August 26, 2025 • 13 mins
This podcast episode delves into the intricate world of barbecue and competition cooking, featuring a candid dialogue with David Stidham from Compart Durock. The primary focus centers on the nuances of cooking for historical figures and the authorship of barbecue traditions. Throughout our conversation, we explore the challenges and humorous anecdotes from competitive cooking, including the often tedious emphasis on presentation, particularly the use of garnish, which David critiques as an unnecessary distraction from the quality of the meat itself. Additionally, we engage in lighthearted yet profound discussions about personal culinary preferences and the ideal last meal, revealing insights into our shared passion for exceptional barbecue. Join us as we navigate these topics with seriousness and a commitment to the art of grilling.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- Compart Durock
- Miami Dolphins
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Welcome to Barbecue Nationwith JT and.
Leanne After Hours, theconversation that continued after
the show was done.
Hey, everybody, it's JT andthis is a special version of Barbecue
Nation.
It is brought to you in partby Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Beef you can be proud to serveyour family and friends.
That's Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to After Hours here inthe nation.
(00:33):
I'm JT along with Leanne andDavid Stidham today from Compart
Durock.
This is the part where wetorture David for a few minutes here,
and it'll be fun, though.
So, David, are you ready?
I can't even find my script today.
That's how screwed up my lastweek has been.
But I know because I was allunchartered territory for me.
I had no idea there was agrilling gonna happen here.
(00:54):
Yeah, it's not bad, but Ithink I wrote most of those, so I
think I can remember most of them.
You can.
Anyway.
So let's start with the firstone, the easy one.
If you could dine cook for andthen dine with a historical figure,
who would it be and what wouldbe on the menu?
(01:15):
Oh, wow.
Oh, you guys aren't.
You guys aren't playingaround, are you?
The person can be alive or not.
So that might broaden your selection.
Yeah, with AI, we can doanything anymore.
So, you know.
Well, that's true.
That's true.
I. I immediately went to historical.
And.
And so, gosh, I.
(01:39):
You know what?
I'm a big football fan.
There you go.
And.
And so I would.
I would love to.
The tailgate and cook barbecuefor the 72 Super bowl champion Dolphins.
Miami Dolphins.
Ah, there you go.
There you go.
With Bob Griesy and Don Shuland all those guys.
(02:00):
I mean, my.
That was the first.
My first love of football.
When my dad used to.
We lived in South Florida, andso I've been a Dolphin fan ever since.
And so to be able to dosomething with a team that's.
It's never been replicatedundefeated season, and that would
be a lot of fun.
I think you'd have to cook alot for those boys.
What would you make them?
(02:21):
What would you make them?
Oh, you.
It's going to be.
It's going to be, you know,pulled pork and ribs and.
And the kind of stuff that wecook now, you know, and the new.
Hot dogs, the new sauce.
I don't know if anybody knew it.
I don't think anybody knewwhat Wagyu was back in 1972.
Right.
(02:46):
If.
If If Leanne made you supremeruler of barbecue for one day, just
one day, David, and what wouldyou decree as supreme ruler?
And everybody had to adhere to it.
Oh, my God, you guys.
(03:15):
You must use Compart Duroc.
Yeah, I mean, that'sobviously, if you want the best,
you know, cook a bet, but, ButI, I, I, I.
That's a scapegoat.
Well, you know, when you were, when.
You were competing, there'salways something along the competition
trail that kind of bugs you inthe rules, you know, like, gosh,
(03:39):
you know, why can't I use thisas garnish?
Or why can't I use.
Or why do I have to build aparsley box?
Right, right.
So if it's something that'skind of a gripe that works, if it
was.
If it was a competition,Barbe, I, I did a lot, and I think
you did a little bit of thisyourself, Leanne.
(04:00):
I did a lot of solo cooks,and, and the last thing I wanted
to do was be up on, like,creating a perfect parsley box.
And then I, I look at whatother sanctions are doing with this,
putting on aluminum foil orputting in a disc, and, like, the
steaks, the steak guys are doing.
Right.
I, I, I would have loved,loved, loved to have been able to
(04:24):
just put in a beautiful box ofmeat without having it under a bed
of greens.
Right.
And so thanks for the garnish.
Garnish free for a day.
Yeah.
I mean, and as a matter offact, there's one competition where
I did it.
I put, put a little bit justfor traction, but you couldn't really
see it.
And I built my pork box justso big, and it was almost like a
(04:47):
Memphis and May box.
And, and so.
And I actually won pork that day.
And everybody's looking at mybox saying, oh, my God, you didn't
do the garnish?
I said, actually, there's atiny little bit down there, but you
can't really see it.
But, but that surprised mebecause I did it that way, and I
just had too much good meat.
I was putting it all in there.
(05:08):
I was gonna fill that box up.
It was a good day.
Yeah, it was, but.
But I'm sorry, David, do you think.
It was everybody had to followthe same suit that everybody else
had to do?
Yeah.
But do you think this, thattalking about the garnish and stuff
personally now, I didn't hitthe competition trail like you guys
did.
Okay?
I'm, I did other things, butI've never seen the real significance
(05:32):
except keeping the Parsley.
People in business that.
That the parsley adds.
I mean, yeah, it's an offsetin color and all that, but I'm kind
of with you, David.
I would rather just see a.
A box full of beautiful meat.
Nice, you know, sliced orwhatever it is.
And there it is, I think.
(05:53):
Right.
You know, and don't.
Don't get me wrong, Jeff, The.
The parklet does add.
It adds value.
That's why you see it in.
In butcher shops and stufflike that.
But when you're by yourselfor, you know, when you're.
When you're.
When you're.
When your.
Your time and your energy isfocused on putting the best product
out there as possible, why areyou spending an hour, two hours of
(06:14):
that precious time creatingthat kind of box?
And.
And that just.
It was just one little thingfor me.
And then you have to put thewet paper towels on it.
You have to put it in a coolplace, and there are all the different
things you have to do to makesure that when you put the.
And here's the.
You know, but you have to laythe paper towels on the corners and
the edges when you put yourmeat in, and, you know, then you
have to wipe them off.
And it was just.
It's a big deal.
(06:35):
And I'm just like, man, theamount of.
But you know what?
Some people say, hey, that'spart of the.
Part of it.
And so when I got it.
But I loved when I was able todo competitions outside of KCBS where
we could not have to worryabout that and just be judged on
the flavor and the tendernessand the taste of the.
The meat we produce that wespend all our true energy on.
(06:57):
Well, I'll tell you when itcame into mind about, we'll get off
the parsley in a minute, folks.
But when we were at the Jack,what, two years ago, Leanne, something
like that, you were judging,and I was just annoying people.
But I went by one of the teamsfrom Texas, and they had a beautiful
big rig and couple rigs,actually, and, you know, great equipment
(07:20):
there.
There's four guys sitting at atable with two huge boxes of parsley.
L. Literally taking them outand seeing, well, this is a good
one.
That's tweezers.
Yeah, like that.
And I'm like, nah.
Yeah.
I literally would go to theback of the.
I would go to the produceaisle and say, hey, look, can you
bring me.
Can I go back and look at your parsley?
And I would literally buy fourbags of parsley because I want it
(07:42):
to be the fluffy Parsley, notthe leafy parsley.
And then you gotta separate it.
It was like, oh, God, I thinkwe've already beat Parkley to death
here, so.
Yeah, yeah, that's fine.
That's fine.
So did you ever have to cookin your underwear in the snow or
rain at a competition or evenat home?
(08:03):
But not just.
That's good, that's good,that's good.
What.
What's the worst place youever had to cook?
I cooked a competition inWarrington, Wisconsin.
And this is when I first.
This is my first year.
And as a matter of fact, theshigging and grinning guys were there.
And.
And I'm by my.
(08:24):
I've gone by myself.
I actually know.
You know, I think I had one ofmy sons with me and he stayed in
the car.
It.
And I.
And this is when I had a tent.
And I.
And I didn't really have a trailer.
I had my truck.
I had my tent.
Anyway, I had this big tent upand it was raining so hard over my
grills, my smokers, that I wasliterally a broom handle doing like
(08:47):
this, taking the water off sothey don't collapse.
And I had to do that all night long.
And it was miserable.
And it was.
And that's when I realized.
I said, these guys havetrailers for a reason.
And I gotta step my game upbecause it was rough.
I mean, it was real rough.
And the chicken green guys,they're hilarious because they came
(09:07):
over and.
And they're talking to me and.
And.
And I'm.
This is only like my thirdcompetition ever.
And of course, you know,everyone's got a drink in their hand
and it's like midnight.
And so we just had a good timeand talked and all that, and they
did really well.
And I don't think I got a callthat day that was a mess.
(09:27):
So, David, what's the best andworst, two different ones.
Concert you ever saw?
Oh, wow.
Best.
My best concert I ever saw wasQueen when they had Freddie Mercury.
(09:48):
Right.
And.
And it was.
It was incredible.
And that's a.
That's a close.
That's a close to.
And you're gonna laugh when Isay this one.
But my dad, when I was young,I was.
I was like 11, and he took my.
My brother, who's 12, and Iwas 11, and we were in Memphis and
he took us to go see Kiss.
(10:09):
Yeah.
And I had the posters everywhere.
But here's the.
Here's the cool part aboutthat concert.
It was the year that AC DCcame to the United States and AC
DC warmed up for Kiss, and itwas like their third show in the
United States, and they rocked it.
And so I saw AC DC and Kiss,and then I also, a few years later,
I saw Billy Squire and Queen,and those were my best two worst.
(10:35):
I would say it was a MollyHatchet Blackfoot show.
Oh, it was terrible.
I mean, I like both thoseguys, but for some reason, there
was all kinds of problemsgoing on, and it was like the sound
issues and probably I don'tremember a lot of it because I was
hammered, but.
(10:55):
But if I had to pick a worse,that would be it.
Yeah, yeah.
A few of those I vaguelyremember, right.
Dave Mason and the DoobieBrothers and somebody else in Santa
Barbara one time.
And after, like, the thirdsong, I don't remember much.
There's some different reasonsfor that, right?
There's different reasons for that.
Yeah.
Like, oh, my goodness.
(11:21):
Ford, Chevy or Dodge?
Depends on what you're buying.
If it's a truck, it's Ford.
It's truck.
Yeah, yeah, Ford.
Okay.
All right, very good.
All right, last.
Last question.
David, what would your.
What would your last meal beif you were on death row?
(11:44):
You don't have to worry aboutcalories, that's for sure.
No, no, you know what?
It probably.
Probably a wagu cowboy ribeyewith lobster tails and some.
Some scallops and, you know,baked potato, loaded down.
Glass of wine.
Yeah, yeah.
How's that sound?
Yeah.
Any dessert?
(12:05):
Maybe a chocolate lava cake.
I like the chocolate.
Leanne makes a pretty meanpecan pie, too, I'll tell you that.
Oh, my God, I do love pecan pie.
Oh, my God.
I should have thought.
I should have given a littlebit more thought.
Throw one of those in.
Yeah.
Just for the heck of it.
(12:25):
David said.
Thank you, buddy, for beingwith us.
Thank you, guys.
I'm so grateful that you guysthought I would still be a good guest.
That's been a long time.
Absolutely.
So.
And don't forget, you can goto the Compart durock website.
You can order some stuff thereif you want, if they're not local
in your area.
(12:45):
So David will make sure theytake care of you there.
Absolutely.
All right, we'll be back nextweek with another edition of After
Hours.
So for Leanne and myself,thank you for listening.
And remember our motto, turnit, don't burn it.
Take care, everybody.
Welcome to Barbecue Nationwith JT and.
Leanne After Hours, theconversation that continued after
the show was done.
Hey, everybody, it's JT andthis is a special version of Barbecue
Nation.
It is brought to you in partby Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Beef you can be proud to serveyour family and friends.
That's Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to After Hours here inthe nation.
(00:33):
I'm JT along with Leanne andDavid Stidham today from Compart
Durock.
This is the part where wetorture David for a few minutes here,
and it'll be fun, though.
So, David, are you ready?
I can't even find my script today.
That's how screwed up my lastweek has been.
But I know because I was allunchartered territory for me.
I had no idea there was agrilling gonna happen here.
(00:54):
Yeah, it's not bad, but Ithink I wrote most of those, so I
think I can remember most of them.
You can.
Anyway.
So let's start with the firstone, the easy one.
If you could dine cook for andthen dine with a historical figure,
who would it be and what wouldbe on the menu?
(01:15):
Oh, wow.
Oh, you guys aren't.
You guys aren't playingaround, are you?
The person can be alive or not.
So that might broaden your selection.
Yeah, with AI, we can doanything anymore.
So, you know.
Well, that's true.
That's true.
I. I immediately went to historical.
And.
And so, gosh, I.
(01:39):
You know what?
I'm a big football fan.
There you go.
And.
And so I would.
I would love to.
The tailgate and cook barbecuefor the 72 Super bowl champion Dolphins.
Miami Dolphins.
Ah, there you go.
There you go.
With Bob Griesy and Don Shuland all those guys.
(02:00):
I mean, my.
That was the first.
My first love of football.
When my dad used to.
We lived in South Florida, andso I've been a Dolphin fan ever since.
And so to be able to dosomething with a team that's.
It's never been replicatedundefeated season, and that would
be a lot of fun.
I think you'd have to cook alot for those boys.
What would you make them?
(02:21):
What would you make them?
Oh, you.
It's going to be.
It's going to be, you know,pulled pork and ribs and.
And the kind of stuff that wecook now, you know, and the new.
Hot dogs, the new sauce.
I don't know if anybody knew it.
I don't think anybody knewwhat Wagyu was back in 1972.
Right.
(02:46):
If.
If If Leanne made you supremeruler of barbecue for one day, just
one day, David, and what wouldyou decree as supreme ruler?
And everybody had to adhere to it.
Oh, my God, you guys.
(03:15):
You must use Compart Duroc.
Yeah, I mean, that'sobviously, if you want the best,
you know, cook a bet, but, ButI, I, I, I.
That's a scapegoat.
Well, you know, when you were, when.
You were competing, there'salways something along the competition
trail that kind of bugs you inthe rules, you know, like, gosh,
(03:39):
you know, why can't I use thisas garnish?
Or why can't I use.
Or why do I have to build aparsley box?
Right, right.
So if it's something that'skind of a gripe that works, if it
was.
If it was a competition,Barbe, I, I did a lot, and I think
you did a little bit of thisyourself, Leanne.
(04:00):
I did a lot of solo cooks,and, and the last thing I wanted
to do was be up on, like,creating a perfect parsley box.
And then I, I look at whatother sanctions are doing with this,
putting on aluminum foil orputting in a disc, and, like, the
steaks, the steak guys are doing.
Right.
I, I, I would have loved,loved, loved to have been able to
(04:24):
just put in a beautiful box ofmeat without having it under a bed
of greens.
Right.
And so thanks for the garnish.
Garnish free for a day.
Yeah.
I mean, and as a matter offact, there's one competition where
I did it.
I put, put a little bit justfor traction, but you couldn't really
see it.
And I built my pork box justso big, and it was almost like a
(04:47):
Memphis and May box.
And, and so.
And I actually won pork that day.
And everybody's looking at mybox saying, oh, my God, you didn't
do the garnish?
I said, actually, there's atiny little bit down there, but you
can't really see it.
But, but that surprised mebecause I did it that way, and I
just had too much good meat.
I was putting it all in there.
(05:08):
I was gonna fill that box up.
It was a good day.
Yeah, it was, but.
But I'm sorry, David, do you think.
It was everybody had to followthe same suit that everybody else
had to do?
Yeah.
But do you think this, thattalking about the garnish and stuff
personally now, I didn't hitthe competition trail like you guys
did.
Okay?
I'm, I did other things, butI've never seen the real significance
(05:32):
except keeping the Parsley.
People in business that.
That the parsley adds.
I mean, yeah, it's an offsetin color and all that, but I'm kind
of with you, David.
I would rather just see a.
A box full of beautiful meat.
Nice, you know, sliced orwhatever it is.
And there it is, I think.
(05:53):
Right.
You know, and don't.
Don't get me wrong, Jeff, The.
The parklet does add.
It adds value.
That's why you see it in.
In butcher shops and stufflike that.
But when you're by yourselfor, you know, when you're.
When you're.
When you're.
When your.
Your time and your energy isfocused on putting the best product
out there as possible, why areyou spending an hour, two hours of
(06:14):
that precious time creatingthat kind of box?
And.
And that just.
It was just one little thingfor me.
And then you have to put thewet paper towels on it.
You have to put it in a coolplace, and there are all the different
things you have to do to makesure that when you put the.
And here's the.
You know, but you have to laythe paper towels on the corners and
the edges when you put yourmeat in, and, you know, then you
have to wipe them off.
And it was just.
It's a big deal.
(06:35):
And I'm just like, man, theamount of.
But you know what?
Some people say, hey, that'spart of the.
Part of it.
And so when I got it.
But I loved when I was able todo competitions outside of KCBS where
we could not have to worryabout that and just be judged on
the flavor and the tendernessand the taste of the.
The meat we produce that wespend all our true energy on.
(06:57):
Well, I'll tell you when itcame into mind about, we'll get off
the parsley in a minute, folks.
But when we were at the Jack,what, two years ago, Leanne, something
like that, you were judging,and I was just annoying people.
But I went by one of the teamsfrom Texas, and they had a beautiful
big rig and couple rigs,actually, and, you know, great equipment
(07:20):
there.
There's four guys sitting at atable with two huge boxes of parsley.
L. Literally taking them outand seeing, well, this is a good
one.
That's tweezers.
Yeah, like that.
And I'm like, nah.
Yeah.
I literally would go to theback of the.
I would go to the produceaisle and say, hey, look, can you
bring me.
Can I go back and look at your parsley?
And I would literally buy fourbags of parsley because I want it
(07:42):
to be the fluffy Parsley, notthe leafy parsley.
And then you gotta separate it.
It was like, oh, God, I thinkwe've already beat Parkley to death
here, so.
Yeah, yeah, that's fine.
That's fine.
So did you ever have to cookin your underwear in the snow or
rain at a competition or evenat home?
(08:03):
But not just.
That's good, that's good,that's good.
What.
What's the worst place youever had to cook?
I cooked a competition inWarrington, Wisconsin.
And this is when I first.
This is my first year.
And as a matter of fact, theshigging and grinning guys were there.
And.
And I'm by my.
(08:24):
I've gone by myself.
I actually know.
You know, I think I had one ofmy sons with me and he stayed in
the car.
It.
And I.
And this is when I had a tent.
And I.
And I didn't really have a trailer.
I had my truck.
I had my tent.
Anyway, I had this big tent upand it was raining so hard over my
grills, my smokers, that I wasliterally a broom handle doing like
(08:47):
this, taking the water off sothey don't collapse.
And I had to do that all night long.
And it was miserable.
And it was.
And that's when I realized.
I said, these guys havetrailers for a reason.
And I gotta step my game upbecause it was rough.
I mean, it was real rough.
And the chicken green guys,they're hilarious because they came
(09:07):
over and.
And they're talking to me and.
And.
And I'm.
This is only like my thirdcompetition ever.
And of course, you know,everyone's got a drink in their hand
and it's like midnight.
And so we just had a good timeand talked and all that, and they
did really well.
And I don't think I got a callthat day that was a mess.
(09:27):
So, David, what's the best andworst, two different ones.
Concert you ever saw?
Oh, wow.
Best.
My best concert I ever saw wasQueen when they had Freddie Mercury.
(09:48):
Right.
And.
And it was.
It was incredible.
And that's a.
That's a close.
That's a close to.
And you're gonna laugh when Isay this one.
But my dad, when I was young,I was.
I was like 11, and he took my.
My brother, who's 12, and Iwas 11, and we were in Memphis and
he took us to go see Kiss.
(10:09):
Yeah.
And I had the posters everywhere.
But here's the.
Here's the cool part aboutthat concert.
It was the year that AC DCcame to the United States and AC
DC warmed up for Kiss, and itwas like their third show in the
United States, and they rocked it.
And so I saw AC DC and Kiss,and then I also, a few years later,
I saw Billy Squire and Queen,and those were my best two worst.
(10:35):
I would say it was a MollyHatchet Blackfoot show.
Oh, it was terrible.
I mean, I like both thoseguys, but for some reason, there
was all kinds of problemsgoing on, and it was like the sound
issues and probably I don'tremember a lot of it because I was
hammered, but.
(10:55):
But if I had to pick a worse,that would be it.
Yeah, yeah.
A few of those I vaguelyremember, right.
Dave Mason and the DoobieBrothers and somebody else in Santa
Barbara one time.
And after, like, the thirdsong, I don't remember much.
There's some different reasonsfor that, right?
There's different reasons for that.
Yeah.
Like, oh, my goodness.
(11:21):
Ford, Chevy or Dodge?
Depends on what you're buying.
If it's a truck, it's Ford.
It's truck.
Yeah, yeah, Ford.
Okay.
All right, very good.
All right, last.
Last question.
David, what would your.
What would your last meal beif you were on death row?
(11:44):
You don't have to worry aboutcalories, that's for sure.
No, no, you know what?
It probably.
Probably a wagu cowboy ribeyewith lobster tails and some.
Some scallops and, you know,baked potato, loaded down.
Glass of wine.
Yeah, yeah.
How's that sound?
Yeah.
Any dessert?
(12:05):
Maybe a chocolate lava cake.
I like the chocolate.
Leanne makes a pretty meanpecan pie, too, I'll tell you that.
Oh, my God, I do love pecan pie.
Oh, my God.
I should have thought.
I should have given a littlebit more thought.
Throw one of those in.
Yeah.
Just for the heck of it.
(12:25):
David said.
Thank you, buddy, for beingwith us.
Thank you, guys.
I'm so grateful that you guysthought I would still be a good guest.
That's been a long time.
Absolutely.
So.
And don't forget, you can goto the Compart durock website.
You can order some stuff thereif you want, if they're not local
in your area.
(12:45):
So David will make sure theytake care of you there.
Absolutely.
All right, we'll be back nextweek with another edition of After
Hours.
So for Leanne and myself,thank you for listening.
And remember our motto, turnit, don't burn it.
Take care, everybody.
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.