Pete started Barbequing when his friend Marty helped Pete build a rotisserie do their first hawg roast in 1980, and this led to many parties which was cooked just to have fun. No one knew what it would lead to!

Now a little history on how we started. The name Big Belly came from my homemade beer that my friend Glen and I brew up. My buddy Jon, named it Big Belly Brewing Company so it was a great name that just seemed to fit a BBQ team.

I heard an ad on 97 rock for a competition called the Oinktoberfest in the fall of 2007 and just had to check this out! There I met the promoter, George and grilled him on what it takes and he suggested to cook a backyard event to learn how to do it and not to mess with the boys from Kansas City. I felt insulted and the ride home the wheels were really turning!

So in the spring of 2008, I found the best in the world attending Myron Mixon’s competition cooking school in Unadilla Georgia. When I returned home I contacted my friend Larry and started to build competition smokers and grills to practice on my willing and also unwilling neighbors. Now I was ready for my first comp in the fall of 2008, which was Big Belly’s first national KCBS competition in Clarence, New York at the Oinktoberfest. Amongst the 59 team field of national and local competitors , Big Belly received a call to walk for a 10th in pork!!! Now, this just set the hooook!!! Since that first time, Pete has cooked as far south as Geogia and has won over 80 awards, including grand and reserve grand championships in the National BBQ and KCBS professional series. The strongest categories are brisket and ribs however many first place awards for pork and chicken.