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Matt Pitman grew up in Chattanooga, but during his childhood he made frequent trips to Scottsboro to visit his grandparents, Sam and June Tipton. On these trips he often watched his Granny June cook.
“Every Sunday after church she cooked these massive meals that covered the entire dinner table,” Pittman said.
It was those Sunday dinners that sparked Pittman’s interest in cooking and led him to a successful career in barbecue.
“My Granny June taught me to cook,” he said. “I was always in her kitchen asking questions and helping her.”
Pittman even named his favorite pit “June” after his late grandmother.
Today Pittman operates Meat Church, where he sells his own custom BBQ rubs, hats and shirts.
The business, he said, started as an accident.
“Meat Church started as a competition team, but I was selected to be on the TV show BBQ Pitmasters in 2014 and we really took off from there,” Pittman said.
Pittman said his audition video for BBQ Pitmasters, where he says “when you have my barbecue it’s going to be like having a religious experience in your mouth,” went viral on Twitter.
“We had big names in BBQ tweeting it all over the place,” he said. “It got the attention of the (BBQ Pitmasters) production company.”
Pittman said he learned that he made it on the show while in the Alabama team hotel room during the 2014 Sugar Bowl.
“That made the loss to Oklahoma later that day a little easier to swallow,” he joked. “I was on a high after getting that phone call.”
After the show aired, Pittman launched MeatChurch.com, where he began selling the two rubs he had handmade on the show, along with two hats and two shirts.
“Now we have nine rubs, tons of hats and shirts, and (our products) are sold around the world,” Pittman said.
While on BBQ Pittmasters, Pittman got another good break.
“One of the meats I had to cook on BBQ Pitmasters was a steak,” he said. “I cooked it on my Big Green Egg, and that got their attention. Now, I’m one of their brand ambassadors and do lots of cool events for them. I teach at their culinary center in Atlanta. They have also hired me to cook back stage at the Academy of Country Music Awards twice, and for the VIP Experience at Memphis in May. Just this past weekend I was one of their chefs at their annual Eggtoberfest at Stone Mountain Park.”
Pittman said his work as a chef and barbecue champion has led him to meet good people and have good times.
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| Matt Pittman and country music singer Luke Bryan. |
“In less than four years we have gotten to cook steaks for George Strait,” he said. “Luke Bryan drove us to Nashville to cook for his first ever stadium show in Tennessee, and we fed Chris Stapleton the day he won four ACMs. We also cooked for University of Tennessee’s head coach, Butch Jones, but I hope the folks of Alabama don’t hold that against me.”
Pittman said the one thing people need to know about preparing good barbecue is that you have to have patience.
“There is no shortcut to good barbecue,” he said. “There is no right or wrong way. I tell folks ‘I can’t tell you what tastes good to you.’ I offer free recipes on MeatChurch.com to show people my style, and hopefully they enjoy it with their friends and family.”
Though he now resides in Texas, Pittman still returns to Jackson County to visit his grandaddy Sam and mother, Jona Tipton.
