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e’re living
the barbecue
dream,” says
Megan Day
of Burnt Finger BBQ. Her
journey into professional
barbecue started with
an explosion—the Bacon
Explosion, to be precise.
Created by her husband,
Jason, it’s 2 pounds ofItalian sausage wrapped
in a lattice of bacon and
smoked on a barbecue pit.
The recipe went viral
back in 2009, after Jason
posted it on his amateur
competition team’s blog,
which encouraged the
husband-and-wife duo
to turn their hobby into
a business. Day gave upher full-time corporate
job for a career in ’cue,
running the marketing at
first and then taking on
more of the cooking.
Burnt Finger BBQ
started winning a slew
of competitions, and the
couple began selling their
own line of Kansas City-
style sauces and rubs.
In 2017, she was invited
to compete on the Food
Network’s Chopped Grill
Masters, which pitted
barbecue cooks against
restaurant chefs. She
won her initial show-
down and earned a slot
in the finale. “I took down
all the pitmasters, but
those two trained chefs
got me,” she says.
The Chopped episodes
aired in August 2017, andher life has been crazy
ever since. She’s been
cooking for the To d a y
show on Rockefeller
Plaza, teaching seminars,
and also competing at
Memphis in May and the
American Royal World
Series of Barbecue
with her young son
and daughter in tow.
“Our real focus now
is how we can get more
barbecue to the people
who want it,” she says.
That means promoting a
full line of Burnt Finger
frozen products, which
includes baby back ribs;
roasted chicken drum-
sticks; and—of course—
their Bacon Explosion,
the smoky, fat-laden
monstrosity that helped
start it all.Megan Day
Burnt Finger BBQ
LEE’S SUMMIT, MO“W
Amy Mills
17th Street Barbecue
MURPHYSBORO, ILO
NE HALF of the father-daughter
team that runs the 17th Street
Barbecue empire, Amy Mills is
the organizing force behind the
scenes. A self-described “barbecue
heiress,” she is the daughter of Mike Mills,
a legend of the competition circuit with
eight world championship titles to his
name. She helped turn that reputation into
two cookbooks, a chain of restaurants, and
a catering-and-events operation.
Perhaps her biggest influence so far
has been through her company OnCue
Consulting, which offers workshops thathave helped over 1,000 seasoned
restaurateurs and aspiring barbecue
entrepreneurs from 48 states and 16
countries get into the game and improve
their existing operations. “There’s this
romantic view of barbecue—the fire and
the pit, the whole mystique,” she says.
“But if you really want to talk about the
business of barbecue, there’s so much
more to running a restaurant.”
From menu design and managing food
costs to branding and social media, she
has plenty of experience and knows her
way around a barbecue cooker too. “You
have to be able to do it all,” she advises.
Ultimately, what she finds most
rewarding is helping expand the barbecue
community while keeping long-running
traditions alive. “I’m thrilled to be taking
on a family legacy,” she says. “It’s such
an honor to be part of that.”