BNQ “Meat N Greet”
The Friday, May 31st “Meat and Greet” presentation is the opening activity for the Saturday, June 1st family friendly festival that includes a KCBS sanctioned barbeque contest.
The “Meat and Greet” event will include a copy of Miller’s latest book and complimentary “Bourbon, BBQ and Beer,” sponsored by Papi’s Bourbon, Compart Duroc Pork and the West Coast Blues Society.
Adrian Miller
Adrian Miller will anchor the “Meat and Greet” panel discussion during the kickoff activities at the Horse Town Brew n’ Que Festival May 31, 2024 in Norco. Kansas City BBQ Society CEO, Rod Gray and celebrity barbeque chef, Harry Soo, will join him in an evening that will include barbeque taste and sampling, questions and answers and book signings. The trio will examine the control of fire and its global impact on human development as well as the evolution and diversity of American BBQ and its unsung heroes.
Miller, a food writer, culinary historian, public policy advisor and certified barbecue judge, received an A.B in International Relations from Stanford University in 1991, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1995. From 1999 to 2001, Millerserved as a special assistant to President Bill Clinton with his Initiative for One America – the first free-standing office in the White House to address issues of racial, religious and ethnic reconciliation. Miller went on to serve as a senior policy analyst for Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr. Miller’s first book, Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time won the James Beard Foundation Award for Scholarship and Reference in 2014. In 2022, Miller received a second James Beard award for his recent book, Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue.
Rod Gray
As CEO of the Kansas City BBQ Society, Gray oversees the operations of the world’s largest organization dedicated to promoting and enjoying barbeque. With a 20-year history as a competitive pitmaster, his team, Pellet Envy, LLC, competed in over five hundred contests, traveling over 500,000 miles and winning 62 grand championships. As a business owner, Gray has over 20 years of experience managing product lines, marketing initiatives and developing brand sponsorships in the barbecue cookoff industry. He blended his business talents, followed his culinary dreams, and developed EAT Barbecue, a line of rubs and sauces now on store shelves across the country.
Harry Soo
Harry Soo entered the world of competition barbeque with his team Slap Yo Daddy and quickly became one of most recognized competition barbeque teams. As one of the top ranked Kansas City BBQ Society teams in America, Slap Yo Daddy BBQ, was selected from among over 5,000 professional teams to appear on TLC’s BBQ Pitmasters Season One. In the Season Finale, SYD stunned the nation by defeating all the teams in the show including two BBQ World Champions in the winner-take-all Rib Throwdown in Texas.
A celebrity chef and major barbeque influencer, Soo’s barbeque realm includes television appearances, a renown line of barbeque rubs and sauces, sold out classes, national and international speaking engagements and an online social media presence with over 190,000 YouTube subscribers and nearly 1,000 posted videos.