Page 28 - FEB 2021 Digial Edition

bbq profile
BBQ PROFILES:
Paul and Lynn Keltner
T. Michael Garrison
The Flying BBQ Judge mgarrison8@sbcglobal.net
Thought it was time to
move back to featuring a
BBQ Team again in the BBQ
Profiles. This month will be
two individuals, a two per-
son husband and wife team.
Paul and Lynn Keltner and
their very successful Team,
Rooters-N-Tooters, from
Tennessee. These folks
have not only competed in
the BBQ world very successfully, they are both KCBS Certi- fied Judges and they have organized a contest as well. So they understand all the elements involved in a successful BBQ event, they definitely have given back to competition BBQ, and I think you will find their story very interesting. Paul was raised in West Tennessee, in the Memphis area. As far back as he can remember cooking over open fire was part of their family. His family probably BBQ’d several times a week. He also recalls when they ate at restaurants, they were usually BBQ places, and that was simply part of their lifestyle. Everyone in his neighborhood had either a smoker or a grill and they used them often. They also were very familiar with Memphis in May and frequently attended this event. Paul was mesmerized with the teams, their equipment, and observing all that went into a competition BBQ event. In short, he was fascinated. His fondest memory was the smoked baloney that was one of his Mother’s fa- vorite meals, and they had it often. Lynn, on the other hand, was raised in Central Tennessee and does not re- member anything in her life that remotely related to out- door cooking. BBQ in her family was putting BBQ sauce on whatever Mom cooked that day. Admittedly she had no background in open fire cooking at all. She doesn’t remem- ber going to BBQ restaurants or ever eating anything that she now knows as BBQ meats. Her first exposure to real BBQ was when they decided to form a team and begin to compete in the BBQ World. Paul is a Development Director in his home town of Columbia, Tennessee and Lynn is a Software Analyst.
After marriage Paul intro- duced her to cooking over open fire. They built their own drum smoker and by today’s standards it was pretty crude. They felt like what they were doing was pretty good and they just stumbled into competition BBQ. Their first contest was in Gadsen, Alabama, and they entered as a Backyard Team. That was in 2010, so not all that long ago. They did get two calls on their very first contest, pretty im-
pressive. Now they were hooked. They named their team Big Boy BBQ as Paul is a pretty good size guy, and he felt the Big Boy name was appropriate. They partnered with an experienced Pitmaster who mainly helped them financially as well as advice, but was never a serious member of the team. They were doing about 4-5 contests a year. This was a real learning experience. But from the very beginning they came to appreciate the BBQ Family and those who are al- ways there and willing to help. Lynn is still amazed how these people compete with you but are also there to offer advice, loan you equipment, or rubs, or sauces, to help you compete with them. This still amazes her. After that first year it was evident that Paul is far from a “Big Boy” after looking around at some of the Pitmasters. Their team name needed some attention. They were watching a movie and in the movie someone had cooked a whole hog. When asked if the meat was good, the reply was “It was good from the Rooters to the Tooters”. They looked at each other and im- mediately said, that would be the name of their competi- tion BBQ team. Rooters-N-Tooters. They moved on to becoming a Pro team and started reaching our further dis- tances to more contests. As they grew they were competing in 20 events a year and today doing around 30 contests a year. They have judged in 15 states. They were having a lot of difficulty with their brisket and just couldn’t seem to get decent scores from the judges. At the Octoberfest event in, Coleman, she approached Jiggy Piggy, who was then a very successful team. Steve Blake and Bob Pike gave them a slice of their brisket and it was completely different from what
BarbecueNews.com - 28
FEBRUARY 2021