The wild journey so far…
Back in 2017 I attended the BBQ & Beer Roadshow at Doomben Racecourse and heard the incredible Brenda from the Shank Sistas team speak on a panel hosted by Ben from Smoking Hot Confessions. I looked around and noticed there weren’t that many women involved in barbecue, so I reached out to Linda from Pits Perfect, another female-led team making waves in the competition barbecue scene. We started a small Facebook group of around 25 women who were barbecue competitors and business owners, and our little community was born. I started judging the competitions around the same time and quickly got hooked on the whole scene. My BBQ journey has started years before that, in a little pub in Melbourne called the Gasometer Hotel, and now the fire was roaring.
Over the last 5 years the group has grown to over 800 members across Australia (and a few of our friends from Aotearoa - New Zealand) and we have the most incredible group of women grillers comprising home cooks, business owners and entrepreneurs, award-winning and emerging competition teams, brand representatives, event promoters, content creators, judges and everything in between.
While the pandemic certainly threw the barbecue scene into hibernation, the group kept growing. I now run the Facebook group, Instagram, and this website in my spare time and it’s certainly a passion project, and one that I love so much. I’m grateful for the support of some powerhouse women (and blokes!) in the scene who have championed this community and also those members who have supported Women of Low & Slow BBQ Australia via merchandise sales that lessen the financial load as we grow.
My vision for this project is a big one. I see a Country Women’s Association-style cookbook, I see women’s barbecue meet-ups, events and competitions, I see women front-and-centre in all the platforms where barbecue is promoted, and masterclasses run by and for women across Australia, Aotearoa and the world. I’m so grateful that you’re here, reading this. I couldn’t have imagined that barbecue would take me here, and now I’m excited to see how far this adventure will go.