My passion for BBQ grew out of entertaining large groups of people, quickly realising slow cooking a large joint of meat and having a beer with friends beats sitting over a grill cooking burgers and sausages.
I entered the British BBQ Championships in Ilminster not having cooked competition BBQ previously and realised after 1st in Brisket, 1st in Pork and 2nd in chicken my natural style of cooking was easily transferred to competition BBQ. I had well and truly been bitten by the bug.
The most frustrating aspect of previous BBQ competitions in the UK is that they all seem to be one offs, or have yearly rule changes. I have been responsible for several company start-ups in various industries and decided to create something out of passion.
The British BBQ Society was setup late 2008 to promote BBQ in the UK, we differ ourselves from other BBQ associations by actively getting in front of the public and educating them through competition to name one medium.
Although the British BBQ Society now only runs a forum, it is the busiest barbecue forum in the UK and is free to use for anyone that has any questions or stories about their barbecue experiences.
I setup the International BBQ Network in 2011 to take care of the commercial side of the business. It was important to offer value for our members and I do not believe in charging for membership unless people have the opportunity to get their subscription fee back through discounted deals.
The International BBQ Network, the biggest barbecue competition organiser in Europe, sanctions and organises various types of competitions, from our low and slow series PitMasters and our grilling competitions via Ready Steady Q & Kids Q.
I hope that everyone will find something of interest, whether it be browsing through our forum, or joining us at one of our many competitions throughout the year.
I wish all of our teams the best of luck this year and look forward to meeting some new faces.
Toby Shea
Director – International BBQ Network
Founder – British BBQ Society
