Roosevelt Scott
“You don't cook a hog with a clock. You cook it with your hands and your eyes.”
Roosevelt Scott is the patriarch of the Scott BBQ dynasty — the man who founded Scott's Bar-B-Que in Hemingway in 1972 and raised Rodney Scott on the pits. Roosevelt learned the whole-hog tradition from generations of Pee Dee pitmasters, and his technique — cooking whole hogs over live oak on open pits — is the foundation of what Rodney would later bring to a national audience. Roosevelt still oversees the Hemingway operation, tending the same pits he built decades ago.
Philosophy
This is the only way I know. My daddy did it this way, and his daddy before him. You cook the whole hog, you tend the fire, and you feed the people.
Technique
Open-pit whole-hog cooking over live oak coals, tended by hand for 12+ hours. No thermometers — Roosevelt reads the fire by feel and sound.
Recognition
- Southern Foodways Alliance — Lifetime Achievement in BBQ
- South Carolina BBQ Hall of Fame (informal recognition)