Grillin’ and Chillin’ with Dr. BBQ

BY MARCIA BIGGS

When you ask Ray Lampe, the undisputed authority on just about everything grilled, if he thinks the COVID pandemic has put a damper on backyard cooking, you realize what a dumb question that is. This is, after all, Dr. BBQ himself, the acclaimed pitmaster, award-winning barbecue champion and television personality, author of 9 cookbooks, and partner with local restaurateurs Suzanne and Roger Perry in the popular Dr. BBQ restaurant in downtown St. Petersburg’s trendy EDGE District.

Lampe is friendly as can be on the phone from his St. Pete home (we can’t meet for an interview because of the virus). He looks like Colonel Sanders (of KFC fame), so I figured our conversation would be downhome and fuzzy. And it was. He said he’s been chilling at home lately with his fiancée Sandi, but had to fly to an “undisclosed location” just recently to judge a pay-per-view barbecue cookoff on FITE.TV.

When asked what’s on his grill lately, it should have come as no surprise it was three meats – “just yesterday I cooked up salmon burgers, pork chops and turkey thighs,” he rattles off. “I cook for my neighbors almost every night. I love doing it.”

Lampe says charcoal is back big, and so are grills. He figures the

pandemic has turned everybody into backyard grillers, and he is right. Grills are in high demand, selling out at big box stores and snatched up as soon as they come in. A recent report by the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, finds that 64 percent of adults in the United States own a grill or smoker and in a survey, found 37 percent of grill owners plan to purchase a new grill in the near future. And in case you were wondering, gas remains the most popular fuel, with 61 percent of grill owners using propane, followed by 49 percent using charcoal.

Lampe recently split as the long-time spokesperson for the Big Green Egg ceramic smoker grill, but he told the Tampa Bay Times “we’re still friends and we hope to work together in the future.” These days, in addition to his duties at the St. Pete Dr. BBQ, he’s representing a company that makes 27 different types of spice blend rubs, Dizzy Pig Seasonings, so he’s all about rubs. And he’s getting pretty creative in the home kitchen, “away from the traditional stuff,” he says. He describes a one pot dinner tamale pie he made in a Dutch oven on the grill top, combining bits of leftover grilled turkey and layering it with Jiffy cornbread mix and lots of cheese and Mexican sauces and seasonings.

Now if I can only figure out how to get invited over to his house…