"Dad" Wiggins, the self-proclaimed best barbecue chef in Florida, would start slow-cooking large amounts of meat and families would bring baked goods, side dishes and desserts while kids played along the banks of the creek.

The first annual festival attracted 30,000 people, and the barbecue chefs cooked 3,000 pounds of barbecue to meet demand; by 1994, attendance had risen to over 100,000, and 11,000 pounds of meat were cooked.

The standard tools for the barbecue chef have also changed.

Outside, a barbecue chef roasted a freshly butchered pig on a skewer.

"I'll do a little ducking and dodging during batting practice," Mr. Powell, who is now a professional barbecue chef, said to Ms. Smith.

THE calendar may proclaim summer nearly over, but dedicated barbecue chefs are a hardy lot, and Labor Day marks little more than two-thirds of the way through the outdoor cooking season.

But his favorite premiere was the 1965 film "Hallelujah Trail," for which President Johnson's barbecue chef was hired to cook in a midtown lot turned into a fort.

But no barbecue chef in the world will tell you what's in the sauce.

Better not give him time to think about where he'd seen this barbecue chef.

For the barbecue chef who enjoys the tradition of grilling using charcoal or wood chunks, there's no better barbecue than the Fire Magic Gourmet Stainless Steel Charcoal Barbecue.