British Bulldog BBQ

Welcome to the British Bulldog BBQ team

British Bulldog BBQ is run by Toby Shea, founder of the British BBQ Society. Since 2008, Toby is responsible for introducing over 100 teams to low and slow competitions and over 800 grilling competitors via Ready Steady Q and Kids Q

British Bulldog BBQ can happily claim to be the most successful European competition team based on international and invitational results in the last year including the title of WBQA World Champion!

Toby Shea

My passion for BBQ grew out of entertaining large groups of people, quickly realising slow cooking a large joint of meat and having a beer with friends beats sitting over a grill cooking burgers and sausages.

I entered the British BBQ Championships in Ilminster not having cooked competition BBQ previously and realised after 1st in Brisket, 1st in Pork and 2nd in chicken my natural style of cooking was easily transferred to competition BBQ. I had well and truly been bitten by the bug.

The most frustrating aspect of previous BBQ competitions in the UK is that they all seem to be one offs, or have yearly rule changes. I have been responsible for several company start-ups in various industries and decided to create something out of passion.

Another major incentive to create a regular competition circuit was the humiliation I felt personally of always seeing the British teams come in the bottom 10 in world competitions. I was certain at the time I could do better however realised that creating something to improve the overall ability of competitive teams was a much better idea. If someone calls themselves a world champion, check to see whether it’s in the major event or whether they had just won a side which all of the teams did not compete in.

The British BBQ Society now runs the busiest barbecue forum in the UK and is free to use for anyone that has any questions or stories about their barbecue experiences. I also organise and sanction BBQ events via the International BBQ Network, from our low and slow series PitMasters and our grilling competitions via Ready Steady Q & Kids Q.

A key part of the growth in BBQ in the UK is introducing teams and giving them information to understand exactly what is required. With this in mind I setup grassroots classes which take novice teams through meat, rubs, sauces, prep, fire control and cooking. Through grassroots and my circuit I have introduced over 100 teams to competitive BBQ in the UK.

After training teams for the last 7 years, British teams results started to improve dramatically. This included the almost complete domination of the European mainland scene. As you would expect people questioned whether I could actually cook competition BBQ…… Always up for a challenge and desperate to try to get the opportunities that these teams had been provided via my circuit I took the bull by the horns and got stuck in. I am a firm believer that if you want to be the best you have to take on the best so focused on the most challenging competitions throughout the world.

I have achieved more than any other European BBQ team in the last year.

2^nd place whole hog @ Memphis in May, the highest finish by an international team in the events 37 year history!
Grand Champion against the best teams in Europe (as a 1 man team) @ EUregio – Germany.
Being the first European Grand Champion at a KCBS event on American soil for over a decade @ The World Food Championships – Las Vegas.
Beating the best the UK has to offer by winning Grillstock Manchester.
WBQA World BBQ Champion – Sweden – Gothenburg – Beating teams from 4 continents representing 20 countries!