Sweet Tea and Tacos

The Story of Bayou Classic

• Sweet Tea and Tacos

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A backyard boil doesn’t happen by accident—it’s the result of gear that’s been obsessed over, tested hard, and designed by people who love feeding a crowd. We sit down with Erin and Brad from Bayou Classic to unpack how a family garage project in Mississippi grew into one of the most trusted names in outdoor cooking. At the heart of it all is a simple promise: provide equipment that lets people cook like an original.Tap play, then subscribe, share with a friend who hosts the next boil, and leave a review with your favorite seafood tradition so we can feature it on a future show.

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Dave:

Welcome to Sweet Tea and Tacos, I'm Dave

Jen:

And I'm Jen.

Dave:

And we are here in Brandon, Mississippi with Erin and Brad from Bayou Classic. Now, Bayou Classic, I have seen in stores and uh different places, and I've been, you know, they make, you might be familiar with them, turkey cookers. That's a big thing you'll see. But I didn't know they were just right here in Brandon, Mississippi. And then we met Brad through church and some some community stuff, and he told us, we found out he worked here. And it's a cool story. So Brad and Aaron, welcome. Thank you.

Speaker:

Thank you.

Dave:

So kind of tell us what is Bayou Classic? How did it get started? What's the story?

Erin:

Well, my parents uh grew up in New Orleans, so born and raised in Louisiana, or I should say Louisiana. Um, they truly lived the outdoor lifestyle. My dad has endless stories about crabbing on the shore, fishing, duck hunting, all the things. Um, and so they decided to start an outdoor cooking business um in 1986. And we moved to Jackson to start the company. It was he based it on location because it intersected to highway I-55 and I-20. Yeah. It was close to the New Orleans port and to the mobile port. So it really the location was determined. The location of the business was determined by easy to access transportation. Um, but he's always had a passion and a love for food and outdoors. Um, we started the business. It it's a a garage. We started in the garage of the house. Um, I spent hours watching them assemble cookers, designing boxes. We used to take orders when I was little, you know, back then you had a house phone.

unknown:

Right.

Erin:

So you would answer it, no. Hello, this is Barbara International. How may I help you? Um, so it's it was fun. So when people ask how long I've been working in the business, it's really all up known. I've been sure working it my whole life. So it's it truly is a family business, and there is truly a lot of passion and love in the business.

Dave:

Gotcha. So what was the need that he saw was the for creating these cookers? Was there a need or he did?

Erin:

He had a lot of friends at that time were uh worked offshore on the oil rigs. So they did a lot of outdoor cooking, they used these huge pots, and there wasn't really a there wasn't really a market, or there wasn't really a place to go buy them. They were welding them, you know, they were fabricating them themselves. So he saw a niche market. You know, there was a need for that. And um he was also the company that he was working for, he was a salesman, and they were being bought out, and so he was ready to make a change. And so that you know what is the expression? Desperation leads to whatever. Innovation. Innovation.

Jen:

Um well, there was a need. Yeah, he he walked into it, he filled it. Yes, that's awesome.

Dave:

So uh Brad, you were telling me a little bit about the design wise, how he kind of came up with the design.

Brad:

Well, Rodney was doing. Rodney has always been uh willing to, as he would say, throw mud up against the wall and see what sticks. And so ever since I've come on the company in the last 12 years, we just kept that mantra. So he allows us to experiment. And what he did with the turkey fryer originally was he noticed a few things that were missing. One is the pot was not shaped, the pot that was being manufactured in someone's backyard or back garage wasn't the right shape for turkeys. So you were using excessive oil, and so it's a taller, slender pot. Then he he realized that when the pot, when the turkey lays against the side or the bottom, it either gets scorched or uncooked. So he created a rack that he patented that allowed the oil to circulate all the way around the turkey. So um, much more flavorful. The whole thing's getting cooked. It's a more even cook. It's it's better that way. Then he's he started taking that innovation into things like the cookers. The cooker is easier to pack into a box with the pot if you can take the legs off or disassemble it in some way. So he patented the legs so that they would be safe for someone. Were you to lose a bolt, they would, it wouldn't fail on you.

Jen:

Right.

Brad:

And he's he's followed that path and handed that to us as as as more people came onto the team. So let's try that with a different product line or something like that, as we've grown from one product, which I guess would be the turkey fryer kit. Now we we bring to the world crawfish boils or any other kind of seafood, uh, steaming, boiling, frying, all those types of cooking. And then we, you know, we we we try to apply that innovation throughout the products.

Dave:

Wow. So you've grown from the garage to this building, which is how big is this building? It's huge.

Speaker:

Wow.

Brad:

Yeah, something like that. I think you measure it one.

Erin:

But better at design, worse at math.

Brad:

Yeah, yeah. We don't do math real well.

Jen:

The plan says building. Let's just say that.

Dave:

So obviously it's grown exponentially. So where kind of how did that was that just hitting the time right when the outdoors cooking or it's a little, you know, the there's a look, there's a lot of luck, good fortune, um, timing, hard work.

Erin:

Like it's all it's all a part of the puzzle. And you know, we always like to say you can't you can't just have one thing. You have to fire on all cylinders. Sometimes when things are up, other things are down. And you also can't have while while we are we do sell seasonal products, we also had to develop products for all seasons in all different parts of the country. Yeah. Um so that's so while we are seasonal, we are a 12-month year business based on, you know, because crabbing or shrimp, it's different on the coast, the timing's different. East coast, west coast, and there's also different ways of doing it. This in the south we prefer to boil, right? East coast, they steam more.

Brad:

Yeah, Brad was talking about that earlier, about the the clams and clams and oysters were something I I learned along the way in this process. Um, just even the gnomon, the the vernacular was that were things like a clam bake. Well, uh, they're not baking anything, they're steaming it. Same thing with oysters. And so we're just and a crab oil might be steaming. You know, yeah. So it doesn't, it doesn't really, it's not really fair to the the new person, but once you learn it, uh we try to have those categories. We try to also do different size groups. So if you want to do the you want to cook for the four of us, smaller pot, you want to cook for all our friends, we're gonna need the big 160 quart pot and invite everyone over. Gotcha.

Dave:

So you guys grew from so the turkey fryer, that was like the original product?

Erin:

The original product what were the large stock pots and the steel cookers for crawfish.

Speaker 4:

All right.

Erin:

That was the core of the business, is the seafood. Uh-huh. The turkey fryer and the patent of that is what catapulted the company. Okay. Okay.

Jen:

And so would you say that the turkey fryer was uh I mean, were y'all kind of the first with the Turkey fryers?

Erin:

We like to say that the turkey fryer built the building.

Dave:

Okay. Yes.

Jen:

That's awesome.

Dave:

So was that um so you the the the stock pots for the seafood, obviously in South Louisiana. So was that was the turkey frying kind of a South Louisiana thing that he took?

Jen:

Oh, okay, wow. That's yeah, because I had never really heard about that growing up. I I think I probably heard about it first maybe like what 10-15 years ago, something like that.

Speaker 1:

And it goes through a season. Um uh a lot of people say, you know, Thanksgiving and Christmas are not the time to experiment with new recipes. But other people are like, we've had the same thing for 20 years. Yes, let's try something a different way.

Dave:

Right. We're the opposite. We love to try new things, and yeah, we sometimes do well and sometimes don't. We have a whole episode on all of the turkey iterations. She tried. We've not tried frying that. That's no, that's that's your brother's territory. I've had it, I'm good. I love it, but yeah. So, where did it go from there product-wise?

Speaker 1:

Product-wise, so 12 years ago when I came along, he had been experimenting with um cast iron. Okay, he had, and I say he, it's it's always Rodney up until just a few years ago. And what he would he would been trying with our deep fryers, which we had had a few years, but he had just introduced them as a stainless material, which was lighter weight, it's a lot more eye-catching, and it was different in the market. And he designed that just based on shape and look, along with function. So it's it's a beautiful product along with a very high-functioning product. So those were two new categories. Like I said, um, since I've come on, we might try a different variation of what already exists. So the the oyster steamer is a good example where we've already had cookers and pots sold in a box together as a combo for years for different things. It might be a fish fryer, it might be a turkey fryer. Now it's a steamer. Now it might be a big boiler set.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Um, and we can steam the steam or boil in those, that kind of thing. So it it those are the the made just to go over the major categories. It's cookware. So that's aluminum and stainless stock pots. Okay. And we kind of start at like 20 quarts. We do have some fryers that are down in 10 and 14 quarts, but as far as a stockpot goes, and we go all the way up to 160. Oh, wow. Because another thing Roddy wanted to do was make like we'll do really well at 80 and 100 quart, but have those larger sizes available that are harder to find. We want to be easier for the customer to find it.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And then um cast iron cookware as well, indoor and outdoor. And then the cookers, we have them in steel painted in high-tech paint. We have them in stainless, again, handling the marine uh environments and things like that.

Dave:

That was the one of the things I've seen too, which I was really interested to see is so much stainless available. You know, and it's because you see a lot of aluminum and some of it can be kind of you know inferior product. But then you have the stainless as a really high quality option. I mean, and we love stainless.

Jen:

I mean, we we at home we cook with stainless all the time. We're not into nonstick or I mean we do stainless and cast iron, and that's that's it. Right.

Brad:

Well, we um just to finish the categories, we do the deep fryers, we call that its own category. Okay, and then we have accessories, like all the gas um hookups and things like that that you need. Those are our five categories cookware, cookers, fryers, cast iron, and then accessories. And then we'll have we'll branch out again and just try something else from time to time. We've we've had coolers in the past. We don't we don't need more, but just just trying things and throwing it up against the wall, see what sticks. Sure. Everybody, we try to help people cook their way. Yes. Okay, we provide the equipment, you cook like an original. Yeah, okay, your way.

Jen:

That's an that's an awesome statement. Yeah.

Brad:

But you will find if you walk down the halls of this office, people's opinions on how to cook originally are very opinionated. And so whether you're going to brine your turkey or you're going to inject, or you're going to put a slurry on the outside. Everyone has a strong opinion. Absolutely. Whether you're going to use an aluminum pot because it's lighter weight, it's more economical, or it's because it's what my grandfather used or I've always used versus stainless, it won't dent as easily. It's easier to sanitize, it's it's a little bit bougier, it looks real nice, it's gonna stand the test of time. It doesn't matter. I you can boil something 17 different ways in instilling. And it makes no sense, but we don't ruffle feathers.

Dave:

Well, then, like you say, we were talking earlier about the lighter weight of aluminum, you know, versus the stainless steel is heavier, and you have some people that need the lighter weight. Absolutely, absolutely. And then, you know, you look at the history in South Louisiana cooking, you got Magnolite, you got aluminum pans, or a very prevalent uh product everywhere. Yeah. So Brad, a little bit about your background too, and kind of what you do here.

Brad:

Well, I started out, we were talking about earlier, I guess, off the record, what our kids are doing, and I I sympathize with the child that does not know what they want to do when they graduate high school or college, yeah, undergrad. We're going through that. So I um I was telling my kids earlier this week, I uh started off in architecture, switched to business, switch back to architecture, switch back to business. I just couldn't decide. Um, but I graduated in business, undergrad, and loved it. Loved, I love the nuance of of managing and and marketing. And I I don't know much about finance, but you know how you bring a product to life and then sell it out there in the real world and and have it made and things like that. Um anyway, I was I was taught uh next door neighbors with a guy who was a professor at Auburn University and he had been an architecture professor, but through a course of his career, he was now the chair of the industrial design department. And he's he came to me one day after I graduated for two years later, and he just said, Do you are you interested in designing? I said, It'd be a real hard coin toss for me, even at the age of 22, having done it all, knowing what I know. And he said, We actually have a program for um someone with a non-design undergrad to get a master's in industrial design. And so I went there and basically they take you through boot camp and over the course of about a year and a half, you get you get 90% of the undergraduate degree. And then they and then you qualify to get into the master's program, and it's however long you need to take, two to five years. So I did that, and somehow along the way, I ended up being an appliance guy. I didn't design toys or tools or cars or shoes, anything like that. I ended up getting an internship with an appliance company, small handheld uh kitchen appliances, and then my first job out of design school was at Viking. So and they actually asked me to do uh the outdoor segment. So I did I did some interior inside and some exterior products, and it was my goodness, 2007. I go to Reno, Nevada for an outdoor show. I walk past a table and it says Brandon, Mississippi. And I was like, I don't know anything about the state I've moved to, but it said Mississippi neighbors should know each other. Yeah, and I swapped business cards with Rodney Barber.

Jen:

Oh okay.

Brad:

And so six years later, I'm looking for a change, and I call the number on that card, and through the course, what Rodney had done, he had he had the vision for things, but he actually had an artist, a local artist who had a knack for understanding things in an engineering kind of way. So when he drew something, he understood that we needed to weld it, we needed to fold it, whatever. Yeah, and um that gentleman was no longer working with the company, and so he was looking for someone else, and he's like, I think this is good timing for everyone. Bunch come down interview. Wow, so we went from appliance to appliance to appliance, and um I I'm very fortunate sometimes I get to carry a little of that information along to the next place, and and uh we've really enjoyed it here, and at my age, uh I think I've almost got twice as much time left to continue to build on that. And I'm excited about it.

Dave:

Well, that's fantastic.

Jen:

That is awesome.

Dave:

So talk to me. So you guys designed everything here, and like what how is the the process?

Speaker 1:

It will the an idea will come from anywhere. We will have a conversation.

Erin:

A lot of comes from our customers, okay at a trade show or even at when we're cooking on the weekends with friends. A lot of that's there the ideas come organically. Yes, yes.

Brad:

Um, from any any place, as like she said, friend, trade show, which would be a customer who sold this product or uses the product, some of our own emplo uh co-workers who will say, you know, I was using this last week, or or I was cooking at the trade show. And it would be really nice if we had dot dot dot. Oh wow. So we'll do that. We'll look at out at the sometimes we come up with an idea, but we'll look out into the marketplace and see maybe where trend is. You can never do enough market research, right? But where trend is or something like that, what's available with the people who help produce these products for us? How do you do it? Right. So one of the fun things I I learned was um visiting these factories. We our big aluminum pots are handmade. Wow. They're literally, they have this artisan that is trained for seven or so years before they let him loose on the machine.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Brad:

And then of course, they're on their own little, they're not unionized, but they're their own little group and they're very protective. But those guys, just to do a side note, those guys worked through COVID and lived at the factory.

Jen:

Oh my goodness.

Brad:

Um, it was they threw him a party afterwards, and we sent you know many, many gracious thanks to them because they kept us supplied. Yeah, yeah, because we were supplying essential customers like hardware stores. But you have to have the product. You gotta have the product. So we we did that. But that is not how the stainless pots are made. Stainless pots are made very um technically with rolling machines and and robot welders. And and so you don't go tell the aluminum factory, hey, we're gonna we're gonna change this today. Yeah, like no, no, no. Let's talk about it, let's plan ahead. Oh wow, something's gonna the the stainless factory. You can call them and say, What if we made it two inches taller? They're like, Okay, we'll have it to you next week. You know, that they they they think about things differently. But um, and we have to plan that way. So the design process, you come up with that idea, then you have to say, How are we gonna make it? We can sketch out anything, and that sketch will lie to you and tell you we can make this thing. Yeah. And then, but after a while, um, you when you learn what they do, the manufacturer, and you learn what we can do and what our customers need or want, then you can find that sweet spot where we'll we will produce it, we'll find the right price, because that's obviously consideration, the right function, the right material. the right manufacturing process. And you have a you have a prototype made and you start to study it. Is this is this going to look right? Is this going to fit in the product line? Is this going to work correctly?

Jen:

Right.

Brad:

Because maybe we were all wrong. And it yeah. And I I'll sometimes, sometimes they won't even send me the prototype. They'll send me a video and they say this is this isn't doing what you ask it to do. And we're about to charge you 50 extra bucks for it. Well that that won't work.

Jen:

Yeah.

Brad:

So it there's a trial and error process. It's faster than it used to be. That's cool. And we keep an open line of communication with people all around the world to make sure things are working correctly. And then there's also a magic um element of it not magic but an essential element and that is how do you get it here? And and we also over the past year had to study um the national politics. Yeah. How do you get it here and make it affordable with tariffs? Yeah. So we're we're looking at everything.

Jen:

That has been an issue.

Brad:

We're a smaller company so we don't have a lobbyist but we do have to pay attention and we have and we we need we would love advocates everywhere. Yeah.

Dave:

And then you were telling us earlier so you guys come in and then everything's packaged or we'll we will assemble or package things here gracious on a on a high percentage number of our products.

Brad:

Just because maybe we build elements of it in different locations and it's just easier to ship it all here and box it. Or sometimes we get a wild hair and say what if and we do our own grassroots kind of concept here. Okay. What if this cooker will sell with this skillet in the same box to people like that. And all of a sudden we're selling yeah a dozen online and people are picking it up and we'll show it at a trade show and maybe a store will pick it up and all of a sudden it this thing's kind of got some legs too. Okay.

Jen:

Cool. Excellent do y'all do um like say you've come out with a new uh pot or product and do you put it in people's hands to sort of test it before then you would really launch it out into the big market like to see how does how does this really work. Does that make sense?

Erin:

Sometimes we do most of that here in-house okay we do a lot of cooking for the employees or office lunches because for that very reason because we want to test it use it try it out with new things. And a good example of that is when we ordered the stainless steel jambalaya pots because historically they're cast iron. Oh wow yeah they're cast iron yeah um cast iron is heavy very it's hard to make and so we thought what let's just try one out of stainless and it was going to be a hard sell it was really hard to sell it to some of our core cast iron jambalaya lovers so that was that was one for example we did several cooks out here with it and we've taken it to trade shows and now the guys at the office I'm not going to say that they prefer it because that but they won't say they will love it. But that's a good that's a good example of what you're asking. Gotcha. Well that's awesome.

Dave:

So there's a lot of cast iron out there a lot of cast iron's been around a long time. What drove you guys what where did you see the need for to design your own cast iron and and where does that go?

Speaker:

Was it the Jambalaya pot was was that kind of the start so jambalaya was is always yes because at at the end of the day we always go back to our core and our roots and then it evolves from there. We also tried to be a one-stop shop for our small mom and pop stores. Gotcha. So they didn't have to deal with four or five sure yeah companies to get what they needed for their outdoor cooking department.

Speaker 1:

That's a great idea.

Speaker:

And so then we started to design pieces that were unique to the market. Okay. That were different.

Jen:

What would be some of the most like what that you would say that are the most unique cast iron pieces we love um we came out with some more seafood specific cast iron.

Speaker 4:

Okay.

Brad:

So we came out with an oyster tray. Okay. So you heat that bad boy up on a grill or something and it'll sizzle those oysters and you can do all kinds of cooked oyster meat dishes. And then with the success of that we said well let's try it with shrimp. So we did the same thing where you place the shrimp in the searing hot dish and you can cook in it and serve in it. And it's a great little thing. That those are probably some very recent ones. I remember when I first came on and Rodney was really trying to invest in the cast iron and was really trying to say let's I want to do more with it. I see some potential here we he had had some pieces and he's like let's just grow it. Let's we found a new supplier so they were a lot more technologically advanced and um I was able to discuss with them and so he brought me four pieces he said these are what we will start with. And those those four pieces were one is actually a 12 quart domed roaster that it is it's a big boy but you can put you can roast the turkey or the the the roast or something like that. And that was one of them we have an a unique piece called a discada which was the the cooking method literally came from um farm discs like harrows and valves where they would take the the used piece of steel that was kind of in a cup shallow cup form and they'll they would weld in the holes where it was mounted onto the farm implement and they would cook out of that like a huge pan. Oh wow like a very shallow walk okay so you can use a little bit of oil this is very similar cooking but completely different part of the world. Very Texas Mexico kind of cooking and so we create a cast iron version of that and uh the legs come on and off so you can do it over a fire or on one of our burners one of our cookers. That's cool. That's a fun one and uh there's actually a new new trend that we're we're watching called overlanding and people like to cook and they don't they don't lag for anything they they buy nice equipment when they go because they're driving it all over the big old trucks big old trucks and nice tents and nice cooking equipment. And so some people like that like to use that piece specifically in that market. The other two one was a was a large frying pot. It's really good for gumbo but we call it a chicken fryer but you can use it for anything you do cast iron it's 10 quarts so it's it really gets a lot done. And um I am do not remember the fourth one right now but basically Rodney's like let's do it differently and uh we've we've tried to keep that mantra of course you have to have skillets.

Jen:

Yeah. Oh yeah.

Speaker 1:

And we've had Dutch ovens for years but other stuff we we look at what what might be that's very cool.

Jen:

Yeah it is cool.

Dave:

So kind of what's the what's the next few years?

Speaker 1:

What do you guys see in well um part of our part of our product I mean part of our business is seeing where people are going in the world like what's the economy like what are the the government the tariffs like what um where are people buying so we have always been supportive of those smaller single owned businesses whether they're maybe a gas company or a hardware store we we really try to support them outdoor store bigger chains we work with them as well but then there's also online um and so we constantly I mean we constantly what is the future next month.

Speaker:

Yeah right we constantly want to continue to design and improve the current product categories while looking to our customers our friends outside what all all the areas all the parts of the country for that innovation and for the new ideas.

Speaker 1:

Yeah so it's it's a constant we have to we don't have to remind ourselves let's have this conversation it's a constant conversation I do have my own um thoughts that to to make that core fantastic it is fantastic but it's like like she said how can we improve on maybe this cooker or this pot um it can be a very simple thing we can add a a glove to the lineup so that you can lift the lift the lid safely you know or a different stand or something like that. So the core can just be uh repurposing something you'd see over in a completely different part of the market. Like we sell nice long gloves they're they're probably originally welding gloves. Sure. But now they're a nice because you're working with bigger things. Yeah. So we need to protect more arms and and be very well insulated things like that. But I'm I'm I'm kind of in a core mode right now where what do we have the the details matter.

Speaker:

And we think that you know the love can be found in the details. Yeah absolutely to really finesse to really yes it's just I think that the details are very important.

Dave:

And you can hear that throughout the story like you know we're talking about you know making sure that the leg if the bulk comes out I mean a that and that takes everything to the next level and really shows the care and the love and the passion for for what you because if you think about it when people when you cook for each other when you cook food and share food that is a sign of love.

Speaker:

It is and so we want our products and the vessels that people use to cook that food to also be designed with love. Like it's it's the big picture.

Jen:

Yeah I I was just thinking that when you were talking you know I mean how much people say there there was love cooked into this dish or this was cooked with love and you know so you want to you want to have that same mindfulness when you're designing what's going to cook the food you know um and and like your story earlier Brad about the the couple that ordered the pot and they y'all shipped them a a stainless version the one at the aluminum and that was really kind of an upgrade for most people to get a stainless pot instead of an aluminum but they couldn't lift it anymore. They were in their 80s I'm I'm kind of in that same boat you know I just I'm I can't do the really heavy stuff.

Speaker 1:

So you know we always try to look out for our customers what they need and it is more satisfying it's really nice to hear when someone says I have been looking for this product but when someone says I had an event and it was wonderful and you helped me do that. Like she talks about the love that people share the gathering all that stuff that is so satisfying to know that we were we were part of your your gathering your party and it was be you know whether it worked well or it came in on time or it cooked the food perfectly that is that is so nice to hear that that we're helping people out and and sharing that with them. That's awesome. And then you're right here in our backyard.

Dave:

Oh sure and then hey Mississippi's backyard and in the south we will all we'll always be here working hard to get the next thing going I guess well this has been cool learned a lot I've seen that name now I know so much more about the product line and the care and the love that goes into it.

Speaker:

So um tell us where can people find your products we distribute through Ace Hardware okay we distribute through other hardware um stores like Orgal do it best true value we're in lots of sporting goods stores can people find we have our website yeah there is I I've checked it out yes perfect so yeah so eClassic.com eClassic.com very good information and order what in order but also support that local retailer that's right Aaron thank you guys so much Brad yep and that I'm Dave and uh you're Jen all right thanks for listening this is uh sweet teen tacos thanks bye