Grand Champion
Texas State Invitational
A 17.4-lb packer brisket held at 150°F for three hours before the final push. Bark like obsidian. Smoke ring a full three-eighths of an inch.
Whole Hog
400-Guest Wedding
Hand-dug pit, 4 feet deep. Fire started at midnight. Guests arrived to the smell of rendered fat and hickory at 7 p.m. the next day. Not a scrap left.
Pop-Up at
Oleana Boston
James Beard semifinalist Ana Sortun wanted smoke at the table. We brought two offset smokers into the alley, fed 180 covers in one night, zero complaints.
500 Fed.
Salesforce Summit 2025
500 plates in 90 minutes. 6 smokers. 1 pitmaster. Zero caterers. Every piece of protein was touched by the same pair of hands that started the fire.
The Record
Speaks.
"I don't use thermometers as a crutch. I use them as confirmation."
— Marcus Dillard, PitmasterThree Ways
to Hire.
Hired Gun
You bring the trailer, I bring the wins. Available as a competition pitmaster for KCBS, MBN, and invitational circuits. We scout wood sources at least 72 hours out. Prep begins two days before the turn-in clock.
- ⟡Full competition prep & cook
- ⟡Wood sourcing & fire management
- ⟡Turn-in box presentation
- ⟡Post-competition debrief
On-Site Cook
Corporate cookouts, rehearsal dinners, estate parties. I show up with my own rigs, my own wood, and enough bark-crusted protein to make your guests forget there was ever a caterer involved.
- ⟡Events from 50 to 2,000 guests
- ⟡Full rig + crew deployment
- ⟡Custom menu development
- ⟡Day-of fire management
Build the Program
From wood selection and smoker placement to menu engineering and staff training. I've built eight live-fire programs for restaurant groups from Boston to Austin. Your team learns to cook with fire, not fear it.
- ⟡Equipment selection & installation
- ⟡Wood-fire menu development
- ⟡Staff training (2–4 weeks)
- ⟡Ongoing quarterly consultation
They Were
There.
"We booked Marcus for our 500-person Salesforce offsite. He showed up with six smokers and a work ethic that made our entire catering team look like they were on vacation. Every plate was identical. That's a miracle at that volume."
"I've cooked with a lot of pitmasters. Marcus is the only one who thinks like a chef — he understands balance, texture, the way smoke plays against acid. Our pop-up at Oleana sold out in 11 minutes. I've already asked him back."
"We hired Marcus to build our wood-fire program from scratch. He chose the equipment, sourced the wood suppliers, trained our kitchen team for three weeks. We opened to a full house and a four-star review in the Globe the next morning."
See Every Cook.
40 pages of past cooks, competition results, and behind-the-scenes process.