About Me
Hello Barbecue Lovers:
Little did anyone know, for the most part, that cooking came easy for me. After all, I had great teachers in my mom, grandmother and aunties who were great cooks in their own right. But to put it plainly, I just love to cook. Clearly, when you enjoy doing something you like; it stands to reason that you will work your hardest at being the best. For a long time, nobody really took me serious when it came to cooking, even though I told them it was in my blood. But things are different now for those who have tasted the "Que" from Jimma’s BBQ.
When I was growing up in Gary, Indiana, it was pretty common to walk around town and see a brick mason BBQ pit sitting in the backyard of a lot of the houses around the neighborhood. Along with these pits you also saw a number of 50-gallon drums that were converted into charcoal pits that were sitting in many backyards. As I recall during this era, not only could people in general cook good BBQ, but there was an assumption by many in my neighborhood that their BBQ was some of the best this side of the Mississippi. Quite frankly, a lot of it that I did taste was pretty darn good, until I ate some ribs from a gentleman from Chicago, Illinois, by the name of Bruce Lemons.
Mr. Lemons, who my parents grew up with in Indianola, Mississippi, had invited our family over to his house on the Southside of Chicago for a BBQ cookout. I did not know it at the time, but Mr. Lemons along with his brothers (Miles & Bruce) had a thriving BBQ business for many years on 73rd avenue in Chicago. But standing there in his backyard, I suddenly realized that out of the hundreds of BBQ meals I had eaten, the most memorable was on a plate that I was holding in my very hands. There on that plate was a heaping helping of tender flavorful smoked ribs, BBQ chicken, served with potato salad, and white bread on the side. As I was eating and savoring each and every bite of those hickory-smoked ribs, I was thinking how there was something magical about the taste of those ribs, cooked in a wood smoked oven. I can honestly say that the BBQ that was served to me on that warm summer day was some of the best I had ever tasted before in my life. It was at that very moment, that I knew I had found my calling.
Over the past six years, I have visited the legendary BBQ joints in North Carolina, Texas, Chicago, Memphis, St. Louis, Nashville, and Greenwood, Mississippi. I have tasted the best regional barbecue in America, collected an endless number of recipes, experimented with hundreds of different sauces and talked with some of the top Pit masters across the country. I have been fortunate that James Lemons a legend in Chicago, Il has taken the time as a friend and a mentor to pour into me a lot of his knowledge about the barbecue industry and what it takes to be successful.
Currently, I am a member of the Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) and also a certified BBQ judge with the same organization. I feel I am a competition barbecuer who has made a successful transition from KCBS competitions to full time Pit master to opening a successful catering BBQ business called Jimma’s Real Pit BBQ in Ypsilanti, MI.
My goal is to put out some of the best barbecue you can find in America. How do you do that? By making sure that each day’s barbecue is better than the last.
