Hi,
I’m SParky and I like BBQ food! Here is an about me…my journey in BBQ

I grew up eating typical British, kinda burnt, BBQ. That’s not to say it wasn’t nice but it certainly is not the BBQ that I cook.

During my 20’s I developed a passion for watching BBQ food on TV….well, not exactly, I was watching Man V Food with Adam Richman and Diners, Drive-ins, n’ Dives on Food Network.
Some of the BBQ food they were showing on there looked amazing, why were we not cooking that?

One day, my dad and I followed an incredibly loose rub recipe from Man V Food and cooked some pork ribs in the oven, including making our own BBQ sauce (I kept secretly adding more sugar when no one was looking) and not only were they delicious, they were juicy and tender, the sauce was amazing and I wanted more.

We’ve eaten at Bodeans after this and I thought I was in BBQ heaven, not knowing where my passion would lead at this point as I have absolutely zero interest in cooking (Yes, I don’t cook, give me an oven and I’m useless).

In 2014, I got engaged to my now wife, we got married in September 2015.
However, is September 2014, my dad and I went on an adventure to Florida, first time in the US for me, we got a really good deal that I could not pass up.
We went hunting for BBQ food and ate some really lovely food but nothing to write home about.

While waiting to get married, my fiancé and I bought a house.
Having grown up in a house of food and hosting for people to come eat, I wanted to continue that and one of the first things we bought was a BBQ.

I did some research and bought what I thought was the best thing to suite trying to do some smoking and grilling.

We moved in, I did some lovely pork with crackling, I got a supermarket rolled brisket, threw it on the BBQ, cooked for a while, ate it and realised I knew nothing. The toughest piece of meat I have ever eaten.

I knew at this point I needed to learn how to BBQ if I wanted to cook more than burgers and sausages.
But I wanted to specifically learn the American way of BBQ. Brisket & Pulled pork and to-die-for Ribs.

And I spent some time doing some research into courses available, and there were a fair few, including one not far from where I lived.
One caught my eye in particular, a 1 or 2 day course, learning about Backyard BBQ on day 1 and Competition BBQ on day 2…Competition BBQ?.

I did more research into this and found a whole new world of BBQ that I knew nothing about, but more on that later.
Day 1 of this course was the one for me. Run by a team who have competed and won globally, Bunch of Swines, the course concentrated on American back yard cooking.

I went and did the Course, came home brimming with ideas, bought a drum smoking kit, won a complete smoking drum too, invited the neighbours, cooked pulled pork and brisket and it really wasn’t that bad but subsequent cooks were not the same and I was trying to do things myself rather than what I had learnt. I was very complacent and had not respected the teaching as I should have.

My dad wanted to do the course the following year, so I booked again for myself as well, determined to learn this time….we booked for day 2 as well…

I did learn better on Day 1. I understood more, I worked things out better and felt far more confident in going home to cook.

Day 2, we had this grand idea of starting a team of our own, we thought “how hard could this be?”
HARD is the answer, it’s hard work and costs a FORTUNE (I mean, cooking brisket does cost a fortune, but competition level costs even more). The amount of time to prep a chicken thigh was what put me off.
That said the taste difference was amazing! Can I put flavour ideas into backyard cooking? Yes, it’s the same things just on a slightly different level so easy to work in.

And that was me, I came home and have not looked back since.

I’m not a chef, I cannot make fancy looking dishes but I can cook BBQ and I cook some great BBQ if I say so myself. Yes I’ve had better than mine, I always expect I will. I am overly critical of my own cooking but I know it’s good at heart.

I’ve also since delved into Competition BBQ but as a judge!
I go to competitions and eat some of the best BBQ there is to eat. It’s led me to find new friends, a joint hobby with my wife (thanks to said new friends) and now eating BBQ in other countries (I can’t wait till I can get to the US to eat at some comps there).

Could there one day be a SParky BBQ contest team? Maybe……I’m Kinda looking at it for a British style team but money is still a huge thing and I need to learn to make things look fancy.