The Pitmaster's Podcast

Anthony Lujan
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  • FOOD
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

We're BBQ competition enthusiasts who love to share everything about the smoke, the sauce, and the stories behind great barbecue. Each episode, we sit down with top pitmasters, backyard legends, restaurateurs, and more to swap advice, tips, and tall tales from the world of BBQ. Whether you're a seasoned competitor or just love good food and good company, you'll learn something new—and have a few laughs along the way!

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    7 Sins BBQ Rub Tasting

    7 SINS BBQ is a BBQ Catering Company & Award Winning BBQ Competition Team that competes in the KCBS / CBBQA circuits as well as a producer of Award Winning BBQ Rubs & Sauces in the United States and Australia.

    37 min

  2. 19 MAR

    Meet Jim Lenzen of Jimmy L's BBQ!!

    This is starting our 18th year into the cooking journey. We are based out of Sidney in Western Nebraska. I have cooked all my life and it became more of an obsession than a passion. I love to challenge myself and to learn new things. Before jumping into cooking full time I taught at the college level for 10 years and used my students to testing new ideas. Jimmy L's has a team of 13 dedicated individuals that makes magic happen across the board. We run 4 food trailers across 5 states around 60+ events during the summer months, ranging from big to small. Sturgis motor cycle rally to our local county fair, we also have a large catering operation that we run year round. We run a seasonal restaurant in the winter on Friday nights as well. We turn 10's of thousands of pounds of meat out a year, we only cook certified beef mostly from Greater Omaha and we are very well known for our brisket. We use the Herefords and the majority of those are from Nebraska so we know we are for sure cooking American beef. That allows us to bring the best product to the consumer. Our team drives Jimmy L's success, they are an amazing group of individuals that have dedicated themselves to making our company as efficient and successful as possible. We operate with a very easygoing, intense, and fun loving attitude as you probably can see from our social media accounts. I do not believe in self proclaiming that we have the best brisket or bbq, I prefer to let the Jimmy L's customers speak on our behalf and they do. We make everything from scratch and only use top quality ingredients. One of my pet peeves is people who say they are selling prime rib but serve you a choice piece of meat. Prime rib comes from a prime grade piece of meat other than that it's just a rib roast. I feel that in the BBQ world shortcuts such as this are starting to become the norm.

    50 min

  3. 12 MAR

    SCA West Coast Champion Raymond Patterson

    I'm Raymond Patterson. I've been competing in Steak Cookoff Association events since 2019. What started as a love for cooking quickly turned into a passion for traveling, meeting great people, and building lifelong friendships through the BBQ community. What I enjoy most about competing is the people. The camaraderie, the shared knowledge, and being able to help others improve their cooks is what really keeps me coming back. I genuinely enjoy helping people, whether it's on the competition trail or through teaching. I also teach a steak cooking class on BBQChamps.com, where I help cooks at all levels sharpen their skills and gain confidence on the grill.

    48 min

  4. 5 MAR

    Hang out with Big John and Kim of Big John's BBQ

    We're Big John's BBQ out of Las Vegas. I am the head pit master - Big John Bowman. My BBQ journey started in Kansas City in 2009 when my wife Kim worked with the marketing agency for the American Royal BBQ—so I got to meet and taste BBQ from top competitors, and I was instantly hooked. I bought a cheap offset smoker, started learning everything I could, and when we moved back home to Vegas, it grew from cooking for friends and church gatherings into catering events and weddings.     In 2015, I launched Big John's competition bbq team and started competing. Since then we've done numerous Nevada BBQ Association events, 16 KCBS contests, and a few SCA events, with highlights like 1st place brisket at the 2024 Golden State Battle in Hollister, CA, and Grand Champion at the 2025 KCBS BBQ Jackpot in Las Vegas. We're currently ranked 4th in the KCBS Master Series—and we're a family team: my wife Kim, my parents Rocky and Sandy, and my Brother Doug.

    34 min

  5. 26 FEB

    Uncle Jesse's BBQ team make the BBQ World Cup

    Brennon Nielson and Nate Benson tell us about Slab O Rama and their Reserve Grand Champion win to qualify them for the 2027 BBQ World Cup and a shot at 1 million dollars!

    25 min

  6. 19 FEB

    BBQ World Cup Update

    A brand-new global BBQ World Cup has just launched, with a $1 million prize purse. The event links 40+ qualifying barbecue competitions worldwide from the U.S. to Australia, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand and the U.K. into one global championship season. The finals are scheduled for April 2027 in Las Vegas.

    1hr 7min

  7. 12 FEB

    Join us and Daniel Vaughn, Underseasoned's #1 Most Influential Person in BBQ

    Named #1 by The Underseasoned BBQ show's 150 most influential people in bbq Daniel Vaughn is the barbecue editor for Texas Monthly and arguably the most influential voice in smoked meat today. He didn't just define what great barbecue is, but helped create the culture of standing in line for it. • Barbecue Editor at Texas Monthly and the only full-time barbecue journalist in the U.S. • Author of The Prophets of Smoked Meat and co-author of Whole Hog BBQ • Current editor of the Texas Monthly Top 50 known the bible of barbecue in Texas, and therefore, the world • Curator of the Texas Monthly BBQ Festival, held annually since 2010

    58 min

  8. 5 FEB

    Meet AJ Garza of God's Country BBQ The first BBQ World Cup Qualifier

    I've been in the competitive scene for five years now. In 2022, I clinched the coveted title of Team of the Year in Brisket from the Champions Barbecue Alliance Association. Over the past few years, I've proudly secured two top-3 brisket finishes at the fiercely competitive San Antonio Rodeo, where the stakes are high with nearly 300 teams competing. What really keeps me going, though, is the bond I've formed with fellow BBQ enthusiasts. It's not just about winning. It's about the friendships and sense of community we've built.

    29 min
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About

We're BBQ competition enthusiasts who love to share everything about the smoke, the sauce, and the stories behind great barbecue. Each episode, we sit down with top pitmasters, backyard legends, restaurateurs, and more to swap advice, tips, and tall tales from the world of BBQ. Whether you're a seasoned competitor or just love good food and good company, you'll learn something new—and have a few laughs along the way!

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