Becky Stalcup
Co-Founder, Recipe Developer and Boss
“30+ years ago, when I first got married,” Becky tells us, “I had a very limited idea of how to cook, I cooked a lot of the same thing all of the time. I had no idea how to actually learn how to cook, until one day I happened onto a cooking show. I was immediately excited to watch them yet, all the while thinking there is no way I could ever do that!
“However, after some time I thought, ‘Well, I have a few cook books too, so why not try to do more?’ We ate some interesting things for a few years. I kept practicing - which is really the best way to learn anything - and over time I started to get better and better until one day I was changing the recipes to fit what our family liked to eat.
“All of a sudden cooking was fun and I found myself creating new recipes to try out. Was it perfect? Not always, but again: practice! You get a lot of practice when you’re feeding 5 other people in the family. Is every dish perfect? No, but now I am always stretching to try new things and make some of the classics even better. These days I can figure out what went wrong and fix it.
“Over the last few years Wes found that he couldn't eat gluten. So we started a journey to be a gluten free house. This is not a very easy process. So many things have gluten in them. I learned to read every label and ingredient! We have developed some great gluten free recipes. 5 BarBQ is a 100% gluten free place. (except for a sandwich bun, and we have a gluten free version for that!)
“Wes has always loved smoking meat. We both really enjoy the time spent building a fire and cooking the meat. We started playing with spices over the years, We finally came up with our signature 5 pepper rub. It is uniquely us in its flavors. We wanted something that could stand up to the rich flavor of a properly smoked brisket, but that would also taste good on chicken and fish. We tweak the base flavors a little to suit the meat we are cooking. We started cooking more for our friends and family. They started asking us, ‘Why not start selling your food? We would buy it!’ So, the thought process started and 5 BarBQ was born.”