The Pastrami Queen of BBQ | Christie Vanover talks Girls Can Grill, BBQ Competitions & Live Fire

About this episode

Christie Vanover discusses her journey in BBQ and live fire cooking, sharing insights on competitions and product development.

This week on the Wise Guys BBQ Podcast, Vin, Charlie, and Bob from Big Bobby’s Q sit down with Christie Vanover of Girls Can Grill — also known in this episode as The Pastrami Queen. Christie shares her journey from public relations and marketing to becoming one of the most recognized names in barbecue, grilling, and live fire cooking. The crew talks about how Girls Can Grill started, what it takes to build a BBQ brand, and how Christy turned her love of backyard grilling into a full-time career filled with recipe development, competition cooking, judging, organizing events, product creation, and traveling the country for barbecue. This episode dives into competition BBQ, KCBS cookoffs, the Jack Daniel’s Invitational, Memphis in May, live fire cooking, and the launch of the Live Fire Cooking Association. Christy explains why open fire cooking is growing so fast, how live fire competitions are different from traditional barbecue contests, and why this style of cooking connects so strongly with both cooks and crowds. The guys also get into Christy’s product development work, including her Girls Can Grill rubs and her new pastrami kit. From brining and testing recipes to dialing in…

People in this episode

Host: Vincent Porcaro

Guest: Christie Vanover

Topics covered

• BBQ competitions
• live fire cooking
• product development
• grilling recipes
• barbecue brand building

Keywords

• BBQ
• grilling
• competition cooking
• live fire
• pastrami
• BBQ rubs
• recipe development

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Girls Can Grill, KCBS, Live Fire Cooking Association, Big Bobby’s Q

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