HOLY SMOKE
In 2006 when I retired from the family insurance business after 28 years I had no idea what path God had in store for the next phase of my life. I didn’t golf, hunt or fish. The only hobby I really had was one my wife Vickie and I shared as Certified Barbecue Judges for the Kansas City BBQ Society and the Memphis BBQ Network, which started in 2002. We judged around twenty-five to thirty contest per year. We enjoyed BBQ so much that we earned our Master Judges designation within a year of being certified and have currently judged over 250 contests.
Barbecuing has always been of interest to me. I did a lot of smoking and grilling at home for special occasions for family and friends. Being a BBQ judge gave me the opportunity to improve my cooking skills by learning from some of the best competition BBQ teams in the nation. I was even fortunate enough to be invited to cook with some of the teams.
After retirement, calls begin coming in on a regular basis for me to cook. While I could master the meat for almost any catering, I needed help with the other aspects. Fortunately my brother in law Kenny Martin came to my rescue with his 28 years of experience in the food industry. With Kenny’s expertise we were able to expand our services to include any type of catering from corporate functions to weddings. We no longer just offered BBQ. I didn’t take long before I realized that my so called hobby had become a full-time business. In 2008 Holy Smoke LLC was incorporated to offer catering services for all types of events small to large.
With constant demand from my customers to recommend a sauce and a rub, I decided it was time to develop my own products. With the assistance of my BBQ friend, Bill Arnold of Blue’s Hog BBQ, we developed Holy Smoke BBQ Sauce and Dry Rub Seasoning. Bill is the guru of sauce and rub formulas and I was blessed to have his expertise in the development of Holy Smoke BBQ Sauce and Rub.
Holy Smoke LLC continues to grow. We have expanded our product lines to include Sweet BBQ Sauce, Sweet Rub and our famous BBQ Pickles. We have also organized our own competition team. While we don’t get to compete in a lot of contests due to our busy catering business, we have been fortunate to win some competitions.
If you had told me that this insurance man was going to become a BBQ cook, and caterer I would have laughed at you. In the beginning I said I had no idea what path God had for the next phase of my life, but God knew. Holy Smoke LLC is a blessing from above. We look forward to doing a catering for you in the near future.