In case you haven’t heard already, Daniel Vaughn of Full Custom BBQ put in his two week’s notice at his architecture firm last week. He’s moving on to bigger, brighter, and meatier opportunities, like this new gig that he has with Texas Monthly as the magazine’s official BBQ editor. No joke. That’s his title.
Vaughn is having the best year. This May, his first book, The Prophets of Smoked Meat, is coming out under Anthony Bourdain’s new line. Now, with this Texas Monthly announcement, he’s turned his hobby as a BBQ blogger-journalist into a full-time job. So what’ll happen to Full Custom BBQ? “It’ll still be around. It’ll just kinda get mothballed as a reference. Everything that I write will be on the Texas Monthly blog,” says Vaughn. In honor of our ‘cue snob’s journey to stardom, let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we? Let’s see how all this got started…
THE RISE (AND RISE) OF DANIEL VAUGHN’S BBQ CAREER
March 10, 2009 – Daniel Vaughn, a virtually unknown BBQ blogger, sends Nancy an email asking if she’d consider putting Full Custom BBQ on the SideDish blogroll. In true Nancy fashion, she asks you SideDish folks to make that decision. Y’all said yes. Heck yes.
May 22, 2009 – CNN.com writes a profile about Vaughn. There’s a very sexy photo of him eating barbecue.
February 2010 – Vaughn ranks “The Best Barbecue in Dallas (That’s Not Really in Dallas).” Everybody swoons over his writing.
December 2010 – Anthony Bourdain’s end-of-the-year “Christmas Listeria” mentions Vaughn and the BBQ Gate of 2010. Anthony Bourdain and Vaughn become BFFs after that. Just kidding. That last part didn’t happen… yet.
February 23, 2012 – BBQ Snobbity announces that he’s writing a book for Bourdain’s new book line. Mrs. Vaughn is very, very happy.
September 3, 2012 – DV and Anthony Bourdain bond over some brisket at Franklin’s. Vaughn makes a big ‘ole appearance on No Reservations. Nancy thinks he looks stiff, but Vaughn was just focusing on getting Bourdain to change his entire mind about Texas barbecue. It worked. Bourdain loves it now.
March – May 2013 – Vaughn becomes Texas Monthly’s first BBQ Editor; The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue releases in May. The whole nation converts over to Texas BBQ. They build Vaughn shrines.
June 21, 2041 – Daniel Vaughn makes the Guinness Book of World Records for having visited over 4,000 BBQ joints without any health problems.
July 3, 2043 – He retires from Texas Monthly, becomes a vegetarian until the end of his days, and starts working for PETA.
