Work in a barbecue joint can involve hoisting 85-pound cases of brisket and cleaning away the soot, grease, and grime inside the pits.
No place for a woman?
Tell that to aspiring pitmaster Veronica Scroggins and her mentor Scott Umscheid, owner of Scott’s Kitchen & Catering at Hangar 29, located in a former car rental building near Kansas City International Airport.
It’s been three years since Scroggins arrived for her job interview with Umscheid. “She kept me on my toes with her questions,” Umscheid recalled. “At the same time, I could tell there was a story sitting across from me.”
Scroggins, 48, embraces the opportunity to shatter the stereotypes of gender and race within the barbecue world.
“I think it’s a stigma, like, barbecue, manly, grrrrr! So, nobody ever thinks someone who is dainty can sling meat,” Scroggins said.
Despite a steady tally of more than 100 barbecue restaurants operating in Kansas City at any one time over the last century, stories of women stepping into the role of pitmaster are as elusive as a perfect smoke ring on a brisket.
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A Kansas City native, Scroggins studied business management at Metropolitan Community College and hospitality and restaurant management with a minor in culinary arts at Johnson County Community College. She has honed her skills in restaurant and hospitality jobs at Marriott, Sonic, Chipotle, Slim Chickens, and Papa Lew’s Soul Delicious.
Yet, when Scroggins set out to apprentice as a pitmaster, a local Black male barbecue legend refused her request for mentorship.
“He told me straight to my face, women don’t cook in my kitchen,” she recalled. “I’ll tell you he crushed my spirit and my soul. … I figured then I’d need to go outside my community to find what I needed.”
Scroggins found her first mentor at Plowboys Barbecue with American Royal Grand Champion pitmaster Todd Johns. He started working with her on the basics before he retired from running restaurants to focus on marketing his line of barbecue sauce and rubs.
A veteran of the hospitality industry, Umscheid opened Scott’s Kitchen in 2017. He interviewed Scroggins as he was expanding his pit crew.
He had signed on for a crush of high-profile gigs, running concession stands at the NFL Draft, Kauffman Stadium, and Q BBQ Fest at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, all while upping catering volume out of the restaurant.
“We had pushed it to the limit,” Umscheid said. “We’d get ready for what should just be a most mellow Monday coming off of a big event weekend, but then we’d be sending 25 briskets and 46 burnt ends and 12 pork butts to three catering stands out to the Royals.”
Fast forward to today, and Scroggins can be found standing in the “queen spot,” her nickname for the workstation located in the sunniest corner of the dark, hot, sweaty kitchen. She works the afternoon shift six days a week.
Scroggins recently demonstrated trimming a brisket, deftly removing the excess fat that would not render and cutting a notch, so when bark formed on the outside, she still had a reference point to help her slice against the grain. She coated the meat with a blanket of rub and placed her 13th brisket of the day onto a rack inside a Southern Pride smoker.
“She doesn’t need to be managed on something like slicing the brisket because we’ve done it together, and she does it the way that I taught her to do it,” Umscheid said. “And, if she does something different, it’s because we’ve discussed it and we’ve found that there is a better way.”
Scroggins keeps a fresh supply of meat flowing through the restaurant and catering operations based on a clipboard with production specs. Her duties include ordering spices, preparing rubs, rendering tallow, and maintaining the pit.
In the wake of accolades, such as Kansas City Magazine recently honoring Scott’s Kitchen with its “Best Barbecue Sandwich” award, Umscheid has begun stepping out of the day-to-day kitchen operations to focus on expansion.
“She’s in charge of thousands of dollars worth of meat a week,” Umscheid said. “I mean, the amount of responsibility she has here is huge.”
Dude City
Deborah Jones and her sister, Mary Jones, are another example of local Black women helping to dispel the notion that testosterone is a prerequisite for barbecue excellence.
The Jones sisters are the longtime operators of Jones Bar-B-Q, which is now tucked into a former taco stand in Kansas City, Kansas.
“A lot of women are interested, but scared because they think it’s a man’s world,” said Mary Jones, who prefers taking orders at the pick-up window, although she also knows her way around a fire.
The sisters have been featured on National Public Radio, “The CBS Evening News,” “Queer Eye,” and “Black Smoke” (2022, Adrian Miller).
But, unlike Scroggins, they didn’t have to look long or hard to find a mentor.
“When we were coming up, my dad was trying to show us how to not sell dope or sell yourself on a corner to make a living, that you can do different things in the world to make an honest living,” Deborah Jones said.
As someone who travels widely for The Smoke Sheet, the barbecue newsletter he co-founded, Sean Ludwig said the underrepresentation of women in the barbecue story has ramifications: “If you don’t see yourself represented in a sort of job, you may not be inspired to pursue that line of work.”
Obscurity can be part of the problem, as illustrated by “Amazing” Grace Harris.
In 1968, according to her recent obituary, she co-founded H&M Barbecue in Kansas City, Kansas. Otis Boyd of Boyd ‘N’ Son was one of her mentors, she told author Doug Worgul for his 2001 book “The Grand Barbecue.”
Harris also worked from 1985 to 2004 at the Grand Emporium, a bluesy concert venue on Main Street. She served a menu of barbecue and soul food.
Yet Harris was virtually unknown when she showed up in the mid-1980s at the Kansas City Barbeque Society’s first organizational meeting held in a church, recalled Barbecue Hall of Famer Carolyn Wells, a founder and former executive director of the society.
“She was as accomplished as everybody else, but outside of her venue, nobody had ever heard of her,” Wells said.
Momma Bear
At Scott’s Kitchen, the management team is all women, including Umscheid’s daughter.
“I don’t really think about it by gender. Even in my earlier corporate years, it’s just never been something that I’ve ever had to think about,” Umscheid said. “I was obviously surrounded by great people, and they could be either men or women, but actually I think diversity makes us all better.”
Mackenzie (Umscheid) Brittain was working as an audio engineer when COVID-19 halted touring shows. She landed at her father’s restaurant to help out, and five years later, she leads the team as general manager.
The younger Brittain describes Scroggins as someone with an “electric personality” and an empathetic co-worker with a “momma bear aura or energy.”
“She’s definitely come a long way,” Brittain added. “With Scott working here less and less, she’s a big leader, and there’s a lot to manage, but she’s really found her groove and balance.”
Brittain has witnessed the less glamorous aspects of Scroggins’ work.
“It’s not a beautiful job,” Brittain said. “Sometimes we can’t wash the smoke out of our hair or clothes.”
Scroggins has endured her share of cuts, bumps, bruises, and burns along the way. Like the time she split her head on the smoker, or the time she used mustard to cool a burn on her hand so she could power through a cook.
“I’ve only cut myself maybe a couple of times, but it’s all good! Like, you’re not a good chef if you don’t lose a couple of fingers,” Scroggins said with a good-natured laugh.
Although women can meet the physical demands of being a pitmaster, the odd hours may keep women with families from pursuing the role. Scroggins spends half her waking hours at work, but both of her children are grown.
“As we imagine what the future could be for all of us, including Veronica, we have to figure out how to take not only our specific techniques to a new place, but also our culture and our chemistry,” Umscheid said.
Scroggins initially signed on for five years, with the intent of moving on to her own food truck.
She’s now going to reassess what her body can do when she turns 50. In the meantime, she will soak up all the knowledge her mentor is willing to share.
“Scott is a different kind of owner. He’s a father figure. Smart. Funny. Challenging. He pushes us to do big challenges,” she said. “It’s amazing to work for somebody who actually pushes you to learn and (one who) pays a woman of color her worth. It took me more than a decade to get here, but I finally made it.”
Jill Wendholt Silva is Kansas City’s James Beard award-winning food editor and writer.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
