Corinne Trang

crowded by Big Bob Gibson's

It’s 1 AM and I’m finally home, showered and in bed “resting my trotters,” as pitmaster Chris Lilly would say. It’s been a long 15-hour day of pulling and chopping close to 200 pork butts (top of the shoulder) to make thousands of the famous Big Bob Gibson pulled pork sandwich. Down to the last few sandwiches at around 4:30 PM this afternoon, Don MacLemore, grandson of the late Big Bob himself, walked down the line of hungry patrons, counting heads and keeping the few lucky ones while turning away the rest telling them, “come back tomorrow early!” This is my second year on the team and in my experience, cookers loaded to the max, we’ve always run out of pork butt early. The meat is that special.

Chris Lilly squirting his secret spicy vinegar concoction and couldn't wait until I was finish chopping!

It’s truly an honor to be here and there’s not one part of my job I don’t love when working this event. Sure, it’s hard work—I’d be lying, if I said that my body didn’t ache right now—but the company is such that every aspect of it is fun as well. Our assembly line is solid. Some of us unload the pork, while others inject, or rub, or load the cookers. And when that’s done, we make the coleslaw. I like to do a bit of everything because every time I do, I learn something new.

chopped and ready for the pulled pork sandwich assembly line

Tonight I picked up on a detail that is almost foreign to me. My attitude has always been “a little bit of this and that” in the kitchen. Something I learned from my grandmother who never measured anything but whose food was sublime. When it comes to barbecue, however, Chris always preaches precision. And while he too goes by feel, his approach is to never leave anything to chance. The ingredients are always the same, and measuring them is key. “The only way you can hope to win in competition is if your product is consistently great.” He’s a champion several times over, so he should know.

after a long day of pleasing the crowd, more injecting and rubbing to be done for the next day...

As we prepare the meat for the last day of this event, Chris will call out “3 full syringes into each shoulder.” For rubbing he’ll make sure the rub has gone all over “except for the flap.” And when it comes time to chop, he’ll feel each hot butt in the cooker until he finds one that “gives just right,” meaning until the meat giggles and falls off the bone. It’s an art and he breathes it. Enthralled by this experience, I begin to imagine my own pork butt loaded with my special Asian-inspired BBQ injection liquid and spice rub. Soon, I’ll be doing more than imagining. Stay tuned!

…and if you haven’t had a Big Bob Gibson pulled pork sandwich, stop by 27th and Madison. It’s worth the wait, but like Don MacLemore says, come early. We start serving at 11 AM until we run out!

(photography © by Anthony Quintano. All rights reserved.)