Doug Scheiding is an aerospace engineer. Doug Scheiding is also a business broker.

But while this episode of Digital Hospitality is about multi-hyphenate Doug Scheiding, it’s not the merely the story of an aerospace engineer or a business broker. This is the story of a champion who gives his all no matter what.

“Whether you’re playing tiddlywinks or chess, do it 150%,” says Texas pitmaster and friend of Cali BBQ Media Doug Scheiding, a talented barbecue cook who holds the title of BBQ World Champion.

“That’s my mantra. If you’re going to do something do it to the best of your ability and most things you can do very well if you put your mind to it.”
 

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Low and Slow BBQ Career:
For Doug Scheiding, a Lubbock, TX native and Summa Cum Laude graduate of Texas A&M, living in The Lone Star State and being book smart provided the perfect foundation to become a barbecue great.

Still, it was a low-and-slow start to his BBQ career.

“I couldn’t even cut the fat,” reflects Doug Scheiding, a Traeger Pro Team member and Head Country Ambassador.

Over time, Doug would take the same approach to learning barbecue that he did playing tennis or tidily-winks. Soon enough, he was improving his craft and competing with the best. Over time, competing with the best also meant competing with himself.

“Competition BBQ is a lot like golf,” Doug Scheiding notes on the Digital Hospitality podcast. “It’s really what you do that day, you can’t worry about who’s there.”

Despite comparisons to golf from a mental standpoint and Doug having a blown-out knee from years of tennis, competitive BBQ is not a country club sport.

Cutting his teeth in Texas, Doug Scheiding continued to refine his craft taking an approach that balanced both engineering analytics and gut instinct creativity. The former allowed him to understand the palette of his judges while the latter got him kicked off his team for going on his own and being ‘rogue.’

Ding, ding, ding! At that moment, @roguecookers was born.

 
Rogue Cookers:
Teaming up with his wife Jennifer Talley (a talented cook in her own right) for Rogue Cookers and taking his love for making food to online publishing, Doug kept doing things his own way and giving it 150 percent. Ever since, the aerospace engineer has been using his educational background to break down barriers in his food field.
“I like to tweak things, it’s part of the engineering thing,” says Doug Scheiding about being a BBQ pitmaster. “When I’m cooking at home, I’m practicing.”
Practice made perfect for Doug and so did being rogue.

The outcast member of his BBQ competition team was suddenly a winner in his home state in the most rogue...