How 5 Fort Worth women pitmasters broke into the Texas barbecue scene

In the male-dominated world of barbecue, it’s becoming more common to see women running the pits. The women who build fires and smoke meat in Fort Worth-area barbecue restaurants often get underestimated, overlooked and belittled, but their love of the craft remains what matters most to them.

“I’ve been asked like literally ‘Do you know what you’re doing? I’ve never seen anyone do it like that.’ And it’s like, dude, I’m working at the number one barbecue restaurant in Texas,” said Cecilia Guerrero, a pitmaster at Goldee’s Barbecue. “Why are you even questioning how I’m wrapping a rib or how I’m loading a turkey? I’ve had someone suggest that I start using different wood because that’s what they prefer. And it’s like sir, get out of my smoke room, no one asked you.”

Guerrero’s story as a woman working the fires in Fort Worth’s venerable barbecue pits is no longer a rarity. Here are five women who navigated the industry to rise to positions of their dreams.

Cecilia Guerrero, 41

‘I know my skill. I know my craft.’

GOLDEE’S BARBECUE

Three years ago, 41-year-old Cecilia Guerrero was laid off from her marketing and web design job, having done office work for 20 years. When she found out that a Fort Worth barbecue restaurant was hiring, she applied and got hired. Now her job is lighting fires and smoking meat.

While working at the barbecue place made her realize she would not be working an office job again, it was a “toxic male-dominated environment” where women were discouraged from running the pits and instead relegated to cooking sides and tending to the cash register. Guerrero also was harassed and threatened by a drunk male employee and was told by the owner to just push through because they were short staffed, she said.

That all changed at Goldee’s Barbecue, where Guerrero is doing things she never thought she’d be doing, like participating in the Fort Worth Food and Wine Festival with fellow women in barbecue. Still, whenever she’s working in the pit room, a man will peek his head in and “mansplain” barbecue to her, Guerrero said.

Goldee’s recently took thermostats off the smokers, so now Guerrero is cooking meat purely by intuition. “I know what a fire is supposed to look like. I know what the meat is supposed to look like. I know that for a certain amount of time, the meat should already look like this. I know my skill. I know my craft. I know what I’m supposed to be looking for,” she says.

Though she’s been made to doubt herself in the past, like many women in barbecue, Guerrero has learned to trust herself and her abilities.

Mackenzie Elkins

‘I know what it takes to do this now’

SAMMIE’S BBQ

Leaving an insurance job, Mackenzie Elkins, a pitmaster and general manager at Sammie’s BBQ for nearly two years, started out as a waitress at the restaurant for three months before starting to smoke meat.

“I was looking for something new and something more than just kind of sitting there making phone calls every day,” Elkins says of her career move. Now she wants to stay in the barbecue restaurant business for as long as she can.

The most rewarding part, for her, is serving people and seeing satisfied customers.

Her day starts with barbecuing the chicken and pork chops. In the afternoons, Elkins seasons and cooks brisket. What sets Sammie’s apart from other barbecue restaurants, she said, is the traditional approach, the fresh ingredients they use and everything from dry rubs to sauces being made in-house. The East Belknap Street joint still uses recipes from the original 1946 restaurant, including the barbecue sauce, onion rings and coleslaw.

Elkins’s inspiration? Legendary Texas pitmaster Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, known as the “Queen of Texas BBQ.”

“She’s been doing this forever and that I think is amazing. I know what it takes to do this now and it’s not easy and it takes a lot of work,” Elkins said. “So she’s a big inspiration to myself and obviously to a lot of other people as well.”

Amaris Montemayor, 22

‘They’re boys, but I felt like I could do the same thing’

PANTHER CITY BBQ

Growing up, 22-year-old Amaris Montemayor would watch her uncles and male cousins barbecue, and wanted to do the same thing.

“I mean, yeah, they’re boys, but I felt like I could do the same thing and so they would teach me how to do it and I just think it’s super cool knowing how to do everything that they can do too,” she said. “I just wanted to do what they were doing.”

Montemayor started working at Panther City BBQ when she was 15 years old, helping out at the then-food truck whenever she wasn’t in school. Throughout those years, she transitioned from cashier and food runner to setting plates to cutting meat and finally moved on to the pits. She learned how to trim, wrap and season brisket. Ribs, which take about eight hours, became her favorite meat to cook.

“We put a little twist into ours. We do barbecue sauce, we pull them out and put barbecue sauce on them again and just put them back in the rest of the time and then we put a little brown sugar on them, so I just enjoy doing that part and then wrapping them,” she said.

Now, Montemayor’s full-time job is a little different, working as a volunteer coordinator at the Center For ASD in Burleson. She still works part-time at Panther City every Saturday from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. In her free time, she and her cousins attend barbecue competitions in cities like Lubbock, Lockhart and Austin.

Betty Turner, 31

‘I wasn’t going to be overlooked’

JAMBO’S BBQ

At 6 a.m., 31-year-old Betty Turner’s workday starts by taking the brisket and pork out of the slow cooker after leaving them on overnight, putting ribs on the pit and cooking sausage and bologna for breakfast. On Wednesdays, she’ll also cook the chicken special. Turner will then make the sides of potatoes, beans, mac and cheese and green beans.

“We get a lot of customers that you can see the shock in their face when they’re like ‘Oh my God, it’s so good, who cooked this?’ And then everyone’s pointing to the females in the kitchen.” Turner says. “It’s a full female staff so they’re actually very shocked to find out that the females were the ones cooking. They don’t expect it at all.”

Since 2013, Turner has been working as a pitmaster at Jambo’s BBQ. That decade-long work has taught the longtime Arlington resident that it all comes down to how the meat is seasoned and cooked, which Jambo’s has been doing the same way since its opening by champion pitmaster Jamie Geer.

“We’ve just always joked around about whose ribs are better and this and that and it’s always fun to make the ribs,” said Turner, one of two female pitmasters at the Division Street restaurant. As for brisket, because they slow cook it overnight, the right temperature and timing is key.

When she first started training, Turner had to overcome worries about being the only woman alongside older male pitmasters who had been in the field for a long time.

“When I came into it, I had an opportunity that was given to me that I wasn’t going to be overlooked because I was a female, so it didn’t matter what the guys over there thought.” Turner said. “Had I not had that chance, I probably would have been a little nervous going into something that was more male dominated and thinking I’m gonna get overlooked doing it.”

Her advice for women wanting to get into the barbecue game: just go for it.

“Don’t be afraid because it’s mostly men doing it that you’re gonna get shut down, shot down or looked at wrong,” Turner said. “None of that really matters if that’s what you enjoy doing.”

Rita Olsen

‘I am just incredibly passionate about it’

VAQUEROS TEXAS BAR-B-Q

Last summer, Rita Olsen packed her bags and headed to Crockett to chase the barbecue dream. Her love of the culinary art stemmed from growing up with a cattle rancher father in West Texas and becoming interested in the processing and cooking of meat.

“Just being able to pay some respect to what we cook and the wide open world that is available to how we prepare these things, I am just incredibly passionate about it,” Olsen said.

Barbecuing at home and at a ranch she managed in San Antonio turned into catering for small events. After a brief stint at Mimsy’s Craft Barbecue to hone her craft, Olsen became a pitmaster at Vaqueros Texas Bar-B-Q in Grapevine, which adds a Mexican flair to classic Texas barbecue. Commitment to quality is what makes the restaurant stand out, according to Olsen, with everything made from scratch.

Her workdays start at midnight, when she’ll maintain one fire, start a fire in another pit and do meat prep like trimming ribs and turkeys. Running two pits on her own, time management is paramount, as Olsen knows exactly when she needs to get every protein on the smoker so that it comes off in time to rest for service. Meanwhile, variables like the weather, wood quality, meat quality, inventory and delivery are ever-changing. That pressure to consistently put out the best product in the face of obstacles thrown in the way is what makes the job worthwhile to Olsen.

But being a woman in the BBQ industry doesn’t come without challenges, she’s found. Like Turner, Olsen is often approached by customers who automatically assume she’s the cashier, and some are surprised to find out that she runs the fires and cooks the meat by herself.

She says people often don’t expect women to be so involved in barbecue the way that they are now. The upside, however, is that makes female pitmasters stand out and be remembered.

“You just have to stay humble and also remember that we are embarking on some uncharted territory, at least less frequently traveled territory, with women,” Olsen said. “And there are a lot of women emerging in this business, more today than I’ve ever seen, which is so exciting.”

It’s important for female pitmasters to find a restaurant that treats its people well, Olsen says, otherwise they may be stuck at a toxic workplace. Stand up for yourself when others won’t, and don’t ask for permission to do things however you see fit, others urge.

“We have to know how to hold our own and also maintain our boundaries,” she said. “It’s a really tough field, so you do have to have some thick skin and know what your goals are, know what you will and won’t tolerate and don’t waver from that. Let your work speak for itself because I believe that it will, and it does for those that are talented in this industry. We’re seeing it over and over, so many women are just coming up the ranks and it’s amazing to watch it happen.”

When she’s not up at 4:30 a.m. cooking for customers, Guerrero is cooking for her big family. Ever since the lifelong Fort Worth resident could reach a stove, she cooked traditional Mexican food in the kitchen with her mom, being the youngest of 10 siblings. Then, after her mom passed, she became in charge of Sunday family dinners.