Custom barbecue to smoke other caterers

We will call it the Black Beauty. Certainly, since the custom-made barbecue landed in Tauranga from the United States, it has attracted plenty of interest.
"A friend at the wharf rang and told us everyone was having a look and taking photographs," said owner Nadine Mackie.
When I visited it away from the port, I passed the storage manager who had just taken two of his mates to view it.
"I've never seen anything like it. I can't get over the thickness of the steel and it's so well made - cylinders converted into a barbecue.
"You've got to take your hat off to the Americans; they can make things.".
He turned to Nadine and told her: "You are going to have fun and make money. It will be a party wherever you go."
Nadine said: "We want people to come and see it. It doesn't look like your average barbecue, does it?"
Nadine and her partner Mike Jeffries, from Tauranga, had the black barbecue and smoker pit specially made and fitted on a trailer so they could start their own gourmet barbecue mobile catering business.
A Ford F-100 truck will tow the barbecue and rig to shows, festivals, sports events, weddings and corporate functions around the country.
The newly-formed Big Smoke BBQ has the capacity to serve a few thousand people in a short time.
The barbecue smoker weighs 2.5 tonnes, it is 5.5m long and it has a combined cooking surface of 7.7sq m.
It is shaped like a car engine block, even a train, and it's one of a few in the country. Size-wise, it would be hard to beat as well.
It is a slow-cooking barbecue fuelled by wood and charcoal to create tasty tender meats, and it has three parts. There is the firebox and smoker with five rotating racks to cook smoked meat and fish; two pits/ovens with a total of six trays for whole pigs and big legs of lamb; and two grills with four trays for sausages, steaks, burgers and chicken pieces - all connected by a heat chamber.
Each section has temperature gauges to control the heat and "the amount of smokiness that goes into the food."
The rig has three storage boxes, with one them of enclosed and locked.
The Big Smoke BBQ will bring an American touch to their cooking - with Mike as the chef - and will serve up pork ribs, brisket, chicken breasts and more.
"Mike's passionate about food and he loves to cook.
"We have invested a lot into this business but Mike wanted to do something he's passionate about," said Nadine, who is gearing up for promotion and marketing, including organising signwriting on the barbecue.
"Mike was helping friends in London doing spit roasts on a charcoal and wood fire - the roasts had lovely flavours. It got Mike thinking. Spit roasts were being done back home and we had to do something different.
"He started researching and found these competitions in Texas - and then a manufacturer of custom-made barbecues," said Nadine.
It took the American manufacturer three and a half weeks to make the solid steel barbecue.
The Texas Cook-offs, held all year, are famous in the United States and they culminate in the National Barbecue Championship with total prizemoney of US$17,000 (NZ$22,000).
There are even barbecue associations in the US - the Central Texas Barbecue Association was formed in 1992 to establish "fair and equal guidelines for all competitive barbecue cooks who insist on well-run and organised cook-offs."
Nadine originally comes from Wairoa and she trained as a primary school teacher at Massey University.
Mike is from Te Aroha and has been driving trucks and heavy machinery.
They lived in Tauranga for three years before a second stint in London, and coming back in September last year.
They ordered the barbecue in November and it arrived nearly a fortnight ago.
"It took me a while to get used to the idea, but you've got to take risks to get ahead," said Nadine.
"We wanted to do something with food. We have to put in 110 per cent to make it work, and have fun while we are doing it."
For further information, view: www.thebigsmokebbq.co.nz