Bens Bio
BEN’S BBQ & CATERING COMPANY ©2009
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Why I love BBQ.
I was fortunate enough to be exposed to BBQ at an early age from my father Ben who was raised as a sharecropper as one of eleven on the border of Southampton County, Virginia and Northampton County, North Carolina. I had the benefit of spending summers there and exposure to Southern living and agriculture. Although the area is known as peanut country, my memories include helping to make sausage, picking watermelons, inflicting whelps on my arms and legs by running through corn fields, feeding the hogs, eating BBQ and Southern Cuisine and avoiding the outhouse as long as possible.
When back in New Jersey, I assisted my father with his metal shop in the garage. He made BBQ pits and was known for skills as a pit master. We often held family reunions and barbeques with no shortage of moonshine or BBQ. These are some of the many influences that shaped my love for a family and cultural tradition that embraces each other, God, the outdoors and BBQ. Four years at the University of Virginia on a football scholarship provided me with more opportunities to fall in love with Southern BBQ. We were fed like cattle as happy chattel.
As an adult, I travel the United States in search for good BBQ and Southern Cuisine and have eaten it in the Carolinas, Memphis, Kansas City, Louisiana, rural Illinois and Texas and all points worth its salt in between. I enjoy the various regional differences, idiosyncrasies and myths the wonderful world of BBQ has to offer. BBQ opinions may very well start more arguments than politics, sex and religion put together.
I’ve always had an interest in the culinary arts and often prepared meals for friends and family upon request. The requests blossomed from friend’s friends and so forth and so on. In 2003, I began taking recreational cooking classes at the Institute of Culinary Education and I continue to do so today. Cooking is a passion of mine and BBQ is a cuisine I enjoy preparing the most. It takes soul, time and patience. Most are not willing to do what it takes to produce quality BBQ because it’s not necessarily time or cost effective. I relish what it takes with an affinity to detail and can’t think about doing anything better with my time.
I am proud to continue the tradition and legacy of producing quality Southern BBQ and preserving an American art form and national treasure. Simply put, BBQ is a way of life.
Many are called.....few are chosen. Let me exceed your expectations. I am proud to continue the tradition.
Yours truly,
Ben
Member of:
The National BBQ Association
The Kansas City Barbeque Society
Official Kansas City Barbeque Society Judge
I was fortunate enough to be exposed to BBQ at an early age from my father Ben who was raised as a sharecropper as one of eleven on the border of Southampton County, Virginia and Northampton County, North Carolina. I had the benefit of spending summers there and exposure to Southern living and agriculture. Although the area is known as peanut country, my memories include helping to make sausage, picking watermelons, inflicting whelps on my arms and legs by running through corn fields, feeding the hogs, eating BBQ and Southern Cuisine and avoiding the outhouse as long as possible.
When back in New Jersey, I assisted my father with his metal shop in the garage. He made BBQ pits and was known for skills as a pit master. We often held family reunions and barbeques with no shortage of moonshine or BBQ. These are some of the many influences that shaped my love for a family and cultural tradition that embraces each other, God, the outdoors and BBQ. Four years at the University of Virginia on a football scholarship provided me with more opportunities to fall in love with Southern BBQ. We were fed like cattle as happy chattel.
As an adult, I travel the United States in search for good BBQ and Southern Cuisine and have eaten it in the Carolinas, Memphis, Kansas City, Louisiana, rural Illinois and Texas and all points worth its salt in between. I enjoy the various regional differences, idiosyncrasies and myths the wonderful world of BBQ has to offer. BBQ opinions may very well start more arguments than politics, sex and religion put together.
I’ve always had an interest in the culinary arts and often prepared meals for friends and family upon request. The requests blossomed from friend’s friends and so forth and so on. In 2003, I began taking recreational cooking classes at the Institute of Culinary Education and I continue to do so today. Cooking is a passion of mine and BBQ is a cuisine I enjoy preparing the most. It takes soul, time and patience. Most are not willing to do what it takes to produce quality BBQ because it’s not necessarily time or cost effective. I relish what it takes with an affinity to detail and can’t think about doing anything better with my time.
I am proud to continue the tradition and legacy of producing quality Southern BBQ and preserving an American art form and national treasure. Simply put, BBQ is a way of life.
Many are called.....few are chosen. Let me exceed your expectations. I am proud to continue the tradition.
Yours truly,
Ben
Member of:
The National BBQ Association
The Kansas City Barbeque Society
Official Kansas City Barbeque Society Judge
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