Ashley Tunley

I am 29 from England (Herefordshire) and I run a Texas BBQ company doing home collections and pop ups around my county and other surrounding counties. My goal is to be well known within the BBQ community and also go to Texas one day to try the BBQ over there and speak to some of the best in the industry.

I started getting into BBQ by accident in the summer of 2021, by ordering what I thought was a cheap charcoal BBQ. It turned out to be an offset smoker when I put it together. From there I realised I had to learn how to use this weird contraption and from there it all just spiralled. I started cooking cheap rolled briskets from supermarkets, ribs etc and decided later that year to start an Instagram page to simply post my BBQ stuff instead of flooding Facebook with Smoked meat posts as if I was hitting my mid life crisis in my late 20s. After realising that cooking Brisket etc was going to be an expensive hobby for two people when a lot of it would go to waste, I deciced to offer this food to my friends and family.
From there, I did home BBQs with the thought that one day I would like to sell the food if its good enough so I invited my family and close friends over for a "queens jubilee BBQ" last year. The idea was to get organic feedback about the food and everyone said I should start a business. Thats where I ended up.

I started doing home collection takeaway nights, and then went on to start doing pop ups and events. All of this spiralled from a "mistake" when I ordered the wrong BBQ. What happened after was just a combination of moments that made me realise this was something I was naturally good at and people seemed to really rate the food, more highly than even I could have imagined.

Thats a bit about me, but we will talk more on the show!