A North Carolina pitmaster is on Netflix’s new barbecue show. Can he come out on top?
Any barbecue competition worth its salt is going to have a North Carolina player in the mix.
For the new Netflix series “The American Barbecue Showdown,” Ashley Thompson of Benson is carrying the barbecue torch for North Carolina. The streaming service dropped the new cooking competition Friday, with Thompson competing as one of eight barbecue experts from around the country.
Thompson got into barbecue like a lot of North Carolinians, with after-church pig-pickings and cooking alongside his grandmother. He stayed up with his first whole hog at 12 years old and later branched out to shoulders, briskets, chicken and ribs. He has competed in more than two dozen competitions and collected few local trophies.
“I fell in love with it,” Thompson told The News & Observer. “When you think North Carolina, I think two things: basketball and barbecue.”
Thompson grew up eating at Kings BBQ in Kinston, calling their Pig in a Puppy — that’s a barbecue sandwich with a huge hushpuppy as the bun — a childhood treat. These days he calls Lexington Barbecue and Benson’s own Redneck BBQ Lab among his favorites.
Netflix casting call
For his day job, Thompson has sold cars for the last 16 years. One day he got a call from a Los Angeles number as he was walking out to take his lunch break.
“I almost didn’t answer it,” Thompson said, assuming it was a spam call. “Then they asked if I would be interested in trying out for a barbecue competition. Then I’m thinking, this is definitely a prank call.”
After a four-month trial of interviews and video demos of barbecue, Thompson was flown down to Atlanta to film the show. Then it became real. He found out he was one of eight competitors, narrowed down from 2,000 applicants. Filming took place a year ago.
The show itself goes beyond who can do the best pork shoulder, often pushing the pitmasters out of their comfort zones. One competitor is eliminated at the end of each episode with the ultimate winner getting an undetermined monetary prize.
Among the meats finding their way to the smoker are opossum and raccoon, both of which Thompson said he’d happily eat again.
“It’s not bad, I’m telling you,” Thompson said of smoked raccoon. “I would eat it again.”
There’s no such thing as single-serving barbecue. It either feeds a crowd or an army and is often the centerpiece for bringing a family or community together. Thompson said the show seems to capture that sense of togetherness that barbecue inspires.
“This is the show America needs,” Thompson said. “It’s not a hostile, cutthroat kind of show. There’s a message that’s a lot stronger than just cooking. It’s unity and helping each other out.”
Going on the show, Thompson said his goal was not to be the first one kicked off. He said he managed to do at least that, but can’t share the show’s outcome.
“I felt like I gave it my all,” Thompson said. “To even have been part of it is humbling, but I feel really good about my performance.”
Looking to the future, Thompson hopes he’s sold his last car. Now he’s looking to get into the barbecue business. He said he’s inspired by the wave of what he calls “craft barbecue” here in the Triangle, as a new generation of pitmasters open up ambitious restaurants.
Thompson’s competition partner, Jeremy “Big Worm” Murphy, died four years ago from cancer. The two met in high school at Wake Christian Academy, and Thompson named his barbecue company, Legacy Barbecue, in honor of his friend.
He said he hopes to get a food truck on the road soon and eventually open a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
“Barbecue is on fire in North Carolina and in the world right now,” Thompson said. “I think of it as craft beer. ... I’d love, in the future, to do a craft barbecue restaurant.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2020 at 6:11 PM with the headline "A North Carolina pitmaster is on Netflix’s new barbecue show. Can he come out on top?."
