to do pad Thai, cool.
37:43
If you want to do bogey, cool. Just figured out from there.
37:49
That's the blends. All right, so I could throw out
37:53
a name we say since it got chili powder, it says something to
37:56
chill with the chill with. That's a good one.
37:59
That's a good one that's let me just pull up a notepad document
38:05
right now. I was something to chill with.
38:07
So you got chilly? I don't know.
38:08
I don't know. Maybe.
38:11
Yeah, we started doing. Finishing salts recently, so
38:14
we're calling something to finish with and then we're just
38:16
doing the different permutations of it and it's all falling under
38:19
that same umbrella. We're also looking at something
38:23
to and something to start with will be like chili mixes and
38:28
Miss Memphis pot roast or Miss Pot roast, that kind of stuff.
38:31
There's so many places to go right now that you get
38:34
paralysis. What you can do?
38:37
Yeah, yeah. Could you give some advice for
38:39
those wanting to get into the making of their own sauces and
38:43
rubs, the product, the side as well as the business side that
38:46
they may not see? Yeah, buy.
38:49
A food scale. Buy a food scale, learn the
38:52
grams of your recipe and buy aph meter so you don't kill anybody.
38:56
That's those are my two biggest things with it.
39:01
Otherwise buckle up because it is the hardest category in food.
39:07
I firmly believe that BBQ sauces is the hardest category in food.
39:14
Everyone's got this perception that sauce is cheap.
39:17
Sauce is absolutely not cheap when you some.
39:20
Sauce is cheap when it's 80% high fructose corn syrup, they
39:25
can bottom dollar that and you can buy it for $1.59.
39:29
But when there is no. Bad ingredients in it.
39:35
Whatsoever and you end up in that ultra premium category,
39:40
it's always been a very interesting.
39:44
Paradox to me. How you can take all of this
39:49
time and effort on this piece of meat that cost you hundreds of
39:53
dollars to do right. And then you serve a $2.00.
39:59
And 59 cent dollar bottle of sauce with it to just it just
40:06
weird right? It's like it's putting low
40:10
octane in your Ferrari. Why would you do that?
40:14
Don't do that. Go.
40:16
Artisanal if you're spending. All the time.
40:18
Go artisanal. You don't have to live and die
40:20
by the sauce, but someone might like it.
40:23
Same thing with a with the rubs on it.
40:25
Why would you treat your $130.00 brisket with something that's
40:31
got something that's going to cause it to taste metallicky?
40:35
Other than the fact that you don't know that it tastes
40:37
metallicky because that's all you've ever used?
40:40
Get the clean flavors. Do this stuff.
40:43
Yes, that makes a whole. Lot of sense, a lot of people
40:46
don't think about that, but they spend all their money on their
40:49
meat and then throw cheap rub and sauces on it and it
40:54
downgrades the quality of what you're doing.
40:57
Yeah, absolutely. I I just don't.
40:59
It just does not. It doesn't jive with me.
41:03
I can't put two and two together there, so when?
41:06
Someone opens your. Sauce and rub at home?
41:09
What do you hope it adds to their recipe enjoyment?
41:14
Just enjoyment, love your life, live your life.
41:17
We're only here for for a little while, right?
41:21
Like I someone said, I'm not here for a long time.
41:23
I'm here for a good time. Hopefully you're here for a long
41:26
time had a good time make the most of it and I'm not going to
41:31
take anyone's Yum, of course. So if you really love sweet, if
41:34
you really love the lower quality stuff that's more
41:38
prevalent, said it, sweet baby raise, if you really love sweet
41:41
baby raise, go for it. Knock yourself out.
41:43
Just realize that there are other people out there that are
41:46
taking care and passion in what they're doing.
41:50
Just the same amount of care and passion that you put into what
41:53
you're doing. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely.
41:55
True, I'm I'm glad they're starting to ease into Walmart,
41:59
starting to ease some of the smaller brands and on the
42:02
shelves and stuff like that. Give them a chance.
42:05
So it's good, but as well as there's a lot of cheap ones out
42:10
there and a lot of people just throwing stuff out just to put
42:13
stuff out. Let's move on to your the Great
42:16
American recipe TV show. First of all, how did you learn
42:20
how to cook and do the recipe? Did you experiment or you just
42:23
cooking at home or how did they come about my my family?
42:28
Was we bridged the gap between like farmers and convenience
42:33
cooks at the same time. Like my mom, she was one of ten
42:38
that grew up on a farm. They did everything from
42:40
scratch. But she was also raised in like
42:42
the convenience generation. Like she remembers when the
42:46
microwave was released. Oh, the microwave, like that
42:49
kind of stuff. TV dinners, cool, but we never
42:54
made Kraft macaroni and cheese. We made macaroni and cheese from
42:58
scratch every time. Like she would take the time on
43:02
that. So that was instilled on me that
43:06
we cooked. So it was never the Marie
43:09
calendar pot pies. It was always, hey, we're going
43:12
to make a pot pie and then they made a big pot pie.
43:15
We always had a garden, so we always had fresh vegetables.
43:18
I can't even tell you the number of like beans I've picked in my
43:21
life and blanched off there's it's just that kind of all
43:26
instilled that in me going forward.
43:29
So I was never afraid to cook and I was never afraid to just
43:34
go off script, so to speak. Like some people need the recipe
43:39
and they need to follow it exactly because they can't see
43:41
the road ahead or shortcuts or anything like that.
43:45
But I just always could. So he's did.
43:49
Yeah, that's. That person T But as far as how
43:53
did you get approached as far as being on the TV show, they
43:57
called me? I thought it was a scam at first
44:01
because it just out of nowhere I got an e-mail saying, hey, we're
44:06
casting for this TV show, would you like to be a part of it?
44:11
And I was like, OK, so I looked at the link, didn't look
44:15
malicious, pulled in the whole tech background.
44:18
I was like OK, am I going to sell my information back like
44:20
this link? And then I was just like well
44:21
screw it. So I did it.
44:23
And they were like do a video of you talking and that ended up
44:30
going nowhere. That was in 20/19 and.
44:36
I can only imagine that. They found me at that point from
44:38
Instagram and various other social platforms.
44:43
And then pandemic happened and I remember it was April 2021.
44:51
Maybe I don't know. Time is a human construct to me.
44:54
I just, I'm never going to get time's not I can't drop years.
44:58
Somewhere during the pandemic, I got a phone call from.
45:03
A producer and. They're like, hey, you still
45:05
interested in this? And I was like, yeah, why not?
45:08
And then the snowball effect happened and we were just, I was
45:13
doing interviews with executive producers and like the kitchen
45:18
people and they're like, OK, I'm going to watch you cook a
45:21
recipe. You've got an hour.
45:23
We're going to podcast or not podcast and we're going to Zoom
45:26
call this whole thing and people are going to look back and then
45:29
we'll let you know. And then I got another one where
45:32
I had to sit with an interview with the EVP, the guy that
45:35
became my handler at the show. And he, we sat there for three,
45:40
3 1/2 hours talking on Zoom. And he's normally we only go
45:46
about 45 minutes. So it just happened like that.
45:51
And then they're like, OK, we'll let you know.
45:54
And then we had to make, we had to make all of our recipes ahead
45:59
of time, right? So they were like, OK, you need
46:03
to give me 45. I think it was 45 recipes that
46:08
we could cook on the show conceptually.
46:11
And then they weaned that down. They're like, OK, so now we need
46:15
27. You know of your best.
46:18
And you submit them. And then you end up knowing the
46:21
brief for the show. I'm telling you how the sausage
46:25
is made here. Knowing the brief for the show
46:28
before it even airs. And you're going in with your
46:30
book of these recipes that you're going to do.
46:35
And the premise? This was the first season of the
46:38
show. They it was real cowboy.
46:40
They didn't know what they were doing.
46:41
They had a lot of, they were figuring it out along the way.
46:45
And we had the blessing actually, of all of us being
46:52
holed up in the same hotel in Virginia, all the cast members
46:58
and we just have had free reign as long as we didn't leave the
47:02
hotel. So we're all just hanging out of
47:04
the pool, we're at the bar, we're watching football
47:07
together. And this is all during pandemic.
47:09
We're COVID tested every morning and that kind of thing.
47:12
And it was like, I think it was like a week before we even
47:16
started filming. So we had time to just gel it
47:19
up. It was great.
47:21
It was great. It was, it might have been the
47:22
hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but also maybe the most
47:26
rewarding. I don't know.
47:28
There's something about putting your heart and soul out there
47:31
and then being told you got to go so.
47:38
So how many episodes did you wind?
47:40
Up doing 4. Yeah, I was on four.
47:43
I was on 4 episodes. Spoiler alert, I get cut on the
47:46
4th episode, which is funny because it was my surprise
47:50
wedding macaroni and cheese that did it.
47:54
They didn't like it or something to that effect, or wasn't as
47:58
good as whatever else was out there.
48:01
You got to do something most folks didn't get to do.
48:04
Yeah, no A. 100% Here's the fun part about that is I knew when
48:08
that episode was going to air and I knew I was doing a cooking
48:11
demo for PBS in at Stark State University in Northeast Ohio.
48:17
And I was like, I'm going to do the macaroni and cheese.
48:20
I'm going to, I'm going to do the macaroni and cheese right
48:22
before it airs. So they, I did this big cooking
48:27
demo, everyone got a plate of this macaroni and cheese.
48:29
They're like, this is the best macaroni and cheese we've ever
48:31
had. And, and it ends up getting
48:34
written up in a paper. And I'm just sitting there with
48:36
a a bowl of macaroni and cheese on the cover of the story and
48:40
all that stuff. And then the episode drops and I
48:43
get cut off the island with that recipe.
48:46
So I was like damage control. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
48:50
All. Right from a farmers market in
48:51
Bowling Green, KY to 60 plus international awards, When you
48:56
look back at your journey, what's been the the highest high
49:00
that you experienced so far? I got hugged by a.
49:04
Lady at a festival and she told me that I changed her life.
49:08
That was pretty cool. That was the Clevelander.
49:11
The Clevelander gets hugs. I get hugs.
49:13
The Clevelander also won first place gold medal at the
49:17
Worldwide Mustard Championship. That was pretty cool as I was
49:20
feeling like drudgy at that point.
49:24
It didn't like it was just, it was like I needed some
49:27
validation and that just dropped from the sky miraculously.
49:31
But that was a good one. I really very much enjoy
49:38
interacting with people and finding and them finding joy in
49:43
what I do. That's the biggest dopamine hit
49:47
of this whole thing. Creating is great, but when you
49:50
sell, when you have someone tell you that they've stripped their
49:53
cabinet of every other spice blend and it's a BTLS spice
49:56
blend cabinet, it's a BTLS household all of a sudden
49:59
because we've got something that fits everything, something for
50:03
everyone. It's a good feeling.
50:06
And also the that parlays into the fans trusting me with.
50:14
Any of the off the wall. Ideas I get and they'll buy in
50:18
and they'll try it. And a lot of the times they
50:20
just, they love it. They're ready, they're primed,
50:24
they're primed to expand that flavor sense.
50:26
And I love that. I love that.
50:28
And we pick those people up every week.
50:31
Try to pick those people up every week, yeah?
50:34
Yeah, you guys are. Good flavors, so it's different.
50:37
Also it's not the same what you usually see on every shelf.
50:40
So you got a good selection that people can try, and it's
50:44
something like you say something for everything.
50:46
You got a spice for everything we try for sure.
50:50
OK. Go ahead.
50:53
We're. About to release a.
50:54
Line of spicy finishing salts see problem solve problem,
51:00
right. So we find a lot of a lot of the
51:02
time when we're interacting with people, one part of the family
51:06
is super spicy, the other part is not.
51:09
And they wish that they could be that they can spice up whatever
51:12
it is. So we've decided that we're
51:14
going to do that. We're going to we're going to
51:16
give them the option of of going spicy with their food if they
51:20
want. And it's just their bottle.
51:22
All the kids can have their normal stuff.
51:25
Or actually, some of the kids are some of those kids are scary
51:29
out there. Now go Reaper does not faze some
51:33
of these 10 year olds. And I don't even know where
51:35
that's going to go like that. That does shake me sometimes at
51:40
a base level, thinking that these 10 year olds can take the,
51:44
at the time, the world's hottest pepper in stride.
51:47
Like where are they going to be in 20 years?
51:50
I'm a mild person so. That's fair, that's fair.
51:54
I. Think I have it.
51:57
All right. So any who are some of your role
51:59
models in this sauce and seasoning business that you look
52:03
up to anybody? I have friends.
52:08
I have friends. I don't know if I like try.
52:12
I try not to mimic anybody. I like to walk my own path.
52:17
About. Indian friend of mine, Turtle
52:20
from T DS Brewing. BBQ friend of mine.
52:23
Good folks. Yeah.
52:24
Homero from Harmacy Hot Sauce is an amazing, amazing creator.
52:31
He's someone you should get up, get hooked up with eventually.
52:34
You want a good conversation? That guy's got it.
52:36
Other than that. I am one of those people.
52:40
That believes that everyone puts their pants on, man.
52:43
People do amazing things all the time, all the time, and you can
52:50
be amazed by them all the time. But they are still humans at
52:54
that point, and I'm no different than them.
52:58
That's true. You know that's.
53:00
True, you know, big. Advocate for that because I like
53:02
nobody, everybody. You can be up one day and down
53:06
the next day. So don't turn your nose out or
53:09
not want to help nobody because you'll be looking for help one
53:12
day when you least suspect it. So don't right ever turn down or
53:16
look down at nobody like that. Absolutely, Absolutely.
53:20
And also to expound on that or expand on that a little bit,
53:23
what I'm doing, what Ray's doing, we don't necessarily have
53:31
peers in that space like the all natural, which is just a
53:36
buzzword. Everyone can say that.
53:38
But the whole ingredients gluten free, not allergy sensitivity is
53:46
we're not, there's not many like real makers as far as I'm, as
53:50
far as I know, except for these small guys that are really doing
53:53
it. You're seeing a lot of like
53:55
larger companies jumping on that and Co opting a lot of the terms
54:02
for food is medicine, that kind of thing.
54:04
And yeah, there's not really, there's not really a lot of
54:08
people that are. Trying to keep it clean and.
54:10
Flavorful, and that's fine. It's fine.
54:13
I don't mind if people use MSG or anything like that.
54:16
I know it's a salt. Like I'm never going to come
54:19
down on somebody for using something that makes it good.
54:22
I just, it's not our crowd. Yeah, yeah.
54:27
I just talked to somebody a couple days ago, interviewed
54:30
him. I don't know if you heard of him
54:32
before, but his name is Chef Blackwell Smith.
54:35
And I guess his company called the Lucky Cajun where he does
54:39
his own seasonings at home and he makes them fresh and sends
54:43
them out. But like he's one of those also
54:46
to do the fresh ingredients and stuff like that.
54:49
It's like there's only a few of y'all left doing that because a
54:52
lot of people just go to mass producing and it takes the life
54:56
out of what they doing and what they started out with, Yeah.
55:01
For sure, yeah. So it's like, are you in it?
55:06
You're in it for money, but you're also for quality and
55:09
getting a good product and people enjoy instead of just I'm
55:13
in it for the money. So I'm going to sell it to this
55:15
company and y'all do what y'all do, long as I get my money and
55:20
the product sitting on the shelf bad from where they started from
55:23
to where they're at now and just and they don't care no more.
55:27
Yeah, yeah. Correct.
55:29
And there's a lot of, there's a lot of companies that are, like
55:32
you said, making their way into Walmart.
55:35
But in order to do that, they got a cut and they got a
55:38
refactor. And they're not the same.
55:41
It's not the same because they will say we need to hit a price
55:44
point. And if you don't hit that price
55:46
point, we're not going to carry you.
55:48
So you'll have the the shrink inflation thing will occur.
55:52
Normal size is 8.4 oz, right? 8.4 oz bottle.
55:56
And all of a sudden you're seeing it like five 5.4 oz and
56:01
they're selling that for 799. Yeah, there's a reason why.
56:04
Because they can't get it to the right price point, the normal
56:09
stuff, until they're making a. Million.
56:12
Pounds of it. And then and then they can.
56:16
They're so all. Right, that's all the questions
56:20
I have. I'm going to play a quick game
56:22
with you and get you out of here.
56:23
Like college basketball, they have a tournament bracket.
56:26
I did a tournament bracket of 16 meats that you cook on the grill
56:30
and I'm going to just list them out.
56:31
You just tell me which one that you prefer to eat and we'll see
56:34
which one is the winner. OK, All right.
56:36
First matchup is Lamb versus Brisket.
56:40
Brisket. That's a hard 1 though 'cause I
56:42
love lamb but I think it's brisket alright.
56:45
Next match up is. Smoked ham versus sausage
56:48
Sausage. OK.
56:51
Next match up is smoked Turkey versus beef ribs.
56:56
Unpopular opinion here. But I'm going to go with Turkey,
57:00
OK? I feel like.
57:02
Turkey. Smoked Turkey is like the
57:04
epitome of the way that bird should be cooked.
57:08
OK BBQ shrimp. Versus hamburger, BBQ shrimp, OK
57:16
Pork chop versus smoked chicken, probably.
57:20
Pork chop, all right? I think smoked Bologna versus.
57:27
Pork ribs. Pork ribs.
57:31
All right, hot dog. Versus pork belly.
57:34
Pork belly. OK.
57:38
Steak versus burnt. Ends.
57:42
Now why you gotta do that? Why you gotta do that?
57:45
That should be like the end question Steak.
57:48
All right. And next round, brisket versus
57:51
sausage brisket. All right, Turkey versus?
57:56
Barbecue shrimp Turkey, OK, Pork chop versus pork ribs OK, and
58:07
pork belly versus steak pork belly.
58:11
OK. Final four, brisket versus
58:13
Turkey. Turkey.
58:17
Alright. That took a while.
58:19
There was a. There was an argument I was
58:20
going through with myself right there.
58:24
Alright, pork Rios versus pork belly.
58:26
Yeah, pork belly. Pork belly for sure.
58:30
Alright. And the final is Turkey versus
58:33
pork belly. That's gonna be pork belly.
58:36
It's like it's really hard to beat a good candied pork belly.
58:41
Yeah. All right.
58:43
Are you a sports fan? Yeah, all.
58:45
Right, I got another. Tournament, just the top 16
58:48
athletes of all time. I do.
58:50
This is a sports thing, All right, matchup #1 Michael Phelps
58:54
versus Simone Biles. Simone Biles, OK, and Muhammad
59:02
Ali versus Lionel Messi. Wait.
59:07
OK. Tom.
59:09
Brady versus Roger. Federer, Brady.
59:13
OK, Barry. Bonds versus LeBron.
59:17
James, LeBron. OK, Usain.
59:22
Bolt versus Tiger Woods, OH. That's a hard one, Tiger.
59:30
OK, Kobe Bryant versus? Cristiano Ronaldo.
59:36
I think I would go Kobe. OK, Wayne Gretzky.
59:42
Versus Dale Earnhardt, senior Oh, Gretzky.
59:46
For sure. OK.
59:49
Michael Jordan versus Serena Williams, Jordan.
59:55
All right. Next round, Simone Biles versus
59:59
Ali Biles. OK.
1:00:04
Tom. Brady versus LeBron.
1:00:06
The criteria. Here is athlete.
1:00:08
Or just just like. Six round draft pick.
1:00:14
Versus hometown guy, I think I had, I think I got to go with
1:00:17
LeBron on that, OK. It's hard.
1:00:21
Tiger Woods versus Kobe Bryant, Tiger.
1:00:25
All right. Gretzky versus Jordan Jordan is
1:00:30
the. Like the obvious kind of answer,
1:00:34
but Gretzky really that that's a hard one to put up.
1:00:37
Probably go Jordan, Right. I remember those runs.
1:00:41
Yeah, but I also remember Gretzky's runs.
1:00:43
So Ray Biles versus. LeBron.
1:00:48
LeBron, Alright. Tiger versus Jordan.
1:00:53
They're same. They're the same.
1:00:56
They're the same. We're going to go with Jordan.
1:00:59
This is going to this is going to turn into a LeBron versus
1:01:01
Jordan argument. There you go.
1:01:05
I got there, but there's only one right answer.
1:01:07
But it's just, yeah. LeBron versus.
1:01:10
Jordan, Oh man. I think that the argument is
1:01:19
always that Jordan is better than LeBron and I think on some
1:01:26
levels he absolutely is. I also think that if you put
1:01:30
them in the exact same place at the exact same time, I think
1:01:34
LeBron, which would edge him out in physicality, like as an
1:01:39
athlete, I think he edges him out as a cut your throat
1:01:43
competitor. Jordan does every time.
1:01:45
So I'm going to say Jordan because that mental game is like
1:01:49
half the game and no matter. So when the 30 for 30 comes out
1:01:54
about LeBron, there's not going to be anyone saying and then I
1:01:58
said that about Jordan and then he took it personally.
1:02:00
That's never going to be a thing.
1:02:02
But we all know the stories. And then I took it personally
1:02:06
and and he did. Maybe the way I see it is back,
1:02:11
if LeBron was back then and he's going up against Karl Malone and
1:02:16
Rick Mahorn and Charles Oakley and Charles Barkley out of it, I
1:02:20
think it would be a different story versus now 'cause the
1:02:24
players they built like they were back then.
1:02:26
But that's just me. It's a whole different animal.
1:02:29
I think you're right to a. Degree, but you have to put him
1:02:32
in the place and the time. So you're taking like nowadays
1:02:35
LeBron who was fostered in that environment of fouling and stuff
1:02:40
like that. He's not getting mugged on the
1:02:42
court into the time when he gets mugged in the court, then that's
1:02:46
a valid argument. But if you take the player and
1:02:48
he grows up in the time when the mugging is going to happen, he's
1:02:52
going to be a mugger too, except he's going to be like a six foot
1:02:55
6200 and 40 LB bugger or whatever he is at this point.
1:03:02
It's. But then nutrition is also.
1:03:05
Different too. So there's too many variables,
1:03:07
too many variables, you know, workout regiments are.
1:03:09
Different you're spending $1,000,000 working out, so 100%
1:03:14
enjoying cigars every day. Got a Got a yoga.
1:03:17
Instructor on staff and you got massages 3 times a day nowadays
1:03:22
and before it was just like we're going out.
1:03:27
All right, all. Right, your therapy session is
1:03:29
over. If you want to promote your
1:03:31
website or anything else, you can definitely do that at this
1:03:33
time. Sure, you can find me at.
1:03:36
Btlees.com, BTLE, ighs.com. You can also just search for
1:03:45
B.T. Leigh's on Google and I'll come
1:03:47
up. I'll come up matter of fact, you
1:03:49
search for what is it? Stuffed jalapenos, Smoked
1:03:52
stuffed jalapenos. I think I'm first on the
1:03:55
Internet for that so holler. At me you want some.
1:03:59
Flavor. You don't want to feel like crap
1:04:01
afterwards. I got you.
1:04:03
Oh yeah. I'm gonna definitely check.
1:04:05
Out 'cause we just had tacos Friday and I was like using a
1:04:09
little packet. So I'm like, man, I'm, I'm
1:04:12
going. To tell you right now, my Taco
1:04:14
seasoning is like, this is one of the sleepers of my brand like
1:04:18
it's. People come back, they come.
1:04:22
Back solely for that. I just had someone recently send
1:04:24
me a message saying, hey, when's your large version of Taco
1:04:27
coming back? Because we need it for the
1:04:29
quarter. We, they go through three of
1:04:31
them or one of them every three months.
1:04:33
We're talking the kilo restaurant size because you hit
1:04:36
Taco Tuesday every Tuesday. You know that all takes a
1:04:39
tablespoon for a pound of ground instead of the quarter cup.
1:04:44
So it, it flavors it, it does great.
1:04:46
I just released a black bean recipe with it that's really
1:04:50
doing work in our house right now.
1:04:53
Yeah. Sounds good I.
1:04:55
Definitely appreciate you coming on and sharing your story and
1:04:58
your products and just helping people out there with everything
1:05:02
that you see it. So I definitely appreciate you.
1:05:04
Absolutely. I appreciate you.
1:05:06
Too. It's been fun.
1:05:08
Yeah, definitely. I try to make it different from
1:05:10
other podcasts and ask the follow up question and find out
1:05:14
so we can find out more about the person and not just the
1:05:17
generic stuff about the person and let them tell their story
1:05:22
instead of just oh so what's going on and without having
1:05:25
actual questions for the person. That's nice.
1:05:29
Being led to the narrative versus where is it going to go
1:05:33
exactly, did you ask? That yeah, yeah, I wasn't.
1:05:41
Expecting that one. Yeah.
1:05:43
Yeah, I try to do it. Differently I shifted and do it
1:05:46
my way. Yeah, that's and that's.
1:05:48
Great, because then everything is a comparison.
1:05:51
You have a baseline and then you can grow it from there.
1:05:54
That's amazing. I didn't think I would be.
1:05:57
I don't know where that's going, but I'm going to keep rolling
1:05:59
with it until we see so everybody until.
1:06:05
ESPN. Calling, there you go.
1:06:07
To somebody call. There you go.
1:06:10
There you go. Goals squad.
1:06:12
Goals. BBQ American BBQ.
1:06:15
Showdown Host. That's what I'm trying to.
1:06:18
Do wholesome things and just get out there and do something
1:06:22
different from just sitting here all the time trying to work on
1:06:26
doing a mobile thing at comps and different places that have
1:06:30
BBQ stuff. Yeah, all those cops are like a.
1:06:32
Whole other ball game too. We get asked quite often how do
1:06:36
you do competitions. I say no I do not.
1:06:40
Had a friend whose parents were really big golfers and they sunk
1:06:46
all their money into going on golf trips and stuff like that.
1:06:49
They ended up selling all their golf equipment and going into
1:06:53
the competition BBQ scene, and they spend more money doing that
1:06:57
than they do golfing across the country every weekend.
1:07:01
Like, it's a ridiculous amount of spend to get it right, you
1:07:07
know? Have you ever integer?
1:07:09
Sauces and roasts in American Royal Sauce and Royal Contest.
1:07:13
Yeah, I'm pretty sure we top 10. American Royal for vinegar.
1:07:18
I think it was vinegar. I do have a friend that does
1:07:21
KCBS competition cotton barbecue and he rolls my stuff every once
1:07:25
in a while. So, so if there's a sauce
1:07:29
category, he'll just enter one of mine.
1:07:32
And we recently came in third, I think at Murfreesboro.
1:07:35
I think it was Murfreesboro maybe.
1:07:38
I mean, not for sure on that. He'll there's no BBQ team that's
1:07:44
using a single thing out there, so he'll pepper meat in places,
1:07:49
so I'm grateful for that. But that's.
1:07:53
Just that's an alchemy. That I just, they can't do.
1:07:57
They can't do it. I also don't want that thing
1:08:02
ruined for me because so much flavor has to be shoved into
1:08:08
that single bite like I had. I sponsored the KCBS competition
1:08:12
here in Bowling Green a couple times and I got to taste the
1:08:17
winning brisket and I'm like, this is not what I couldn't eat
1:08:21
a plate to this. I couldn't do it.
1:08:23
I just couldn't do it. It was so like right there and
1:08:26
then the ribs were like 3 bites and I was like, I think I'm
1:08:29
done. I don't just like eating 2
1:08:32
Snickers bars together like it's yeah.
1:08:36
It's different beast. Different beast, Definitely
1:08:39
everybody. That's out there.
1:08:40
Hey can I? Taste it.
1:08:41
I was like, I don't know if you want to like, just know it's
1:08:43
good, but it's not the Ridge you're looking for.
1:08:46
Yeah, it's true. No other.
1:08:48
Thing I think this world class is the chicken because the best
1:08:51
piece of chicken I had in my life was from a competition
1:08:55
going to one of the classes I went to.
1:08:57
So I was like, chickens are hard.
1:09:00
One to nail. Nailing that skin is difficult.
1:09:06
It's also a huge process, taking the skin off, scraping the skin,
1:09:10
making sure everything's perfect, perfect width to crisp
1:09:13
up nicely and not get super soggy with the glaze and bite
1:09:17
through. And yeah, like a perfect
1:09:19
rectangle. And perfect rectangle.
1:09:22
Perfect little parcel package. All the little tips and tricks
1:09:26
like I I like to study that. I will never do that.
1:09:31
I will never do that, not at all.
1:09:34
Yeah, it's a whole different. Animal and those going around,
1:09:37
if you don't take it seriously, you're going to be wasting
1:09:39
thousands of dollars every competition.
1:09:43
Yeah, absolutely you. Come in loaded for bear on that
1:09:47
and serious. Although that's also interesting
1:09:50
because every single one of those I've ever had the pleasure
1:09:54
of being ancillary to being around, they all turn into
1:09:57
parties. Like it's just, it all seems to
1:10:00
be like someone's bringing a bottle of tequila and.
1:10:05
Because they're smoking. Through the night and they're
1:10:06
going to do it one way or another.
1:10:08
We had, we had. I set up my booth for sales at
1:10:15
the KCBS competition here because it was open to the
1:10:18
public. And it was so funny to me how
1:10:23
many of the competitors came up to me and said you've got some
1:10:27
big balls setting up a BBQ sauce and rub company at a KCBS
1:10:33
competition. And I said have you tried it
1:10:36
yet? And they're like no.
1:10:38
And then they'll end up walking away with a bottle or two.
1:10:41
We had a AKCBS master judge come up and he tried everything,
1:10:48
didn't give any indication whether he liked it or not, Said
1:10:52
thank you, walked away, came back 30 minutes later with every
1:10:57
single other judge. Every every other judge came and
1:11:03
he's tried that one and that one and they all walked with those
1:11:06
three products. And then he said you would.
1:11:11
Never. You could never do KCBS with
1:11:14
your stuff. He's it's just not it's not
1:11:19
there. Not that it's not there, but
1:11:22
it's not that flavor profile. He's it's too.
1:11:26
There's too much going on. It's just not sweet for sweet
1:11:29
sake. So it feels like you think in a
1:11:31
bigger picture. The people in the there are more
1:11:33
people in the backyard versus yeah, 100% a. 100%, absolutely,
1:11:38
absolutely. I'm sure I could come up with
1:11:40
something that was geared solely for competition.
1:11:42
I'm sure I could if I bent my brain to it.
1:11:46
I'm sure I could crush out something that.
1:11:49
Maybe we'll compete with Blue's hog.
1:11:51
I don't know, but I give them a run for their money on it.
1:11:55
But that's just not my interest. It's not what I want to do.
1:11:58
And weekend warriors and soccer moms, that's the that's the area
1:12:02
that we're at. OK, More people cooking.
1:12:04
The house than outside. Yeah, yeah, yeah, All right.
1:12:10
But definitely appreciate your time and sharing it with me.
1:12:12
But on that note, everybody, we'll see you next episode.
1:12:17
All right, I built something onto my podcast that every BBQ
1:12:21
brand should be a part of. It's called the BBQ Therapy
1:12:24
Smoke Showdown bracket. 16 meats you cook on the grill go head to
1:12:29
head and every guest picks their winner.
1:12:32
It's one of the most engaging parts of the show.
1:12:35
Every guest plays and every listener loves it.
1:12:37
Because No2 brackets are the same.
1:12:40
Now I'm opening it up for a presenting sponsor, meaning your
1:12:44
brand becomes part of the segment every single show.
1:12:47
This isn't just an ad, this becomes part of the show.
1:12:51
And if you're interested, reach out to Tavis Bryant at
1:12:54
barbecuetherapypodcast@gmail.com. Thank you.
1:12:59
Thank you for joining us for another therapy session.
1:13:02
And remember, like, follow and subscribe to help the BBQ
1:13:06
Therapy community and also visit our website at
1:13:09
www.barbecuetherapypodcast.com.