THE FOOD
STORY.
“I was seven years old standing next to a pit in Tennessee. That was the moment. The fire in me sparked.”
WHERE IT
ALL STARTED
Michael McDearman grew up on the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee, and BBQ wasn’t a hobby in that house — it was just how the family enjoyed life…celebrated. His earliest BBQ memories are of standing next to a pit, watching smoke rise through the trees, learning by watching. Nobody called it craft. Nobody called it technique. It was just Sunday.
His grandmother cooked like the pages of Southern Living had walked into the kitchen and stayed for supper. His mother’s “showing by doing” approach in the kitchen. His dad’s Sunday flank steak was a ritual. MawMaw cooked by feel and by smell, and she fed everybody who came through the door. The lesson was simple: food was one of her love languages and how she could take care of people.
The spark that grew into a lifelong passion — a kid on a paper route, a practice cook, a conversation with a man named Tony Stone beside a pit. After that, the fire didn’t go out. It smoldered. Was fanned. Needed the right fuel and then…the coals were stoked and the fire burned.
He spent the next decades on every side of it. Restaurants. Contests. Corporate. Personal. A grill he designed and built because nobody else was making what he needed. The Beef. It’s What’s For Dinner. American Grillmaster Tour, teaching folks how to cook a steak they would actually be proud of. Two seasons of BBQ Pitmasters. Series Director of the Sam’s Club National BBQ Tour — 31 events in 32 weeks, parking-lot pits, the richest circuit the sport had seen. Judging and teaching judges on the big stages: Jack Daniel’s, the American Royal, the World Food Championships.
Over 35 years he competed in or directed 200+ competitions. He opened four restaurants. He represented 50+ brands in live fire. He stopped guessing a long time ago. And he does not want anybody else to have to.
Stoking the Coals is sharing the secrets. Helping you with the why and how of it all. Not secrets for sale. Just the know-how a backyard cook was never handed.
35 YEARS
OF FIRE
This isn’t a highlight reel built for a website. It’s a glimpse at the path, not a memoir or an autobiography…too much to mention or try and capture over the years — this is the story that started with a kid standing next to a pit in Tennessee and didn’t stop.
MAWMAW
KNEW IT FIRST
“What I know about feeding folks started in her home. There is something about family, friends and even strangers coming together over food.”
Michael’s grandmother — MawMaw — was a Southern Living institution. Published more times than most of us have fingers and toes. She cooked by feel, by smell, by the kind of instinct that only comes from decades of repetition and a genuine love for the people who enjoyed it.
The precision he later brought to competition — temperature, timing, texture — started by watching her. She just operated with different tools. Her kitchen taught him the whole job in one line: it’s all just heats and eats.
BY THE NUMBERS
START WITH
THE KNOW-HOW
Free proven recipes and the techniques behind them. Brisket, ribs, pork, fire management. No catch. No credit card.
BOOK
MICHAEL
Demos, judging, emceeing, and live-fire appearances. From a backyard gathering to a festival stage.
Book Michael →