Mel Chmilar Jr, also known as darksideofthegrill, is a self-taught pitmaster and live-fire chef who is quickly carving out a name for himself in the BBQ community.

A journeyman welder by day, this BBQ showman hits the social platforms every single night bringing epic, outrageous, and highly skilled cooks from his house to yours in friendly, positive, and easy-to-follow tutorials.

Mel is a Certified KCBS BBQ judge that has taught live-fire bbq classes, demos, and whole animal & meat processing and was a chosen competitor at the World Food Championships.

In addition to his current YouTube recipes, cooks, and tutorials, Mel’s unique BBQ personality has been seen on local and national TV networks, his social media content has been featured pretty much everywhere, and he is now producing a weekly after-the-cook podcast with NHL, NFL, and cooking stars around the world.

You will likely see darksideofthegrill at major events and festivals in the future as his passion for the BBQ community has him traveling to places he’s never been… maybe an event near you?

“When starting out in bbq I cooked on almost every grill under the sun. I’ve always been drawn to live-fire and real wood smoking.
“Through the BBQ competitions and festivals, I fell in love with the Big Green Egg. Its ability to run live-fire and flame-searing matched with low and slow real-wood smoking, wok cooking, and everything in between made it an easy sell for me. I cook on charcoal and fire daily as can be seen on my social media platforms right now!”

Some of Mel’s accolades:

• Catering BBQ events big and small
• Social media and live-event personality
• Pro Team with Big Green Egg
• Pro Team with Dalstrong knives
• KCBS BBQ judge
• World Food Championships qualifier
• Seen on national TV networks
• Pit builder and designer
• Live-fire and BBQ cooking instructor
• BBQ and smoker demos and classes