Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ In Columbia, South Carolina: Meet The Chef

We sat down with Executive Chef and Head Pitmaster Paul Bessinger Sr. and Paul Bessinger Jr. of Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ in Columbia, South Carolina. With 8 locations in the Midlands of South Carolina, Maurice's Piggie Park BBQ offers an authentic taste of Southern barbecue that is hard to find elsewhere. Known for its slow-smoked meats and signature mustard-based barbecue sauce, this iconic eatery combines traditional recipes with a casual dining atmosphere. You can expect a menu that features brisket, pulled pork, and ribs, all cooked to perfection. From being a barbecue aficionados or simply seeking a delicious meal, Maurice's Piggie Park BBQ provides a memorable culinary experience that highlights the heart of Southern cuisine.

Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ In Columbia, South Carolina

Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ In Columbia, South Carolina

Tell us about what your morning routine looks like, and how you like to end your day?

Paul Sr: Every morning, I get up at 2 am, and am out the door in 10 minutes. I come in to our central kitchen at Maurice’s Piggie park and put on our signature barbequed pork hash to start cooking, I make 40 gallons, 6 days a week. It takes about 6 hours from start to finish, so I’ll get started on our other homemade specialty menu items including grinding fresh hamburger and pattying it out for burgers, making fresh cole slaw (300 lbs a day) by chopping the cabbage, mixing up the slaw sauce from scratch, and making fresh hushpuppy mix and banana pudding every day. All these foods are delivered by truck every morning to our 8 Piggie Park restaurant kitchens throughout town. Some days I’m responsible for the pits and smokehouse too and manage the 24/7 process that is cooking bbq meats using all wood. I’ve been doing this for 60 years. I always go to bed by 8 pm, morning comes early.

Paul Jr: Like my dad, I have a lot of different responsibilities in the business, and each day looks a little different for me. Some days, I handle the 24/7 smokehouse and pits, some days I mix up 1000 gallons of our family's secret BBQ Sauce recipe and oversee the bottling process of Maurice’s Southern Gold, and some days I work in the kitchen at one of our 8 restaurants. Like my dad, I come in before the sun is up at 3 am, and get going. If I’m in the smokehouse that day, I put on ribs, chicken, hams, and brisket on the smokers. Each of these meats is on a different schedule, all taking several hours. We have a 24/7 cooking process, and are loading the smokers and pits with fresh cut wood, and putting on and taking off meats all day long. No matter how long of a day, I always end it by spending time with my kids, whether it’s a bike ride or shooting basketballs in the driveway.

Do you have any awards or achievements you’d like to mention?

Paul Sr: Let’s see. We’ve been written up in Southern Living for years, won the Best BBQ in the Midlands in different newspapers and magazines probably 30 times, won a few BBQ competitions years ago when we had time to. At one time when I was cooking, we set the record for the largest amount of BBQ cooked in one day - 86,000 lbs on July 4th, 1986. I remember several newspapers published this and it was all over the radio.

Paul Jr: Just the achievement of making it through 30 years of busy BBQ holidays like July 4th. Nowhere does BBQ on July 4th like Columbia, South Carolina. At the end of that day, it’s always a huge sense of accomplishment knowing we made it through another 4th of serving endless amounts of BBQ to our wonderful customers.

Do you have a favorite chef that you look up to and what advice would you give to aspiring chefs?

Paul Sr:  I would have to say my father, Maurice. He taught me how to cook bbq and make hash. I remember when me and my brother were kids, my father would drop us off at different restaurants locations and put us to work. We washed dishes, and he would come back and pick us up later. The advice I would give to restaurant business owners is to get up early, work hard, treat people fair, and keep trying to improve. Everything improves and evolves and gets better. You get better too. It’s all a learning experience. The longer you stick with it and work hard, you will improve and be successful.

Paul Jr: The person I look up to is my father. Ever since being a child, all I wanted to do was follow him around at work, and to this day I still enjoy working with him every day. He is the best pit master I’ve ever been around. My advice would be to be ready to grind it out, restaurant and chef jobs are long hours and usually take a long time to get any recognition.

Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ In Columbia, South Carolina

Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ In Columbia, South Carolina

What do you typically cook at home? 

Paul Sr: Well this weekend, I’m cooking steaks. I like to grill steaks and chicken at home. Got the grandkids coming out this weekend and looking forward to our cookout and time together.

Paul Jr: I cook everything at home from steak to tacos to seafood. We love trying new dishes.

What’s a food trend that you’re loving right now and why?

Paul Sr: I’m not the type guy that changes. I usually just stick with my favorites. I would say the Brisket trend right now is interesting, but believe it or not it’s not as new as everyone says it is. At Piggie Park, we were cooking brisket in the 60s. We used to sell sliced brisket sandwiches from the pits. It wasn’t as popular in South Carolina as our #1 pork, but we’ve been serving it longer than probably any other place in SC, maybe even those places in Texas. I would say, no matter what the food trends are, I’m always a pork, chicken, and rib guy. Everyone asks if I’m tired of eating BBQ- no, I eat it every day and enjoy it still every day. I gotta taste it and make sure it’s good!

Paul Jr: Believe it or not, even though I’m around bbq all day everyday, I love that the bbq trend is still getting bigger and bigger. I love trying new bbq places and trying new smoked and barbecue items.

What’s the strangest food combination you’ve ever tried? And, did you like it?

Paul Sr: To be honest, I don’t really travel or eat much other types of food. I do enjoy seafood, and at a seafood place one time, I ate a flounder, oyster, shrimp sandwich which was a little odd I guess. I don’t think they sold it like that, but that’s how I ordered it - I like all 3 things and it was pretty good all together. That was probably the strangest food combination I ever ate.

Paul Jr: Can’t say I’ve tried anything too odd or any odd combos, but one food I don’t really care for is oysters. I’ve tried them all different ways and still not a fan. We offer oyster roasts as an option for our catering services, but I leave that up to my cousin, Chris, who handles our Catering Department. 

What cocktail or beverage do you enjoy most?

Paul Sr: That’s the easiest question here- South Carolina Sweet Tea. I can’t tell you how many cups I drink a day. I always take a cup home with me from the restaurant. People are always on me about the sugar, but I can’t help it. I’m a tea connoisseur. I drink it everywhere. Ours is the best, we have enough sugar in it, and it’s brewed stronger than other places. If I go out to eat, I’ll order tea. I say SC because there’s a difference between our tea and other places, it’s not the same as tea up north where it’s fruit flavored without sugar.

Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ In Columbia, South Carolina

Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ In Columbia, South Carolina

Have you ever cooked for a celebrity? Do you have a story to tell?

Paul Sr: Oh yeah. I remember one time years ago, we cooked for a presidential candidate at the Iowa caucus that was at the start of the presidential election. We went all the way to Iowa, built a pit out of cinder block, and made some real pit-cooked bbq. None of the other politicians there had good food like us and everyone else came to eat with us. We cooked BBQ and corn - corn because of Iowa. That politician did really good in that election. We also went up to New York and cooked for Dick Cabot in the early 90s at Rockefeller Center. We did the food for him and served our BBQ Sauces and it was a big hit. Not too long ago, we cooked a ton of briskets for Kevin Hart and shipped it to him for a big party. Our restaurant crew always spots Lee Corso and the ESPN crews when they come to town and we cook for the University of South Carolina coaches often (Go Gamecocks!).

What’s your Instagram so readers can follow you?

You can follow us at @PiggiePark on Instagram and TikTok. Our 3rd generation family keeps everyone updated as to what we’re up to these days, and get ready to see some food photos that will have you craving a BBQ plate!

Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ In Columbia, South Carolina

Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ In Columbia, South Carolina

Why should readers visit Maurice’s Piggie Park BBQ in Columbia, South Carolina?

We are traditional SC BBQ. We still cook the traditional way since Maurice’s Piggie Park started in 1955. We started mustard based bbq in the state of South Carolina. We’ve been the biggest innovators and leaders of BBQ in South Carolina, the first one to have a seven day bbq establishment in the 60s, no one had one before us and most people don’t do that now. Everyone said, people wouldn’t eat bbq 7 days a week and we proved them wrong, we’ve been serving bbq 7 days a week ever since. The first one to have a drive thru at a BBQ place. The first one to start a mail order bbq business, because people wanted Maurice’s BBQ sauce so bad after traveling through and going back home. The first one to make and bottle mustard based bbq sauce for grocery stores. The first one to put a frozen mustard based bbq product in the grocery stores, nobody had done that before us. Often imitated, never duplicated. Even the biggest bbq sauce maker in the country came down to SC in the 90s and tried to copy our mustard based sauce because we sold so much of it. That’s where Cattlemen’s Gold came from. At the time, South Carolina was the only state that Kraft was not the #1 BBQ sauce. Maurice’s BBQ Sauce was #1. To this day, I’d say we are still the biggest sauce from South Carolina. Supporting local businesses is a trend these days, and I just want to say how important it truly is to support local businesses and restaurants. Without local restaurants and regional menus, you lose your traditional state foods and old traditions of making things. Everything would just be a chain, like it’s becoming where it’s all chains now and everything tastes the same. Every region has its history and specialties and it’s up to the people not to lose that. Right now we have 5th generation family working to continue serving authentic South Carolina BBQ for many years to come. Y’all come!

Executive Chef Name: Paul Bessinger Sr., Head Pitmaster, and Paul Bessinger Jr., Pitmaster and Saucemaker

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