Chris Lilly emerged on the barbecue scene in 1992 when he began working for the Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q restaurant in Decatur, AL, recognized by The Wall Street Journal as having the best pork barbecue in the country and named the "Best Barbecue Restaurant in Alabama" by the Birmingham News. Lilly is now vice president, executive chef, and partner of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q and Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q Franchises operating two company-owned restaurants and a franchise in Monroe, NC.
Lilly is also head chef of the Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q Competition Cooking Team, and the winner of 11 World BBQ Championships in several barbecue categories, three Memphis in May Grand Championships, the American Royal International Invitational, the Grand Championship at the 2003 International Jamaican Jerk Barbeque Cook-off, and in 2012, he won the title of "King of the Smokers" at an invitational competition organized by Sterling Ball.
Lilly has been a guest chef for 11 years running at the Food Network's South Beach Wine and Food Festival and has served twice as guest chef at the James Beard Foundation and the American Institute of Wine and Food. Lilly also consults with Kingsford Charcoal as a national spokesperson, the National Pork Board, KC Masterpiece, NASCAR, and Ritz Carlton.
Lilly has appeared on "Live with Regis and Kelly," "The Today Show," "The Martha Stewart Show," "ESPN College Football Live," and "ESPN Game Day," as well as numerous Food Network programs. In addition to the television appearances, his cooking has been featured in Southern Living, People, Food and Wine, Food Network Magazine, The New York Times, Men's Health, The Wall Street Journal, and Maxim Magazine. Lilly was the co-creator of the nine eppisode "The All-Star BBQ Showdown" for The Outdoor Life Network (OLN) in 2005. In 2006 he was co-creator and executive producer of the "BBQ Championship" series on Versus Network.
In 2009, Lilly authored a compilation of recipes, stories, and expert advice on outdoor cooking: "Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Book: Recipes and Secrets from a Legendary Barbecue Joint
His second book, "Fire and Smoke: A Pitmaster's Secrets
For his Seminar, we will focus on chicken. If you've been around barbecue surely you have heard about how Big Bob created the signature white sauce for chicken that is oft imitated but never duplicated (heaven knows, I've tried). If you visit the restaurants, you must order it. He has also created a very popular dish called Loaf Pan Chicken, in his book. We'll talk about selecting birds, preparing them, grilling, smoking, rotisserie, spatchcock, and how competition cooks do it.
For homework, check out his books and read my article attempt to replicate his Big Bob Gibson's Bama Birds with White Barbecue Sauce.
In this Seminar we talked about his famous white sauce for chicken, his wonderful loaf pan chicken, airline chicken, turkey, some of his other recipes, and more.
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