Meet Larry Hadley, a special “Key Ingredient” at The Culinary Center”. He is better known as “BBQ Dude”. You will see Larry at almost every BBQ event at CCKC and he is usually “on the line” during Staff Lunch. Larry is also one of our “Kitchen Shrinks” which means he always has his shingle out for BBQ/grilling/smoking questions. Send your questions anytime. This is one special guy.
After taking several classes at the CCKC several years ago, and then becoming a volunteer, I had the opportunity to come on board and work with this great team.  My background and culinary love is the art of smoking and grilling, with a lot of TLC thrown in. Though I’m known around the CCKC as the “bbqdudeâ€, I feel privileged to be able to continually broaden my skills by working along side the Executive Chef, who shares his passion and talent for cooking.
I serve as Contest Representative and Certified Master Judge for the Kansas City BBQ Society. I have also had the opportunity to cook with and be a member of an award winning KCBS Competition BBQ team. This enables me to gain more expertise in the wide field of what BBQ should be at its best.
One of my biggest & most rewarding culinary adventures has been serving as Crew Chef for the Continental Divide Trail Alliance for several trail building projects. This is high altitude cooking at its best! With my wife Sharon assisting, we cooked meals at 10,000ft for groups of 30 on propane stoves in a cook’s tent, using battery lamps. This is where it’s 32 degrees in July at 5AM and the coffee is on!