BBQ UNDEFEATED: BENNIE KENDRICK
Co-creation of a premium culinary BBQ magazine and feature editorial for Traeger.
CLIENT: Traeger
WORDS: Bill Roden
PHOTOS: Elias Carlson
OVERVIEW: This feature editorial on Traeger ambassador Benny Kendrick is a story about redemption and salvation through simple cooking on a grill. An inaugural article for Traeger’s new publication that features more unexpected yet inspiring voices building entirely new culinary subcultures within the world the BBQ.
FULL EDITORIAL:
BBQ Undefeated: Bennie Kendrick
We all have our low moments. Momentary cracks in our otherwise upbeat lives. It’s part of life’s push-and-pull. But sometimes life pushes back a little harder and wedges those cracks open with a crowbar, perhaps via an unexpected life-altering event that throws us into a state of deep depression. Depression can swoop in and kidnap a person, holding their dignity hostage. Rendering their souls inert.
Some pursue healing via the long courageous road of therapy and medication. Some self-medicate with drugs, alcohol, or risky behavior. While others default to wearing public-facing masks and live a lie that everything is ok.
Bennie Kendrick bought a grill.
Nine years ago, when Bennie’s phone rang with the tragic news that his brother passed away at 37 years of age, Bennie lost more than a brother. He lost the center of his world and himself in the process. The collateral damage sequestered him to three years of clinical depression. Bennie hit bottom and cut himself off from his family, his wife, his daughter, and his son. Eventually, he reached that bottom most point where life lost all meaning. That moment many depressed individuals reach where the thought of living a lie becomes too great of a burden.
With the help of his wife, Bennie pulled himself out of the dirt, dusted himself off, and made another go. It took everything he had to rebuild his life from moment to moment. Help also arrived in his rescue dog, Tillie. They bonded as dog-and-owner do but on such a level that his depression started to melt along the edges. One evening, while visiting the Bay Area with his family, he spotted a Traeger grill at a BBQ. Bennie was captivated by something far more than the wood pellets or the versatility. Something sparked inside him the second he looked at the grill. Something he still can’t put into words: he just had to have one of his own. Bennie scraped together the means to buy one for himself and a door opened.
Bennie threw himself into the world of BBQ and began experimenting with various techniques and recipes. The more he explored, the more he lost himself in the cooking and discovered a new path unfolding right before his eyes. Could something like BBQ become a way to make a living? A reason for living?
Most celebrity BBQ chefs come up through family restaurants, apprenticing within the tight-knit BBQ world, or through glitzy culinary schools. Bennie originally made his living swinging a hammer on construction sites. While he hails from Central California, it’s not the first BBQ region that pops up in everyone’s mind. The world of BBQ was still a mystery to Bennie, yet every cut, every meal, every attempt to push his craft further filled that growing crack in his life and became an uncharted path to blaze on his terms with his own hands.
A decision to begin posting his journey on Instagram turned out to be the path for a much brighter future. Bennie shared his attempts at famous recipes and advanced techniques. He posted his trials and errors while documenting his transition from amateur to a professional-level chef. Fans witnessed Bennie sharing the anxiety that comes with overcooking a $60 brisket. Since day one, brisket was his most challenging recipe. Through years of hard work, he’s now known for his unique brisket BBQ. His fans followed along as he tried his hand at the art of deboning choice cuts without any training or knife-handling courses. His experimentation with various types of food combinations and techniques became something everyone could relate to on their respective BBQ journeys. Bennie’s growing fanbase celebrated his triumphs and failures right there by his side every step of the way. A few months in, Traeger came calling.
As Traeger put it, “We saw something in him.” Bennie’s humility, his vulnerability, his honesty and relatable journey through the world of BBQ spoke to everyone who came across his feed. Most notably, his social platform became more than a place to share his BBQ adventures. He’s received hundreds of messages from fans who shared their personal stories about how his work inspired them in their darkest hours. Including candid notes from soldiers overseas who connected to his work through his personal loss and fighting spirit to carry on despite life’s headwinds. As Bennie puts it, “It’s mind-blowing to think how many people I’ve helped from my backyard.”
Bennie embodies everything Traeger believes and hopes to offer to chefs at all levels in the Traegerhood. With Traeger behind him, Bennie left his construction career to dive into his newfound passion with even greater zeal.
Celebrity chefs often operate from behind the curtain, appearing to cook with a level of magic gleaned from years in an ivory tower that furthers the myth that BBQ takes a lifetime to master. We only observe their mastery after years of hard work, experience, and failures. They rarely engage with their audience in the comments on social feeds, furthering the illusion that only the chosen few reach the pantheon of master chefs. Bennie showed the world that hard work makes up for lack of talent or decades of experience. He democratized his BBQ adventure in a way that empowered his audience, broke down long-held rules and rites of passage, and gave the crown of BBQ mastery back to his fans.
Over the years, Bennie leaned into his growing skills and began to create his own unique recipes. More experimenting led to more posts. More posts led to more followers. More followers led to lucrative sponsorships from knife makers to cooler brands to high-end meat suppliers. Yet Bennie remains the backyard BBQ chef who wears his heart on his sleeve, “I don’t worry about my man card. I’m not afraid to show emotion. It’s who I am.”
Bennie’s original recipes for BBQ Sweet Pepper Meatloaf, Smoked Pork Chili Verde, Stuffed Avocados, and Italian Beef Pinwheels now grace the permanent archives of Traeger recipes. He’s cooked for Hollywood celebs, MLB, NFL, UFC athletes, and even for his local law enforcement community. A remarkable feat for a chef only seven years into the BBQ game.
Bennie would be the first to tell you anyone can pull off what he’s accomplished. What you put out into the world is what you get back. His success in combating his depression head-on is the result of helping others as a way to help himself. BBQ became his path to healing. A personal and professional path he continues to document with the same level of modesty, grace, and passion.
Today, Bennie is a sought-after BBQ icon for speeches, coaching, and other appearances reserved only for the chosen few in the world of BBQ. Yet he prefers to spend his time doing it the way he’s always done it: in front of a grill in his backyard. Recently, Bennie lent his skills to help the Make A Wish Foundation. He hasn’t forgotten how he made it this far. Sometimes hope arrives in unexpected ways from unexpected places. Bennie shows us more than how to cook. He shows us what it truly means to be human.