Luke has been competing in BBQ since 2013, when his team, Old Virginia Smoke, won the MABA Rookie of the Year award.  Since then, OVS has won 4 grand championships and 2 reserve championships, including the 2015 National BBQ Cup and the 2015 National Pork Champion at the Safeway BBQ Battle in Washington, D.C.  When not competing, Luke serves as a Certified Association Executive with over 15 years of association experience in the Washington, D.C. area.

Meg’s been competing on the BBQ circuit since 2009, a KCBS member and CBJ since 2010, and an active member of MABA since 2011. She is a co-pitmaster of the team Finn’s Finest BBQ. If you don’t know her or her husband Ferg you certainly know one of her two kids, Finn and Allena, who can be seen at comps causing havoc…unbeknownst to all other competitors, they’re shiggin’! She brings her entire family along to almost every competition with hopes to pass down her passion for this BBQ lifestyle and the love from her BBQ family to her kids. With two Grand Champion wins under her belt and trips to the American Royal, The Jack and Sam’s Club BBQ Tour Nationals in Bentonville, her six short years of BBQ have brought her lots of experience.

Professionally, Meg works in Marketing and Advertising for a membership-based, non-profit educational organization focused on professional development. She plans to utilize her skills from her work life to grow MABA membership, utilize our current membership to provide education for our future – the rookies and youth – and increase our member-to-member interaction whether it’s through digital communications or more face-to-face mixers. With her strong belief in our network, Meg is certain we can accomplish big things for MABA.

I’m the pitmaster for Brown Liquor BBQ. I’m also a MABA and KCBS member for five years and a certified barbecue judge. My team has been competing five years and it’s become an absolute passion of mine. MABA is an organization that I strongly believe in, support, and want to see grow.

My occupation running a membership department for a trade association I feel suits me very well to take on a leadership role with MABA. I’ve worked for many types of non-profit associations for over 15 years and I have knowledge and experience in the way associations work and their purpose for the members they serve. I currently lead a membership department for a floral trade association that represents a very diverse membership that includes growers in many other countries, wholesalers, suppliers, and retail florists. I say this because I believe that MABA’s growth potential lies in getting many types of individuals and businesses involved to help grow barbecue…ALL barbecue, not just the many competition cooks but also judges, backyard enthusiasts, suppliers, manufacturers, mom and pop shops, and even other barbecue associations.

I get excited when I think about the talented and fine people in the Mid-Atlantic and vast resources and expertise we have right here that we can tap to help grow MABA. I want to see MABA be the best regional barbecue association in the nation and grow at the same pace that KCBS and barbecue in general has.

It started in early childhood in a home where he was the eldest of four children. His mother was a homemaker, and his father worked up to three jobs to support the family. Most Sundays were spent barbecuing at the local state park near their home in the hills of Clarks Summit, PA (pop. 5,100). Sundays were his father’s lone day off, and he would spend it grilling and barbecuing in the park’s charcoal grills. Trudnak says the witness of his father’s selfless sacrifice taught him “how important selfless contribution is to a family’s well-being.”

When BBQ Bob was seven, his dad placed him “in charge” of putting charcoal in the grill.

He says, “From that day forward, I was hooked on barbecue.”

Truly a barbecue lover, no matter the time of year, temperature or weather, as long as he has meat and dry charcoal, you will find BBQ Bob cooking outdoors.

Over the years, he grew to love all cooking and has tirelessly worked to perfect the craft of making delicious food. As a result, he has amassed over 200 awards, plus numerous trophies and titles, cash, and prizes at national and international competitions.

Being a Professional BBQ cook is such a passion, he wants to share the joys of barbequing with others. You can often find him teaching cooking classes throughout the United States and Europe, helping others sharpen their skills and giving special tips and tricks. 

“I teach partly because I enjoy teaching,” he says, “but most of all, I love teaching people how to cook. I try to explain cooking and make it simple, because it really can be. Anyone can do it. I’ve seen people create great dishes who never thought they could.”

For Trudnak, barbecuing is more than just firing up the smoker. Most of all, he truly believes barbecue is about community, and bringing family and friends together.

Turning a hobby and passion into a profession

About two years later, Pirkle mentioned a side project related to the barbeque industry. Bob’s heart started pounding as he listened to his boss describe plans for an electronic device that would make controlling an outdoor BBQ cooker’s temperature easy and efficient.

In 1999, the late entrepreneur and barbeque enthusiast “Shotgun” Fred Pirkle needed a marketing and design expert for his industrial valve business and hired Trudnak for the position.

The thought of bringing the world’s first BBQ temperature-control device for charcoal and wood-burning cookers to market—and forming a new company called BBQ Guru to launch the product—excited Bob.

Working together, they produced the Pit Minder mechanical temperature control. This control gave smokers and grills oven-like precision over a cooker’s heat. It made barbequing easier, more convenient, and fun.

Through the years Bob helped evolve that one product into an entire line of high-tech cooker accessories made by BBQ Guru, which is headquartered in Warminster, PA. These include the top-selling PartyQ, DigiQ, and CyberQ, all of which the majority of America’s award-winning BBQ competition teams use.

Because of his leadership in the invention of these revolutionary products, Bob soon earned the nickname “the time and temperature guru”.

Trudnak is also the creator of a line of award-winning sauces and rubs. These came out of his childhood-instilled love of foods that are homemade. He says his mother and grandmother only used fresh ingredients, “pasta, meatballs, sauce, and fresh vegetables from the garden. We never ate anything that wasn’t made from scratch and not without a whole lotta love.”

Bob also uses the sauces and rubs in his catering business, Hav’N a BBQ, which he runs on the side with his wife. The two live in the Philadelphia area with their daughter and son.

BBQ Bob’s competition victories and titles include:

• Reserve Grand Champion – Jack Daniel’s World Championship
• 2nd Place Ribs American Royal Open
• Ribs World Food Championship – Las Vegas
• Reserve Grand Champion Smoke on the Water – Atlantic City
• Reserve Grand Champion Red White and Que
• Many Grand Championships in PA, MD, VA