Meat + Poultry - June 2017 - 40

FOODSERVICE TRENDS

"The greatness
of a pitmaster
is directly
proportional
to the size of
his ash pile."
- CHRIS LILLY

Gibson. The signature sauce has a vinegar
and mayonnaise base, seasoned with black
pepper and lemon juice. "We are known for
our barbecue chicken in white sauce - it was
invented here back in 1925 - but now I see it all
over the country."
Perhaps part of the reason Big Bob Gibson's
signature sauce can be found in restaurants
around the country is because the restaurant
itself is legendary. Bob Gibson started his
business back in 1925 in Decatur and it's been
handed down through four generations of the
family. While the smoked chicken remained
at the top of the menu, new recipes and meat
selection were added through the years, as
well as an additional location to accommodate
growth. However, the restaurant truly started
to gain its national recognition when the fourth
generation took over in 1991.
Lilly, who met his wife Amy (Big Bob
Gibson's great granddaughter) at the Univ. of
North Alabama, had no barbecue experience
when he started working at the restaurant - he

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MEAT+ POULTRY | 06.17 | www.meatpoultry.com

was a marketing and finance major. Amy's
father, Don McLemore, offered Lilly the chance
to come and learn the business from the
ground up - starting naturally, in the pit room.
"That's where you start out when you're in
a barbecue restaurant - you need to learn the
whole business from the back of the house to
the front of the house," Lilly says. "I learned
it all, but my passion and love for barbecue is
always going to be back in the pit room. I still
spend as much time as I can back there."
Lilly says aside from being born into the
business, the best way to learn about barbecue
is by cooking it, over and over again. "I often
say the greatness of a pitmaster is directly
proportional to the size of his ash pile," he
says. "This means, the more you burn, the more
barbecue you cook and the more your ash pile
grows - you just have to learn by doing."
Lilly learned his craft by doing from the
time he started with Big Bob Gibson in 1991
until 1997 when it was time to show off his
talents at his first barbecue competition. The
restaurant bought a rotisserie cooker on a
trailer to use with the catering side of the
business. And in 1997, they entered their first
barbecue competition in Huntsville, Alabama,
as a way to promote the catering business. At
this first competition, the Big Bob Gibson team
got high marks and an invitation to cook at
the Memphis in May Barbecue Championship.
"And then we were addicted," he recalls.
"We started as a way to promote the
restaurant, but they're also a lot of fun," he
says. "If you get out there and win consistently
on the circuit - at competitions like Memphis
in May and the American Royal - you can use
those wins to promote your restaurant."
The team has won championships in all
categories - pork shoulder, beef brisket,
chicken and ribs - but they've won the most
with pork.
Big Bob Gibson has cut back its
competition involvement to four per year
(Memphis in May, American Royal, Jack
Daniels World Barbecue Championships and a
new charity event in Palm Springs, California,
King of the Smokers).

THE NEW 'CUE
Not all barbecue restaurants have the
pedigree of Big Bob Gibson. Being in
business for 90 years has given the iconic
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Meat + Poultry - June 2017

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