Thursday, January 26, 2012
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
This One Leadership Quality Will Make or Break You - Forbes
This One Leadership Quality Will Make or Break You - Forbes
For all you team builders out there.....Don't make the mistake of letting your corporate groups think they've achieved everything they need to because they made it over a wall or completed a ropes course; what next? how are they going to continue what they've learned and make themselves, their workers, their communities, and their organization better.
I believe in continuous improvement and pursuit, and it has often times bit me in the butt because not everyone lives and leads this way but the article above says it best. Take a moment, read the article, and think about it.
For all you team builders out there.....Don't make the mistake of letting your corporate groups think they've achieved everything they need to because they made it over a wall or completed a ropes course; what next? how are they going to continue what they've learned and make themselves, their workers, their communities, and their organization better.
I believe in continuous improvement and pursuit, and it has often times bit me in the butt because not everyone lives and leads this way but the article above says it best. Take a moment, read the article, and think about it.
Lift Your Mood Outdoors - Whole Living Balance
Lift Your Mood Outdoors - Whole Living Balance
I like this because it goes along with everything I try to accomplish in Parks and Recreation, and in creating healthy and livable communities.
I like this because it goes along with everything I try to accomplish in Parks and Recreation, and in creating healthy and livable communities.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Answers to some questions...
Recently, since advertising our different possibilities for creating the perfect BBQ for your event; I've received a couple suggestions or concerns that need some clarifying. Question #1 is: Eastern NC BBQ is the only real BBQ, why would you offer so many different options? Question/Concern #2 is: I don't see any Kansas City or Texas style BBQ on the menu. Why, well here you go!
To start off with, to raise some eyebrows; as long as your BBQ is prepared low and slow with fire and smoke until the meat falls off the bone, then it is real BBQ. That is how our ancestors did it, and they used whatever they could find to use as a sauce. Salt and Vinegar was regularly available to them. Vinegar Sauce, Tomato, salt, pepper, apple juice, mustard, etc. are all just flavors. That is it and different regions prefer different flavors. I like to think of sauce as a salad dressing; it adds some flavor, improves the appearance, and helps hold everything together. Some also cook with different methods, such as NC roasting their meat over coals to Texas burning wood in an offset smoker, but it is all BBQ. BBQ Adventures is located in Western North Carolina, so we created a flavor profile that we thought would be very popular here. The same is true from Eastern North Carolina and the Lowcountry of South Carolina. These 3 flavors alone comprise most of the Country's BBQ preferences. We've also added something special combining the best of the American Southwest and the Caribbean. Our customers are from all over the country and world, we want each and every cook to be an experience and something our guests will never forget. We don't just cook and cater, we include them as part of the process and if they want something other than what we typically offer, then we create it for them.
We all enjoy shaking things up a bit, using different spices, different woods for flavor, and experimenting with different methods. That's what is great about BBQ, and cooking in general. As chefs and backyard cooks, we get to be creative, create something of our own, and learn something new each and every time we cook. This has also led to many great culinary competitions around the Country. Anyone can leave a piece of meat over heat and cook it until it's mush, so someone had to come up with standards to use so that BBQ can be judged and cooks can be awarded for their efforts. This is what makes BBQ competitions great, we get to try and create art each competition; we strive to prepare the most beautiful piece of food we can, it looks great, smells great, tastes great, and has great texture. This takes a great deal of trial and error, and is a lifelong experience. Does judging meat on all these categories make competition BBQ real BBQ, no, it just provides an avenue for lots of fun, frustration, and competition.
90% of our business is preparing our version of WNC BBQ. Sometimes we combine them all, and sometimes we just prepare the meat the way we want and leave out sauces for people to choose. It is always different and that is what is great about what we do and what makes it so enjoyable. The same is true whether we are catering, cooking on site for a private party, vending, or competing.
To start off with, to raise some eyebrows; as long as your BBQ is prepared low and slow with fire and smoke until the meat falls off the bone, then it is real BBQ. That is how our ancestors did it, and they used whatever they could find to use as a sauce. Salt and Vinegar was regularly available to them. Vinegar Sauce, Tomato, salt, pepper, apple juice, mustard, etc. are all just flavors. That is it and different regions prefer different flavors. I like to think of sauce as a salad dressing; it adds some flavor, improves the appearance, and helps hold everything together. Some also cook with different methods, such as NC roasting their meat over coals to Texas burning wood in an offset smoker, but it is all BBQ. BBQ Adventures is located in Western North Carolina, so we created a flavor profile that we thought would be very popular here. The same is true from Eastern North Carolina and the Lowcountry of South Carolina. These 3 flavors alone comprise most of the Country's BBQ preferences. We've also added something special combining the best of the American Southwest and the Caribbean. Our customers are from all over the country and world, we want each and every cook to be an experience and something our guests will never forget. We don't just cook and cater, we include them as part of the process and if they want something other than what we typically offer, then we create it for them.
We all enjoy shaking things up a bit, using different spices, different woods for flavor, and experimenting with different methods. That's what is great about BBQ, and cooking in general. As chefs and backyard cooks, we get to be creative, create something of our own, and learn something new each and every time we cook. This has also led to many great culinary competitions around the Country. Anyone can leave a piece of meat over heat and cook it until it's mush, so someone had to come up with standards to use so that BBQ can be judged and cooks can be awarded for their efforts. This is what makes BBQ competitions great, we get to try and create art each competition; we strive to prepare the most beautiful piece of food we can, it looks great, smells great, tastes great, and has great texture. This takes a great deal of trial and error, and is a lifelong experience. Does judging meat on all these categories make competition BBQ real BBQ, no, it just provides an avenue for lots of fun, frustration, and competition.
90% of our business is preparing our version of WNC BBQ. Sometimes we combine them all, and sometimes we just prepare the meat the way we want and leave out sauces for people to choose. It is always different and that is what is great about what we do and what makes it so enjoyable. The same is true whether we are catering, cooking on site for a private party, vending, or competing.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
What is Followership?
This is a great article about "Followership", and how it can help you not only be a great employee but a great leader. This applies to any industry, not just outdoor adventure.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Lessons Learned #1
Aside from being a BBQ enthusiast, one of the things I love about being an Outdoor Recreation & Adventure professional is the lessons learned through my experiences. One of the many best books I have ever read, and now there is a 2nd book too, is Lessons Learned: A Guide to Accident Prevention and Crisis Response. The contents of the book aren't really relevant here, but relate to everything I am a part of. Whether it be in the kitchen, in the office, traveling, or at a BBQ competition, it is all relateable. I haven't had a chance lately to be that involved with BBQ, but as long as I dabble in it, and as BBQ Adventures continues to grow, I'll share my lessons learned through my experiences; hence "Huffs Barbeque Adventures", the title of this blog.
Today's lesson is a simple one. The more I am involved with competition BBQ, the more technology I see in the sport. Yes BBQ Competition is a sport; sport is not necessarily something athletic, but demonstrates the spirit of competition. For all who disagree, I did get my bachelors in Sport Management and BBQ Competitions are included :). Sorry, had to throw that in there. Back to the technology, BBQ has quickly turned from a traditional method of cooking to who has the biggest most expensive and elaborate toys. I have long been impressed with some of these toys, but have always been skeptical to use them. I have broken down and started with the simple toys; remote thermometers.
I experimented today with smoking a corned beef brisket and used a new remote thermometer that reads the temperature of the meat and the inside of the smoking chamber. The device always read 50 degrees higher than my installed thermometer on the smoker, which didn't seem to be that bad. I would just got against my gut and follow whatever this new device is telling me. It's new, fancy, and my old cheap smoker thermometer is probably broken, right? Not quite, after close to 5 hrs the meat wasn't close to being done and this was a small piece of meat I was experimenting with. The meat temperature was close, but I still have to go behind and double check everything with my cheap instant read thermometer. I also tried two new $100 instant read thermometers that are a craze in the BBQ world right now, and ended up trading them in for my cheaper one that works exceptionally better and is more functional. I still have to give them all another try on my big pig cooker to see if there are any differences, but I have a feeling that my old ways of keeping a great tradition alive serves me and my customers, friends, and charities much better.
To keep from getting way off subject and writing a novel on new BBQ, I'll try to break them all up into smaller lessons learned. so, for today:
LESSON LEARNED #1: "To embrace change you must look beyond yourselves, and at the big picture". For this lesson, this means changing back to the way things once were. There is no need for fancy toys in this business, BBQ is special to many people because it is the one thing they can control in life. No matter what life throws at them, there is always a solution and some skill that can produce the perfect BBQ for them that day. They do it themselves, they solve the problems mother nature throws at them and so on, their equipment does not do the work for them. For me, I know the more I try to rely on these new technologies, the more instinct I lose. Men love their toys and their egos, but the big picture is that BBQ is a dying art and the "sport" is taking over and instead of promoting BBQ, it is in my opinion helping it deteriorate some. However, because of the growth in the sport, more people are smoking meat and that is better than no one doing it at all, no matter how they are doing it.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Paula Deen to visit her new restaurant in Cherokee | citizen-times.com | Asheville Citizen-Times
Paula Deen to visit her new restaurant in Cherokee | citizen-times.com | Asheville Citizen-Times
Since I am currently working to open this restaurant, I may as well blog it!! I don't use this blog much, because well, Barbeque Adventures right now is at a stand still until life tells me it is time to get it going again. When life happens, we all have to accept it and move forward the best we can. In this case, life is great and my hobbies can wait.
In August I began my sabbatical from Parks and Recreation to spend time with my daughter and work on the foundation of what Barbeque Adventures is to come. I am taking classes in Hospitality Management and for the first time I am a 4.0 student, taught some classes, I have gotten a new logo and a great artist to create bottle labels and artwork for anything I need when it is time, made arrangements to use a bottling facility, gotten insurance quotes, budgets, and everything else I need to say go;;.....oh, I almost forgot that it all takes $$$$ and more importantly, time which I don't have. Maybe some day, but like I said; life happens.
In August, Angie and I are expecting our 2nd child and circumstances being what they are; it is time to bring my little culinary project to an end and get back into my real profession. I have had a great experience with Paula Deen and Harrah's Cherokee, but soon I must say goodbye and I don't know where this road will lead us, but this time we are sure that whatever we do; our children will always have the best of opportunities available to them. I can' wait to get this going.
Barbeque Adventures is still doing private catering, competitions and the Bordertown BBQ Cookoff, but going all out and working BBQ full-time will just have to wait. Don't worry though, we'll soon work on selling sauces on a small scale.
On the Paula Deen note, the experience has been awesome and awful. My body is slowly wearing down, my joints are killing me, and my patience is wearing thin with all the craziness at the restaurant. If something ain't broke, don't try to fix it; that is why it is breaking. Paula; understand the restaurant is still trying to figure out what it wants to be and until the 630 million dollar expansion is complete, Paula Deen's Kitchen will get hit pretty hard. Oh, also I recommend cooking more of your food, I am sure you'll feel the same way. Love and Best Dishes Paula Deen!!! See you on Saturday..
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