Earning the title of “the winningest woman in barbecue” is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Melissa Cookston’s career path, a journey that has seen her become a successful cookbook author, TV celebrity chef, world champion pitmaster, restaurateur, mentor and philanthropist. Her high-profile status has also allowed her to be part of an elite group of barbecue pitmasters serving as ambassadors of Seaboard Foods’ Prairie Fresh line of pork products. Her cooking skills were highlighted as part of a recent event that gave members of the media a farm-to-processing-plant-to-fork look at the painstakingly rigorous process of producing pork, “The Prairie Fresh Way.”
“Prairie Fresh has a huge commitment to consistency and reliability,” Cookston said in a Q&A on the brand’s website. “They have a unique perspective on how pork should be raised, called ‘The Prairie Fresh Way.’ In my businesses, you have to be invested in the details. You need to know where your hogs are coming from, how they are raised and what they are eating. All of that carries over to the finished product, whether it’s a pulled pork sandwich or competition ribs. And that’s where Prairie Fresh excels.”
This is the message she widely promotes when talking about her commitment to only cook Prairie Fresh pork, not just on the competitive barbecue circuit, but on the menu of her restaurant and catering business. She is one of several ambassadors of the brand, along with other champion pitmasters and chefs, including: Joe Pearce (Slap’s BBQ); Brad Orrison and Brooke Orrison-Lewis (The Shed BBQ and Blues Joint); Chef Jean-Paul Bourgeois; Matt Abdoo (executive chef and partner of Pig Beach BBQ); Brad Leighninger (Gettin’ Basted BBQ Restaurant, Downing Street Pour House and Mythical ‘Wich); and Richard Fergola (Pitmaster of Fergolicious BBQ team).
Melissa Cookston is a valued Prairie Fresh brand ambassador. (Source: Prairie Fresh)Early inspiration
Cookston was first introduced to competition barbecue about 30 years ago when her now-husband Pete, took her on a first date to a barbecue contest. She shared details of her journey with members of the media after she and Pete catered a memorable meal featuring Prairie Fresh pork, capping off the day-long, Seaboard-hosted tour.
“I was so awestruck,” she said after attending that first contest.
Having grown up in a small Mississippi town she had never had exposure or accessibility to such events, but she was immediately hooked.
What she knew about barbecue to that point was limited to fond memories of when she was a young girl, and her grandfather would bring her along to his local coffee shop that also doubled as a local barbecue joint. If she hung around there long enough on a given day, she learned the reward was usually a pork sandwich, which she loved. She wasn’t sure if that love was because of the experience of being with a group of entertaining characters or the fact that the food was really “that good,” but she didn’t care.
After experiencing that first contest, Cookston immediately recognized that anything cooked during that era’s male-dominated contests, she could cook better.
“I was like, ‘I can do this; I know I can do this,’” she said.
She started out making her own rub, from scratch, because there were no options to look up hundreds of recipes on the internet or watch YouTube videos back then. She didn’t realize most teams bought their rubs and sauces off the shelf and modified them just enough to call them their own.
“They still do that to this day,” she said. “Meanwhile, I went to the grocery store and started pulling seasonings off the shelf and made what I thought was a really good barbecue rub.”
And because there were no commercial smokers available back then, her first smoker was a gift from Pete, crafted from an old propane tank.
“That’s how I learned to manage a fire,”she said.
She and Pete began competing in contests in about 1997. She’ll never forget entering her first competition because she was eight months pregnant at the time and there were threats of tornadoes in the small Mississippi town where the event was held. Cookston remembered huddling around (and under) her smoker to stay warm.
Leap of faith
In their careers, Pete and Melissa learned plenty about the foodservice industry, each of them working for years as directors of operations with nationally branded restaurant chains and earned a tidy living for themselves. Back then, they competed in small, local barbecue cookoffs just two or three times a year, knowing that to make a name for themselves in that arena they would have to cook in a lot more contests. So, they both quit their jobs and went whole hog into competitive barbecue cooking.
“Barbecue became a way of life for our family,” she said, and that includes that baby who is now 26 years old.
“Pete’s always been my sidekick,” she said, and knowing that they are often able to finish each other’s sentences and finish cooking a dish just as she would do it is a secret to their success. Taking the plunge together, the couple knew that if they ate, slept and breathed barbecue, they would either succeed together or know that they both had given it their all with no regrets about not trying.
Pete assured Melissa that if, and when, their team won the Memphis in May competition, just once, that would be their crowning achievement, and they would know they had officially arrived.
“He lied,” she joked. “That is not what happened.”
Cookston was Grand Champion of Memphis in May in 2010 and 2012 and won the whole hog category in a three-peat (2010-2012). She also won the Grand Championship at the 2012 Kingsford Invitational. In total, Cookston won seven world championships and was the first woman to be inducted in the Barbecue Hall of Fame, barbecue’s top honor. She authored two cookbooks of Southern recipes, “Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room” was published in 2014, and two years later, “Smokin’ Hot in the South.”
In 2011, the Cookstons opened a thriving barbecue restaurant, Memphis Barbecue Co., based in Horn Lake, Miss., in addition to selling a line of Melissa Cookston rubs, sauces, pork products, cooking accessories and more via The BBQ Allstars website.
“I’m the anomaly; I’m a woman in a man’s game,” she said, which has given her opportunities to achieve national notoriety. She’s been a celebrity judge for each season of Netflix’s “Barbecue Showdown,” and has appeared in several other competitive cooking TV shows and series.
She’s gotten used to being the target of some social media-based TV trolls who make her age and appearance a negative topic of discussion.
“I didn’t sign up for a beauty competition, I’m a barbecue cook,” she said. “I’ve had my head in a smoker for 30 years, I’ve got scars, I’ve got no fingerprints,” she joked, thanks to hot pits and many burns over the years.
She decided to retire from competitive cooking in 2023 with that year’s Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest as her swan song. She now makes appearances and cooks for special events as an ambassador for the Prairie Fresh line of premium pork and has more time to focus on her businesses, including operating her restaurant and catering company and The BBQ Allstars website, selling and shipping sauces, rubs and food across the country.
Proud pork ambassador
The one constant before and after retirement is her loyalty to Prairie Fresh, which she clarified in a testimonial on the brand’s website.
“Without a doubt, Prairie Fresh USA Prime is the very best pork I have ever seen in my career. That’s the brand we sell at my retail location, The BBQ Allstars, and it’s the top tier when it comes to marbling, tenderness and flavor.
“Consistency is the name of the game,” she added. “At my restaurant, we go out of our way to provide consistent quality to our customers. We run multiple loads of ribs every day, so we always have fresh meat coming off the pit. We take the extra steps to provide a consistent product, and I want the same thing from my meat supplier.”
Outside of the restaurant, Cookston’s real passion and focus nowadays is to promote competitive barbecue cooking to high school-age kids and teach them not only how to cook, but life skills. Cookston founded a nonprofit, the World Junior BBQ League (WJBL), after serving as a judge in a Food Network TV show pitting Texas high schools against each other in a barbecue cooking contest. She was inspired by the participants and how much they learned, but not just about cooking, the experience also taught them about teamwork, leadership, moral standards, work ethic and interpersonal communications.
“And if nothing else, they know how to feed themselves and others,” she said.
She came to a realization on her way home from the kids’ event and knew she had another opportunity to make a difference.
“Texas is not the only place that should be doing this, we need to be doing this everywhere. These kids were right; these are the kinds of kids we want to be running our country.”
WJBL held its world championship and fall festival in October, with a $25,000 purse for the winners and drawing participants from around the globe. The organization welcomes kids from all backgrounds, Cookston said, especially those with special needs and at-risk high schoolers, many of whom move on to pursue careers in culinary arts.
