The Story of Joe Davidson
Joe Davidson is a nationally recognized elite competition barbeque chef and barbeque business leader.
Joe has won more than 300 barbeque championships, including the Jack Daniel’s World Championship, the American Royal World Championship, the Great Pork Barbeqlossal, the Head-to-Head World Championship, the World Brisket Open Championship, the Canadian Salmon Grand Championship, the Rib Championship at the San Antonio Rodeo and BBQ Championship, the Memphis in May World BBQ Championship, and numerous state and regional titles.
He has won for beef, pork, fish, chicken, game, vegetables, sides, sauces, rubs, and marinades. He has won across the regional divides of great barbeque—in Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, the Carolinas, Missouri, Tennessee, and the Pacific Northwest. At the 2009 Memphis in May Championship, Joe set a contest record, winning in five categories (Wings, Beans, Poultry, Vinegar BBQ, and Ribs).
Joe is also emerging as a barbeque celebrity chef. He has been an honorary chef at the South Beach Food Festival, the Greenbrier Resort and the LaVarenne Cooking Academy. His "How to Barbeque" videos have sold more than one million copies through Wal-Mart.
He has been featured on numerous television shows and in scores of print publications. In July 2009, Playboy magazine featured his “Best Beans on the Planet.” He also recently became the first barbeque champion to go digital—launching social media efforts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Digg, and Delicious.
Joe also runs team-building programs for Fortune 500 companies. In 2008-09 more than 6,500 executives participated in Joe’s Grill Camp corporate programs.
In addition, Joe is the cofounder - along with Jeff Stehney - of Oklahoma Joe’s Restaurants in Stillwater and Kansas City. Oklahoma Joe’s is the top Zagat-rated barbeque restaurant in the extremely competitive Kansas City market. This year, the restaurants were featured in Gourmet magazine and were chosen by celebrity-chef and TV personality Anthony Bourdain as one of his “13 Places to Eat Before You Die” in Men’s Health magazine.
Joe began his barbeque career in 1987, when he designed and manufactured 12 smokers and brought them to the State Fair of Oklahoma. By the end of the day, he had sold all 12 and had orders for 108 more. From this start he built his first babeque company, Oklahoma Joe’s. When he sold it to CharBroil in 1998, Oklahoma Joe’s had more than 150 employees building more than 100,000 barbeque grills and smokers a year.