The origins of my love affair with cooking started in the mountains of West Virginia with my mom and dad.
Our mother made meals almost every night from scratch. Every Saturday, all the aunts, uncles and grandparents would descend on Granville, WV, where everyone would have a steak, prepared to their specific doneness, with baked potato and salad. And we did that every Saturday for what seems like the first 20 years of my life.
During that same time, my father and his work buddies would gather for one weekend every summer and roast a hog. We’d dig a hole in the ground, line it with limestone and build a huge fire inside. Once we had a nice bed of coals, we’d line the pit with sticks and chicken wire, then load in the hog along with potatoes that had been soaking in water, ears of corn, various roasts and other meats, and then we’d cover it. And then we would bury it with dirt.
That’s how I fell in love with barbecue.
I’d move to Virginia and would cook barbecue on the weekends for football tailgates and parties. One day, my wife was talking about BBQ at work and her coworker said, “My husband has a competition BBQ team…Luke should come out.”
That’s when I fell in love with competition BBQ.
Old Virginia Smoke cooked its first competition in 2013 and haven’t looked back since. We’ve cooked all over the country and won some pretty prestigious awards. But competition has only reinforced my love of cooking outside and showing love to those closest to me.
I hope this website gives you the information and the tools you need to be the best on your street, the best in your state or a world BBQ champion.
I’m here to help! Let’s get outside and get cooking!
