Bios
Robert Fernandez (Editor) - Bio
I am a fire obsessed guy, living in Brooklyn, New York, with a dream of producing award winning, competition busting, real barbeque. I’ve been playing with fire since I was a little kid living in the wilds of Long Island. I mastered the technique of campfire building when I was in the Boy Scouts. I loved cooking over the open fire and using strange contraptions like Dutch ovens and cast iron skillets. As I grew older I discovered the worlds of grilling and barbecue. It’s become my obsession. There’s nothing as relaxing to me as sitting and watching a fire.
I take my barbecue and grilling seriously. I’m a BBQ judge certified by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. I compete on the KCBS barbeque circuit and I’m currently putting together a new cooking team.
I’m a member of the New England Barbecue Society. I’ve organized grilling contests, barbecue cooking classes and community bbq’s in New York City. I also maintain a blog about my adventures in cooking called WhiteTrashBBQ. My recipes have appeared in The New York Daily News.
Biggles - aka Guy Prince - Bio
Greetings, Biggles was born and has lived ever since in the San Francisco Bay Area, not exactly barbecue central. In a sea of propane and micro-waved briskets, he took the time to learn how to use wood and/or charcoal to grill and barbecue meat early on. Preparing mounds of glazed or rubbed meaty love continued on a weekly basis, never slowing. Sure there were stellar and award winning hunks, but there were most certainly some flops. One worth mentioning and not necessarily BBQ, was the “Chicken Fried Pork Rib Incident of 1995.” That was so wrong on so many levels. Learn from your mistakes Biggles.
You won’t find recipes or exacting technology in his ramblings. What you will find are homey adventures filled with fun and good food. Sit back, relax, have a cool freshin’ and enjoy yourself.
Need more of my adventures, stop by Meathenge.
Biggles
ChiliBrown - Bio
Chilebrown is my name. Ms. Goofy is my Beautiful Wife. Mojo and Oscar are our two Golden Retriever Lap Dogs. I grow a lot of vegetables and peppers. On the weekends Ms. Goofy and I frequent Farmers Markets. On our vacations. we go on “Meat Adventures”.
My hobbies revolve around food. I would like to share some of my recipes and cooking with you. There will be a lot of posts on barbequing. I will guide you through my garden. I hope to have a lot of fun with you readers. There will be no politics, religion, and or rants. Well maybe a couple of little rants.
You can view more of my Madness at http://madmeatgenius.blogspot.com/
Adam C. Byrd - Bio
In the beginning, the Gods created the heavens and the Earth. In doing so, fire was born. Trillions of Earth years later, man was made to harness the power of that fire to bring joy and gladness upon his fellow people with delectable foods. Galactically speaking, it was a short time later that a boy born in the city of Austin, Texas would rise up to show the world the lengths of what could be done with the fire, and continue the joy and gladness upon his fellow man.
I am that boy, but opinions vary. My name is Adam, and I like to grill. Sparing the usual clever phrases like “A View to a Grill” or “License to Grill” or “Boy Meets Grill,” I just like to say that Me + Grill = Good Times.
I am the publisher of the foodie site, Men in Aprons. Grilling and Barbeque is a large part of the daily subject matter. My mission is to expand the horizon of my fellow grillers, going beyond burgers, steaks, and dogs. I’ll be cooking fruit, vegetables, and desserts on my grill, sometimes even preparing entire meals. For when one perceives his grill as just a big outdoor range, anything is possible.
Matt Fisher - Bio
Living in New York provides me with an amazing array of dining options, and fortunately I enjoy cooking and eating all kinds of foods. At my heart, though, there’s barbecue sauce running in my veins. Us barbecuers are notorious gear-freaks, so I also have a thirst for tools and toys that can’t be quenched.
In addition to writing for Get Your Grill On, I am also the editor for The Cook’s Kitchen, another site in the Well Fed Network. My food writing appears on my blog, The Hampton Smoker, and has also been published in the New York Press.
I’ve organized cooking classes, as well as New York City’s first sanctioned barbecue contest, Grillin’ on the Bay, which is held every spring in Brooklyn. When not making a mess in the kitchen, I’m usually munching some kind of snack with my wife, Amy, and our cat, Lois. We live in Queens, New York and love exploring the East End of Long Island.
Larry Gaian - Bio
My name is Larry Gaian and I’m just a normal Northern California guy looking to make the best backyard BBQ I can. My interest in BBQ goes back to the three years I spent at Fort Hood, Texas in the mid-1970’s where I was an Army journalist. It was at Willie Nelson’s famous picnic I tasted my first brisket. From that point on I was hooked. I’ve been interested in BBQ ever since.
At this point I enjoy cooking for others as much as anything. The thrill of introducing friends to “real” down home BBQ is the best part of cooking. You can read about my journey from “poser to pitmaster” on my blog, The BBQ Grail.
I’m also a member of the California BBQ Association and the Kansas City BBQ Society. I own four smokers, an old reliable gasser and a trusty Weber kettle and they all get used every week.
My BBQ goal for 2008 is to become a Certified BBQ Judge. In my real life I’m Director of Training for a large national office equipment distributor.
Gary Goldblatt - Bio
Throughout my life, I’ve always been a collector. First stamps. Then baseball cards. Then the toy cars from my youth. Since food has been a big deal for me from the day I was born, I eventually started “collecting” restaurants, though not in the literal sense. If a magazine published a list of the top 10 burger joints near my home in metro Boston, I’d consider it my personal challenge, like a checklist that had to be completed. I had to visit them all. Gourmet magazine’s top 50 restaurants in America? Same deal. Chinese? Just let me know when we’re going. High brow, low brow, you name it, I love it.
But I keep coming back to barbecue, whose appeal has outshined and outlasted all the rest. There’s just something about that balance between the simplicity of the meat, the intensity of the spices and that backdrop of wood and smoke that does it for me– when it’s done right. A few years ago, I set a goal to find and try every barbecue restaurant within New England or within a half hour of its borders in New York and New Jersey.
It was more than just collecting; it was a quest to find the best barbecue possible. I’d try new places on business trips, on the way back from beach trips, on the way home from my in-laws in New York, and on trips designed specifically for new barbecue discoveries. One difference between collecting actual objects and restaurants is that with the latter, you can share your finds with others. I started sharing my finds informally and, long story short, I wound up launching the website www.pigtrip.net to share my thoughts with barbecue fans across the Northeast region.
I own my own smoker and I cook outdoors as often as I can, using rubs and sauces I’ve created in my head. I spent parts of two years as a junior member on an award winning competition barbecue team. I’m a certified KCBS barbecue judge. Someday, I’ll have my own team, and I promise to kick some serious butt. I’m honored to be invited to write for Get Your Grill On, and hope I can live up to the same high standard that’s already been set. I look forward to sharing my thoughts and experiences, from barbecue restaurant tables to my own backyard.
Andy Groneman - Bio
I don’t know if I could quite call BBQ my obsession; born and bred in Kansas City, KS, its almost ingrained. I’ve been interested in cooking since I was a toddler, so the move to the grill and eventually the pit were not too far off. I tried to master spare ribs as a tweener. My Uncle, Father, and a few close friends were the “HoDeDo’s BBQ team” before competitions were in vogue. I learned much of what I know from them, and cook competitions with them today.
In 2000, I started my own competition BBQ team, Smoke on Wheels, with Matt Winterscheid. My 5 year old daughter also grills competitively, and my 3 yr old likes to mix rubs. We cook as many contests as our schedules will allow (15 in 2006). 2006 allowed me to pass a milestone – I have now competed in over 100 contests. When we aren’t competing, the family enjoys camping and heavy metal.
We also try to share as much as possible – providing time/BBQ for everything from United Way to KCPT Public Television, as well as helping organizations like Kooker’s Kare. BBQ, Grilling, love of the flame – they have moved from obsession to lifestyle for me. This art brings family and friends together, and acts as a medium to develop new relationships. Plus, it’s just plain good eats!!
Am I obsessed? Probably – I just can’t see it through the smoke and fire. I do my best to maintain our competition exploits on our team website, and actively post in other bbq forums. Hopefully, I’ll impart some valuable info and some good malarkey here too, as you too Get Your Grill On.
Ty Hillin - Bio
Growing up in Texas, I started cooking and grilling early on. I’ve always enjoyed the aspect of providing a meal for someone. My best cooking memories are being next to my grandmother at the stove, and my grandfather out by the grill or fire. I loved to cook anything outdoors.
As I grew older my fondness for barbecue grew. As a backyard griller/smoker, I provide family and friends the best I can offer.
2007 will be my inaugural year for BBQ competitions. I will be competing under the team Paddlin Pigs BBQ. I have also started maintaining my blog at Paddlin Pigs BBQ .
Todd M. Johns - Bio
My love for cooking was inherited by my maternal grandmother. My family roots run deep in the farm fields and plains of the Midwest. Our meals were earthy, hardy, and filled with love. Though I’m now a corporate professional living in the suburbs of Kansas City, Missouri, those same traditions are present in my food today.
The Pork Pullin Plowboys competition BBQ team was co-founded by my brother-in-law and me in 2002. We’ve enjoyed success as competitors with several top ten finishes, many top 5 category finishes, several blue ribbons, two Reserve Grand Championships and a Grand Championship. Plowboys BBQ, a concession and catering company, was established in 2006. Our championship line of rubs is set to come out in 2007.
I am a member of the Kansas City BBQ Society, a KCBS certified BBQ judge, and the producer of PlowboysBBQ.com
Davekatz - Bio
Yep, I’m a geek - food geek, photography geek, kayaking geek - it doesn’t matter. I always tend to take my interests and hobbies and push them a little bit further. With food, I started out doing little more than bachelor survival cooking, but I always had a taste for the good stuff.
Over the years, I’ve figured out how to put it consistently on the table and I’ve gotten a lot of joy out of pushing my abilities, learning new skills, developing new recipes, and making tasty chow for friends and family.
Of all the cooking techniques I’ve explored, it’s hard to beat live fire cooking. Food + fire = good. From grilling ribeyes, to smoking pork butts, to roasting turkeys - there’s just something special about what fire and smoke does to food. After cooking my way through several Weber kettle grills, my dear wife rewarded my interest in grilling by surprising me on our 10th anniversary with the gift of a large Big Green Egg.
We’ve had a lot of fun putting this versatile ceramic cooker through its paces, and maintain a website featuring a selection of our recipes and descriptions of some of our cooks: http://www.ramblekatz.com.
Chuck Marting - Bio
Chuck has been a BBQ enthusiast since the time he was in high school and worked next door to a BBQ shack and become addicted to the distinctive taste of wood smoked BBQ. Over the next few years Chuck spent countless hours and tested numerous experiments with family and friends in his attempt to master the art of cooking BBQ.Because of these experiences and at the encouragement of family and friends Chuck began competing in BBQ contests. Today Bossman Bar-B-Que competes in KCBS sanctioned events as well as local unsanctioned contests with favorable results taking reserve grand champion at his second contest.With the encouragement of family and friends
Chuck and his family have a BBQ catering/consulting business which focuses on providing clients with a unique and quality BBQ experience, especially for those who have never experienced the true eating experience of wood smoked BBQ. Chuck is a member of Kansas City BBQ Society and the Rocky Mountain Barbecue Association. He lives in Colorado with his wife and children.
Curt McAdams - Bio
I have always enjoyed cooking, something I learned from my mom. It wasn’t until I got turned on to natural lump charcoal that my grilling passion was discovered. I couldn’t do enough on the grill. Then I got a smoker, and there’s been no holding me back! I try to cook just about anything I can on one or the other.
With my teammate, Mark, our barbecue team The Bucky McOinkum’s Barbeque Team has competed in Kansas City Barbecue Society events for the last 2 seasons. We’ve had some success, having won a couple of awards. We’re continuing to improve and working hard to provide better barbecue all the time. My wife and I are also certified KCBS barbecue judges.
Other than barbecue, I love cooking all kinds of things, and I’m now also learning to make artisan breads. I’ve even started teaching cooking classes. One of the great things about the barbecue world is how much people are willing to share, which I also try to do on my blog, Bucky’s Barbecue Blog.
Neil Murray - Bio
I’m married with four kids and hail from Down Under, Melbourne, Australia that is. Cooking has been my lifelong passion and hobby. Even though it’s not my career, I have wanted to know about every aspect of it. Before blogging came along with its freedom to write about food in any way, shape or form, food articles of mine were published in a major newspaper, The Age. The name of my own blog is At My Table which came about when I wanted to write to please myself.
My first ever memory of barbecue was as a young boy one Christmas, when mum decided to have one made. It arose from the ashes of a steel 44 gallon drum cut in half lengthways with an angle grinder and legs and things were welded to it, right there in our backyard. Men, power tools, barbecue. It left a lifelong impression. That first baby took a whole sack of charcoal and the sides glowed red hot.
It only got better from there.
Cate O’Malley - Bio
For as long as I can remember, I have loved writing and yearned to be a freelance journalist when I grew up. When I moved out on my own for the first time, I discovered a second passion … cooking. Now, many years later, I still have a love for both and started my site, Sweetnicks, in an effort to combine them. I have a slight, ahem, obsession with cookbooks, food/cooking magazines, and, well, anything related to food. Joining the food blogging community, and now Paper Palate and Food Bound … it’s great to be among others who get the obsession. My site’s name comes from my 4-year-old son, Nicholas, who loves to help me in the kitchen almost as much as he loves Dora, Spiderman and his girlfriend.
Scott Phillips - Bio
Scott has been eating his own cooking for over twenty five years and has thus far managed not to starve or poison himself. In the process, his interest in food and cooking has exceeded what most people would consider healthy.
While he’s right at home in the kitchen, don’t be surprised if you find him smoking up the back yard with his trusty Weber. Cow, fish, fowl, or pig, are all fair game when he gets his grill on. Scott lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee with his wife, her cats, and their dogs. When he’s not cooking or eating, he also writes his own blog, Sugar and Lard.
Bryan Rice - Bio
Lucky enough to have a backyard in Queens, New York City, slow smoking barbecue has been my hobby, my escape, and my obsession. With my team, the Better BBQ Bureau, I compete in sanctioned bbq competitions and am constantly fascinated by the multitude of different styles, methods, and traditions on display at these events. Every year I rule the smokers and grills as the Pitmaster of the PlayaQ, a multi-disciplinary performance based BBQ at the Burning Man art festival. As a food-science geek and lover of gadgets, you will most likely find me in that backyard of mine fiddling with my latest barbeque experiments as smoke pours out of my smokers
Melody Wren - Bio
As a child of British parents, I grew up on a repetitive weekly schedule of Shepherd’s Pie, Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding, liver with onions and fish and chips, all washed down with bucket-loads of tea.
Once I left the nest at 19 and had my first apartment, I was baking bread, making my own jams and experimenting with everything food related.
Now my life actually revolves around food. I have an enthusiasm for cooking and baking, few understand. I read cookbooks like novels, tear recipes and cooking ideas from newspapers and magazines, and constantly search the internet for new recipes, products and trends.
When I travel, my journeys are punctuated by local markets, cafes, restaurants and cooking classes. When dining out, I often end up in the kitchen talking to the chef. Staying in other countries, I avoid hotels, and either rent apartments or houses so I can cook local food.
I have been a freelance food writer forever, and have had two books published: Melody Wren’s Tearooms of Southern Ontario (Boston Mills Press) and Tea for Your Health (Key Porter Publishing), both available through Amazon.com.
My barbeque life started young - charcoal barbeque in the backyard, with my father wearing a chef’s hat and apron, driving his Norton motorbike through the grass, while the steaks were overcooking. As a young newly wed, my then husband and I vowed that we would never have a gas bbq -we swore it was just wrong, cooking with anything other than charcoal. I marinated every cut of meat, barbequed vegetables, and even tried desserts on the grill. We grew up, and bought a gas barbeque. Now we barbecue all seasons - and here in Canada, it can be challenging, standing outside in -35 in a
snowstorm, but there is nothing like it.
I try to abide by Miss Piggy’s motto: “Never eat more than you can lift.”
