The Pitmaster's Podcast

Weez's Groovin' BBQ is a the brainchild of Brian Calhoun Backyard Competition master pit master. He is a caterer and competition BBQ guy who is known for his delicious smoked meats, including brisket, pulled pork, and ribs. They also offer a variety of sides, such as mac and cheese, coleslaw, and potato salad. Weez's Groovin' BBQ has been featured in a number of publications, including Chicago Magazine and Eater Chicago. They have also been awarded several accolades, including "Best Barbecue in Chicago" by Chicago Magazine and "Best Ribs in Chicago" by Eater Chicago. Weez's Groovin' BBQ isn't your average barbecue brand. It's a place where good times and feel-good flavors come together in perfect harmony. Founded by Brian "Weez" Calhoun infuses his product line with a fun, musical vibe. High-Quality BBQ, is Weez's focus bringing delicious, expertly smoked meats and all the fixings with twists of flavor. The fun and upbeat attitude is all about creating a positive and enjoyable experience. Fire up the grill, throw on some classic tunes, and smoke up a rack of Weez's Groovin' Baby Back Ribs. Sounds like a groovin' good time!

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

This is starting our 18th year into the cooking journey. We are based out of Sidney in Western Nebraska. I have cooked all my life and it became more of an obsession than a passion. I love to challenge myself and to learn new things. Before jumping into cooking full time I taught at the college level for 10 years and used my students to testing new ideas. Jimmy L's has a team of 13 dedicated individuals that makes magic happen across the board. We run 4 food trailers across 5 states around 60+ events during the summer months, ranging from big to small. Sturgis motor cycle rally to our local county fair, we also have a large catering operation that we run year round. We run a seasonal restaurant in the winter on Friday nights as well. We turn 10's of thousands of pounds of meat out a year, we only cook certified beef mostly from Greater Omaha and we are very well known for our brisket. We use the Herefords and the majority of those are from Nebraska so we know we are for sure cooking American beef. That allows us to bring the best product to the consumer. Our team drives Jimmy L's success, they are an amazing group of individuals that have dedicated themselves to making our company as efficient and successful as possible. We operate with a very easygoing, intense, and fun loving attitude as you probably can see from our social media accounts. I do not believe in self proclaiming that we have the best brisket or bbq, I prefer to let the Jimmy L's customers speak on our behalf and they do. We make everything from scratch and only use top quality ingredients. One of my pet peeves is people who say they are selling prime rib but serve you a choice piece of meat. Prime rib comes from a prime grade piece of meat other than that it's just a rib roast. I feel that in the BBQ world shortcuts such as this are starting to become the norm.

I'm Raymond Patterson. I've been competing in Steak Cookoff Association events since 2019. What started as a love for cooking quickly turned into a passion for traveling, meeting great people, and building lifelong friendships through the BBQ community. What I enjoy most about competing is the people. The camaraderie, the shared knowledge, and being able to help others improve their cooks is what really keeps me coming back. I genuinely enjoy helping people, whether it's on the competition trail or through teaching. I also teach a steak cooking class on BBQChamps.com, where I help cooks at all levels sharpen their skills and gain confidence on the grill.

We're Big John's BBQ out of Las Vegas. I am the head pit master - Big John Bowman. My BBQ journey started in Kansas City in 2009 when my wife Kim worked with the marketing agency for the American Royal BBQ—so I got to meet and taste BBQ from top competitors, and I was instantly hooked. I bought a cheap offset smoker, started learning everything I could, and when we moved back home to Vegas, it grew from cooking for friends and church gatherings into catering events and weddings. In 2015, I launched Big John's competition bbq team and started competing. Since then we've done numerous Nevada BBQ Association events, 16 KCBS contests, and a few SCA events, with highlights like 1st place brisket at the 2024 Golden State Battle in Hollister, CA, and Grand Champion at the 2025 KCBS BBQ Jackpot in Las Vegas. We're currently ranked 4th in the KCBS Master Series—and we're a family team: my wife Kim, my parents Rocky and Sandy, and my Brother Doug.

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

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

Named #1 by The Underseasoned BBQ show's 150 most influential people in bbq Daniel Vaughn is the barbecue editor for Texas Monthly and arguably the most influential voice in smoked meat today. He didn't just define what great barbecue is, but helped create the culture of standing in line for it. • Barbecue Editor at Texas Monthly and the only full-time barbecue journalist in the U.S. • Author of The Prophets of Smoked Meat and co-author of Whole Hog BBQ • Current editor of the Texas Monthly Top 50 known the bible of barbecue in Texas, and therefore, the world • Curator of the Texas Monthly BBQ Festival, held annually since 2010

I've been in the competitive scene for five years now. In 2022, I clinched the coveted title of Team of the Year in Brisket from the Champions Barbecue Alliance Association. Over the past few years, I've proudly secured two top-3 brisket finishes at the fiercely competitive San Antonio Rodeo, where the stakes are high with nearly 300 teams competing. What really keeps me going, though, is the bond I've formed with fellow BBQ enthusiasts. It's not just about winning. It's about the friendships and sense of community we've built.

At Fat Plate BBQ, everything began with a passion for outdoor cooking. What began as a weekend hobby in our own backyard quickly turned into a passion for creating bold and creative flavors that help make your next cook your best cook. I first caught the BBQ bug over a decade and a half ago, after buying a used Primo Oval XL from Craigslist. Probably 35 different cookers later, Fat Plate BBQ was born. Somewhere in the middle of that timeline, I started competing in as many sanctioned and unsanctioned BBQ contests as I could find. Just as my competition journey was picking up, COVID hit and shut down most comps anywhere near me. My desire to continue scratching that BBQ itch manifested itself in a slightly different way. With a background in tech, I decided to use the pandemic caused downtime to start an online BBQ supply store: boostyourbbq.com. Boost Your BBQ put me in a unique position to work with highly successful teams and contacts from all across the country. I was able to use my knowledge of competition BBQ to source products, help others on their BBQ journey, and just straight up learn everything I could. At this time, the SCA had a heavy presence on the East Coast, and I started competing regularly there. Personal commitments started demanding more of my time. I was lucky enough to become a father of two kids that I wanted to spend more time with, but also my parents' health began to rapidly decline, so I sold Boost Your BBQ and took a step back from competing. My wife and I cater upon request using our line of seasonings we've spent years perfecting, and I never wanted anyone to run out of food or feel like the BBQ wasn't a good value, so we have become known for our large portion sizes (a big old fat plate of BBQ), so Fat Plate BBQ it was. Our line of seasonings have been developed from our competition recipes and feedback from highly successful KCBS teams. Fat Plate BBQ rubs have helped many teams win MULTIPLE GC's, RGC's, 180's and Golden Tickets. Our Beef Blanket rub was part of the recipe for the FIRST EVER DOUBLE PERFECT SCA scores (West Newton, PA). Our sponsored teams have placed highly at hundreds of KCBS competitions and the Jack. Fat Plate BBQ's main goal is to create killer flavor profiles that don't taste like everything else on the market. We go for creative and unique, but still "covering the bases" to achieve traditional flavor profiles. Our rubs compliment each other, and lend themselves well to layering flavors. Our soon to be released products, really raise the bar and fill the gaps in the rub and sauce categories and add to our unique offerings.

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

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

Misty is a Seattle, Washington native with a love affair with meat. She shares her "Stories of a Seattle meat man's wife" on social platforms and may be better known as @SeattleButchersWife. Her marriage into a 3rd generation meat family was a kickstart for Misty's BBQ journey. Shifting from her long-time career in corporate retail through the pandemic, her passion for grilling became an obsession. Misty combines her creative and engaging talents with her love of smoke and meat. Her mission is to share her journey and to inspire more women to step up to the grill. From live fire to simple pellet grill cooks she's learned tips and tricks to share and has created mouthwatering pictures and videos on social media. When she's not at the grill you can find this backyard BBQ expert traveling or spending quality time with her butcher husband and their 3 children.

Tony Ramirez, also known as TFTI BBQ on social media, has spent nearly twenty years perfecting his backyard barbecue skills in the Bay Area, California. Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Tony is self-taught, inspired by his Filipino and Cajun heritage, his beloved parents, and a passion for BBQ Pitmasters reruns, YouTube tutorials, and personal culinary experiments. What started in 2021 as a hobby of posting BBQ pictures and videos has since evolved into a full-time career, with Tony partnering with major brands like Miller Lite, Char-Griller, Reynolds Brands, and Tony Chachere's. His unique, approachable flavor combinations and techniques, which sometimes bend traditional barbecue "rules," have earned him a beloved spot in the live-fire BBQ community. Find him online on all major social media platforms as TFTI BBQ.

Jared Pullman started How Low Can You Slow back in 2016, with the goal to help everyday grill enthusiasts, make better barbecue in their own backyards. Since then, Jared has worked as a content creator and recipe developer, based primarily on Instagram. Jared is a native of New Zealand, which is where his barbecue journey began. Jared is now based in Boise Idaho and is the founder of the Idaho Barbecue Association-a group committed to building and growing the BBQ community in Idaho and surrounding areas. Jared has worked as an ambassador for brands including Wild Fork Foods, The National Turkey Federation & McCormicks Grillmates. He is a published author, a certified KCBS BBQ Judge and event organizer/wrangler.

Dustin Jones, along with his wife Amanda and their two daughters, Addie and Anna Lois, make up a hardworking family from Mississippi who find joy in life's simple pleasures: good food, great company, and time spent together around the grill. What started as weekend cookouts and a bit of friendly competition soon evolved into something greater—Southern Char Seasonings, a family brand founded on faith, flavor, and tradition. Dustin, a lifelong sales professional and competitive cook, built Southern Char through years of trial, tasting, and genuine passion. From our original Signature Blend to the bold new Garlic Butter Blend, every recipe is handcrafted, competition-tested, and perfected in the kitchen, designed to bring people together and make every meal memorable. At the heart of Southern Char is a simple belief: do things the right way—with family, community, and heart. Whether you're in the backyard, at a cook-off, or gathered around the dinner table, we hope our seasonings add warmth, incredible flavor, and a touch of genuine Southern hospitality to every bite.