Ah, fleeting fame

I just met Chris Lilly of the Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q Competition Cooking Team, and the winner of four Memphis in May World Championships and eight state barbecue grand championships across the Southeast. The man is a barbeque legend. And he knew my blog.

I was never a sports fan. I'm not much of a movie fan. I'm not much of a music fan. Don't get me wrong, I like all of those things, but I've never been impressed when I met a famous person. Living in New York City, you run into famous people all the time and most of them are jerks. In New York, the only people who notice the famous are the fans or the out of towners.

About 20 years ago I literally ran into Georgia Engel who played Georgette on the Mary Tyler Moore show. She was leaving the bank and I was walking in and neither one of us were paying attention. We literally walked into each other. We exchanged a few pleasantness and parted, but I still remember that chance meeting. I have to say that television does not do Ms. Engel justice. She is by far the most beautiful woman I have ever met in my life.

Today's chance meeting with Chris was something like that. Adam Perry Lang introduced us at Daisy May's BBQ where I stopped in for a quick sandwich. I was hoping to get in and out of Daisy May's quickly, but fate intervened. Chris is in New York cooking with Adam for a party. Which party and where it is, he wouldn't say. Someone's going to be eating good tonight!

I'm absolutely thrilled to meet one of my barbecue heroes. His recipes have helped me learn a lot about the art of low and slow. You can read about my cooking his version of pulled pork back on September 17 & 19 right here on this blog. Chris seems like a real nice, down to earth type of guy, but what impressed me most was he knew my blog. Wow.

PS. To my friend Matt - The Backyard Chef over at the Hampton Smoker, I am cooking this weekend come hell or high water. And I'll blog about it too! Unlike someone I know.

PPS - I had the Pulled Pork Sandwich and a Bowl of Red from Daisy May's for lunch. Damn good stuff.

PPPS- The photograph of Chris Lilly is courtesy of 101zinfandels.com