Meat+Poultry - June 2021 - 35

" My approach was very simple, " Soo said. " I
just took salt and pepper, applied it to a piece of
meat and I cooked it and I tasted it and I said,
'OK, can I make it better?' "
This was the foundation for a spreadsheet
that would grow with each ingredient as he
added, subtracted and mixed spices.
" I kind of built all these different ideas just
like a computer program; that's what I was
trained to do, " Soo said.
He experimented with different formulas,
various meats and shared his slow-smoked
creations with appreciative friends, neighbors
and co-workers for several years.
It was on a dare by a handful of those
co-workers that Soo entered his first
competition barbecue contest in California,
without knowledge of the rules or what was
involved. As fate would have it, he won the
contest, the first of many more in the years
to come.
" So, I'm an accidental pitmaster, " Soo said.
Soo honed his skills in the next decade-plus
by following the guidance of a cookbook written
by John Willingham, an iconic championship
pitmaster and a hero of Soo's who he sadly
never got to meet before he died in 2013. He did,
however, check another bucket list item, when
in 2013 Willingham's family invited him to cook
with the team in one of the most prestigious
pork cookoffs of the year, the Memphis in
May World Championship Barbecue Cooking
Contest. With Willingham dying just days before
the event, the opportunity to pay homage to him
was a great honor for Soo.
" He was my idol, " he said.
He added that this experience epitomized his
involvement in the barbecue world.
" My barbecue journey in the past dozen
years had been just like that; the most amazing
things have happened to me not by choice, but
almost by accident. "
TV TURNING POINT
The part of that journey that did the most to put
Soo on the map of the barbecue world was an
unexpected invitation to appear on a new TV
series on TLC in 2009 - " BBQ Pitmasters. " The
docu-reality show featured him in barbecue
cookoffs across the country alongside some of
the biggest names on the competition circuit,
including Myron Mixon, Tuffy Stone, Johnny
Trigg and Lee Ann Whippen.
" The reason I got on the show was another
stroke of luck, " he said.
Producers were looking for an outsidethe-box
competitor to round out the casting
for the show, and a guy who had been
winning a lot of contests, named Harry Soo,
was recommended by Kansas City Barbeque
Society founder, Carolyn Wells. She had met
him and was impressed with his success and
standout personality. In addition, the fact that
he was based in California, was Malaysian,
and cooked with a simple pop-up tent and a
rudimentary Weber smoker ensured Slap Yo'
Daddy would fulfill the requirement to add
an outside-the-box competition team to the
TV series.
" I ended up on the show with no audition, no
screen test, no nothing, " Soo said. " Just another
case of dumb luck. "
In the Season 1 finale, a " rib throwdown "
matched seven elite pitmasters against
each other with a $3,500 purse. Harry Soo
had garnered credibility with his cooking
counterparts by that time and he happily won
the throwdown and collected the winnings and
the notoriety that capped a season-long wave
of accolades that he is still riding more than 10
years later.
" On that day, the little engine that could,
from California, prevailed, " Soo said.
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