My partner Nadine and I started ‘The Big Smoke BBQ Co’, back in 2010. I’ve always had a passion for great food and wanted to do something with this. Originality was the key to setting up our Gourmet mobile BBQ catering company, which was built around a custom US built, portable commercial grade BBQ and smoker, one of only a few of its type in the New Zealand market (at the time). Our BBQ Smoker pit provided that ‘Wow’ factor we were after and we’re all about delivering quality food, with tasty flavour combinations, cooked low and slow over wood and charcoal. Since kicking off in 2010 the company has grown steadily, with our main focus now being weddings and corporate functions, although we do still cater events too. We’re based in the Bay of Plenty and Auckland. Carl Edwards is my business partner in Auckland and he runs our Auckland branch.
It’s been a lot of hard work over the last 8 1/2 years but I can honestly say I love my job. I enjoy meeting new people and cooking for large groups and all the hard work that goes into creating a menu from scratch. I’ve had some awesome road trips over in the United States (in the name of research) and visited a lot of BBQ restaurants. I love getting behind the scenes with the pitmasters and listening to their story and how they started out.
I consider myself very lucky to be a member in team Moe Cason at Memphis in May World BBQ Championship. I have competed with Moe and his team for the last couple of years and this year he asked me to be a full time member. Moe is a great guy and despite all his fame he is a genuine honest person and will speak to anyone and everyone and treat them like family. I have learnt a lot from Moe, as well as the rest of the team. Memphis in May is a fantastic experience and was a bucket list thing for me to go to, let alone compete.
The Big Smoke BBQ Co is growing steadily and this year we have added a new full commercial kitchen trailer and a BBQ truck to our fleet.
Our motto is we can only go bigger and badder so wait until next year to see what else we have planned!