FEBRUARY 2019 / SOUTHERNLIVING.COM
76elen Turner is the namesake
of Helen’s Bar-B-Q, and she
runs it all. That means tending
the fire of oak and hickory
logs, shoveling coals under shoulders
and ribs on an open cinder block pit, and
serving customers through the order
window that separates the kitchen from
the small dining room. If she wants to take
a vacation, the restaurant closes up. This
is truly a one-woman show.
It all began after her children started
school, when she took a part-time
job working for a man who ran a small
barbecue operation in Brownsville, about
60 miles northeast of Memphis. A few
months afterward, he decided to retire
and asked her if she wanted to take over.
Some 23 years later, she’s still at it.
She makes the sauces, coleslaw, potato
salad, and beans from scratch. She pulls
a pork shoulder off the warming pit and
chops it to order, piling it high on a bun
and dousing it with a spicy red sauce.
Turner says that she loves the work
itself—as smoky and tough as it may
be—and she’s also devoted to her loyal
customers. Her old-fashioned wood-
cooked barbecue keeps them coming
back for more.Helen
Turner
Helen’s Bar-B-Q
BROWNSVILLE, TNH
Melissa
Cookston
Memphis Barbecue
Company
HORN LAKE, MSM
ELISSA Cookston
likes to stay busy.
A native of the
Mississippi Delta,
she started cooking
barbecue while dating her
future husband, Pete, during
college. “He made the mistake
of taking me to a barbecue
contest,” Cookston says.
“It totally appealed to my
competition-junkie self.”
Soon, they were circuit
regulars, cooking on “Betsy,” a
drafty homemade pit crafted
from an old propane tank.
In 2007, they quit corporate
restaurant jobs to focus on
competitions full time—a
period Cookston recalls as
“very scary with a lot of tuna
fish sandwiches.... If we didn’t
win the contest, we didn’t eat.”
Seven world championshipsfollowed, earning Cookston
the title of the “Winningest
Woman in Barbecue.”
In 2011, the couple opened
Memphis Barbecue Company
just south of the Bluff City in
Horn Lake, Mississippi, and
quickly added a location in
Dunwoody, Georgia. Along
the way, she wrote two books:
Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room
(2014) and Smokin’ Hot in the
South (2016).
As much as she loves
chatting with customers in
the dining room, Cookston
inevitably finds herself pulled
to the kitchen. “There’s just
something about being in
the back when you’re really
busy and having your hands
in everything,” she says.
These days, Cookston is
up at 4 a.m. every day writing
a third book. And she’s raising
her own hogs too. She dove
into the research and formu-
lated the diet so they have the
optimal amount of fat in all
the right places to ensure the
best cooking on the pit. That’s
going whole hog indeed.