Leroy Myers- Prior to 2004 I was the average backyard barbequer. More of the hit or miss type. Depending on the amount of alcohol consumption involved. Grilling mainly during holidays. Noticed I said grilling. Yes, I was once a griller, but since have converted to smoking. There will always be a place for grilling which I still do,but if you match a master griller against a master smoker the smoker would win everytime . Especially in a sanctioned barbeque contest. Well...Early in 2004 while at work a bunch of co-workers and myself were sitting around the breakroom talking about who cooks the best barbeque. From that conversation Hassan and I formed Da' Kings of Q barbeque competition team. Another co-worker bought an Oklahoma Joe's smoker from Sam's Club. It's a well built backyard type unit. Hassan bought one as well, so not wanting to left out I bought one too. The only problem was that the cooking capacity just wasn't there for what we were planning to do, and just being converted to smoking I didn't care too much for the fire box being located on the side. One side of the pit was too hot, the other side not hot enough. One of the biggest obstacles to over come was the time it takes for the food to cook. You have to acquire patients when smoking. Hassan came up with the idea of going in together to buy a trailer mounted smoker. I thought that to be a good idea. Since after researching smokers the prices were pretty steep. I ran the idea by my financial adviser (my wife) and she came up with the idea that I should buy one on my own. I hit the internet, I came across the Jedmaster 2662 and was hooked, but after several attempts to reach the company for quotes and information something just didn't seem right with the company, so I came across Southern Yankee. Response to my questions were answered quickly. I put together a unit right on their web site. They came back with a $15,000.00 price tag. Now my wife was very supportive but I didn't think paying $15,000.00 for a barbeque pit would fly, so I took off some of the options and brought the price down to $9,500.00. She said this was doable. So my wife and I drove to Indiana and picked it up and thus Big Bertha came into the picture.
Hassan Shaheed- Was bitten by the barbeque bug sometime in 2002 or 2003 when he and a co-worker attended a barbeque competition cooking class given by the barbeque guru Paul Kirk
Cedric Choice- My homeboy. Cedric and I graduated from McClymonds HS in Oakland, CA. in 1977. Cedric swears by the grill and I credit my success to techniques stolen from him. He tried to hide them from me but when you have quick eyes nothing is safe. Well anyway Cedric helps me when I have a job too large, and need backup. oh yea I'm trying to convert him to smoking.
