The story begins with the development of an outdoor barbecue cooker in 1993 by cooking partner Tom Crowe. Tom met my cooking mentor, Nick Zervos, at the Sam's Wholesale Club parking lot in North Charleston. Tom had one of his newly created trailers behind his truck and Nick was eager to find out where he purchased it. This led to a long ranging discussion of trucks, trailers, and barbecue cookers. Thus, the early prototype of the Tom Crowe Cooker was born.

We started cooking at many outdoor parties for friends and family and entering local barbecue cooking contests. Our first one was in the rain at Marion square in downtown Charleston. Conrad Zimmerman, Mike Zemke, Andrew Hagood, Tom and I cooked a whole hog on Conrad's brand new Crowe Cooker. We came in Second Place which spurred us on to other events across South Carolina and the U.S. Since then, under the name BlackJack Barbecue Cooking Team, we have a 1st Place finish in 1999 and a 2nd Place finish in 2000 at the Prestigious Palmetto Pig Pickin' Contest, the South Carolina State Championship.

In May 2001, we ventured all the way to the Super Bowl of Swine, the Memphis in May World Barbecue Cooking Championship. We were issued an invitation in March and completed the construction of the finest Crowe Cooker ever built. We also built the BlackJack Barbecue™ Cookin' Shack- a façade of a lowcountry plantation cabin. We loaded the supplies and shack into a 17' U-Haul truck and pulled the cooker all the way to Memphis. After 5 very memorable days of cooking, sweating, and judging, we brought home the 8th Place trophy in the Shoulder's category. This Top Ten finish guarantees our acceptance into the 2002 Memphis in May contest. Below are the corporate sponsors who assisted in the underwriting of expenses:

~ Jimmy Hagood, Pitmaster
Tidewater Catering LLC