The Art and Science of Southern BBQ: An Interview with Barbecue Feast

David: It’s an intensive product to cook, which is one of the reasons it hasn’t been on the menu until now, we like to perfect the process and receipt first. Today we’re trying four different styles. We’re doing some as "burnt ends," similar to a brisket burnt end. For some, we cube the raw product first; for others, we cook them in larger format that we finish on-site. We’ll "flame kiss" those with our flamethrowers and cook them on the rotisseries with charcoal and live fire.

David: It’s a great question. There is some truth to the idea that it’s different from some styles of "authentic" barbecue. But when you serve large groups, you have to look at consistency. Our product is the same this year as it will be next year, realistically the exact same for every event. Does it take flavor out of the meat? No. Is it a better product? Yes, because you’re taking the human error out of it. Our smokers use real wood chips (not pellets) so the end product is the same, if not better, than an authentic pit. We still consider ourselves an authentic Southern BBQ company because we finish the meats on-site on authentic pits with charcoal and wood. Most end-users don’t see the overnight stoking of the fire, but they certainly taste the consistency in the meat.

David: We’ve had these upright smokers since I built our new facility in 2008. We have three of them that hold about 250 pounds of meat each. They have 40 programmable menus. We’ve taken the manufacturer’s base settings and tweaked them over the years to create our own custom programs for different cuts. For example, our briskets slow-smoke for 14 hours and 20 minutes through a seven-stage process. Our bone-in pork butts get an eight to nine-hour smoke.

David: This business is located on a 100-acre farm and stems from an agricultural background. We source as much as we can locally, but the challenge is finding suppliers who can keep up with our volume.

Take our brisket, for example. We always use AAA beef. We work with a niche food distributor out of the Kitchener-Waterloo area. They aren't a massive national conglomerate; they are localized and excellent at working with local growers to ensure we get the quantity and consistency we need. We re-evaluate these relationships annually to make sure the quality remains high. We deal directly with regional managers and meat buyers rather than just sales reps because of the volume we move.

Andrew (Director of Operations): In this industry, nothing is really "common," but on average, weddings and social events are between 100 and 200 people. Corporate numbers are significantly higher, especially when they have multiple shifts. Those can go up to 5000 people. We see a lot of repeat corporate business, most come back every year, others every five or ten years for major milestones. It’s a fantastic feeling when they keep calling because the staff loved the food last time.

David: I could name ten! But the biggest is communication. If a client isn't accurate with their guest count, say we prepare for 100 and 150 show up, it trickles down into people not being happy because there isn't enough food.

Another challenge is last-minute adjustments. We typically require final details 15 days in advance. While we’re very good at handling changes internally, it does throw a wrench into our routine.

David: We have three main departments: Operations, Office, and Kitchen. Andrew heads up Operations and Kitchen management, and Kathy is our Director of Events in the office. In full swing, we have seven full-time staff and up to 40 "occasional" staff on a given day. In the off-season, we drop down to about three full-time people.

David: I'm a very hands-on owner. I feel like our team is some of the best in the industry with a lot of passion and a positive workplace. We are a fair employer, keeping a competitive living wage, which helps retain talent.

Andrew: We’ve developed a very healthy and respectful culture where everyone is respected. The morale is fantastic; we have staff who want to come back every year because of how they’re treated. We even have staff well into retirement who still want to work here because they truly enjoy the job.

David: It’s a passion of mine, and it grew out of our farm roots. This property originally started as a hog farm. Back in 1998, we started "Party Pig Barbecue" while I was still in high school. My father made up some of our BBQ roasters for whole-hog cooking and rented them out for do-it-yourself pig roasts.

In 2005, we rebranded to BBQ Feast Catering and built our commercial facility in 2008. Pre 2000’s, Southern BBQ was almost non-existent in Ontario. I remember people not even knowing what pulled pork was! We brought that niche here. We had training in Alabama to learn from the pros: people who were vacuum-packing and using sous vide methods well before it hit mainstream or anyone here knew what that was.

David: We do a lot more. We serve thousands of people a year with standard Canadian or American fare, burgers, dogs, and sausages, all over charcoal for better flavor. We also offer Brazilian-style BBQ with 25-inch skewers over live flames.

David: Everything we do is custom. We’ll typically send a client four or five different menus so they can see different price points and service levels. Within the world of BBQ, the sky is the limit. If you saw an item on Instagram and want us to recreate it, we can do it. We’ve even taken a client’s grandmother's salad recipe and made it for their event. We stay within our wheelhouse and if it's BBQ, we can do anything.