When he was a 7-year-old boy, Gary Wallace was already interested in barbecue.
So interested that he took the racks out of his mother’s refrigerator, used them to fabricate a makeshift grill, and cooked up his first batch of barbecue chicken. She didn’t get mad – mainly because the result was so tasty.
“She bought some new racks and told me, ‘don’t take my racks out of the ’frige again,’” Wallace said. “‘But I’m not going to spank you, because you did a good thing.’
“And it was good – everybody ate it.”
Decades later, Wallace is now a seasoned veteran of the barbecue realm, and he and his wife Nancy travel far and wide with a mobile food business they call “Mom and Pop’s Barbecue,” providing food to attendees of fairs, festivals and other events – including many in Texas County. The Wallaces live on a 40-acre cattle farm in Moody (near West Plains), and hit the road on dozens of weekends each year to peddle barbecue, along with homemade baked beans, coleslaw and other items.
“It’s a great way to combine traveling and doing something we really like doing,” Wallace said.
A Poplar Bluff native, Wallace also does building remodeling during the week. When he’s on the road doing barbecue, he’ll regularly grill up pork ribs, chicken and turkey legs, and also cooks brisket, tenderloin, bratwurst and hamburgers. The warm trays in the trailer are typically stocked with pulled pork and pulled chicken, too.
Wallace believes there are some basic keys to good barbecue.
“Slow cooking is huge – you can’t be in a hurry,” he said. “You really have to like what you’re doing, too, and I always tell myself I’m not going to put anything out there that I wouldn’t eat myself. I’m very particular about my meat and how long I cook it, but the Lord always gives me a way to do something, and when I stick to His plan, it turns out pretty good.”
The Wallaces recently upgraded their grilling equipment from a single unit with fixed racks to a matching pair equipped with electrically powered rotisserie systems. Heat is provided by flames from hickory and oak wood, and flavor is augmented by Wallace’s own special sauce made with brown sugar and honey.
“I don’t like rubs,” he said. “I like the old-fashioned barbecue that sticks to your fingers. I always tell people to get a lot of napkins.”
A special ingredient Wallace uses is familiar to fans of soft drinks: Coca-Cola. He sprays it on the meat when it’s about half cooked before slathering it with sauce.
“Coke actually tenderizes the meat,” Wallace said. “It also gives a little extra flavor and a glaze because of the sugar in it.”
Wallace, 52, said no matter how frequently he fires up a grill, he learns at least a little every time.
“Meat won’t talk back to you, but if you listen to it, it tells you things,” he said. “And if you miss something, you’ll know it. But I always liked being around people who did stuff like this, and as I got older, the Lord blessed me to pick up a few tips and to come up with my own sauces and things like that.
“Now I just try to get better every time.”
The most popular of Mom and Pop’s offerings “Pop’s Smokin’ Ribs.”
“We sell a lot of ribs,” Wallace said. “People come out of the woodwork when you prepare ribs.”
A native of West Plains, Nancy said she and Gary have considered doing a restaurant instead of the mobile business.
“But then you have to tend to it almost 24-7,” she said. “This way if we want to go on vacation or something, we can park the business and not have to worry.”
“I’d probably like doing the restaurant,” Wallace said, “but this definitely works for us. And this way we get to see a lot of places we wouldn’t otherwise see and meet a lot of people we would never have met.
“We have friends all over the place now.”
Wallace harkens back to his childhood days when reflecting on his current relationship with barbecue.
“I always watched my mom cook, and she was an excellent cook,” he said. “I always wanted to cook like her, but I don’t think that happened.”
Wallace and his wife have so far worked at close to 10 events in Texas County. They’ve taken their grilling gear as far away as northwest Arkansas and intend to appear later this year at events near St. Louis and in Tennessee.
Having often been asked to enter barbecue competitions, Wallace kindly declines each time.
“I won’t do it because I cook for people, not for competition,” he said. “I love to watch people enjoy our barbecue, and you can tell by looking at them how much they like something.
“I always tell people to give us feedback, because that lets us know how we’re doing. The Lord has really blessed us, because we get a lot of great results and a lot of compliments.”
Wallace enjoys mixing his strong faith with his traveling barbecue show.
“I sort of use this as a ministry,” he said. “There are a lot of hurting people out there – I love to talk to people and this gives me a chance to minister to them.”
By the time it’s all said and done, Wallace’s barbecue career is likely to have spanned well over half a century.
“Some of my happiest moments are when I’m cooking,” he said. “I’ve been barbecuing since I was big enough to do it, and I’ll probably keep doing it ’til I just can’t any more.”
Some of my happiest moments are when I’m cooking.”