As a child, Charlie McKenna’s grandmother, Lillie, taught him everything she knew about Southern cooking in her kitchen in Greenville, South Carolina. Years later, her commitment to all-natural ingredients has stuck with McKenna and are the cornerstones of his restaurant, Lillie’s Q, and the range of retail products. Lillie’s Q offers a complete range of traditional, deep-rooted barbecue sauces that are specific to southern regions of the USA. Lillie's Q now has four restaurants across America that utilise these sauces on their barbecue and has been named "the best new BBQ restaurant in the country" by US Food and Wine Magazine.
A regular along the BBQ circuit, McKenna strives to stay true to each region in which he competes. Spicy cayenne from Memphis; apple and lime juices from Western Carolina; vinegar from Eastern Carolina; tangy mustard from South Carolina; mayonnaise and black pepper from Northern Alabama. This approach has paid dividends – Lillie’s Q competes at the coveted Memphis-In-May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest every year and has won twice, in 2009 and 2016. The unique sauce blends and intergenerational southern-style barbecue mastery means that Lillie’s Q Sauces are a tradition that can be tasted.
Lillie’s Q President Brian Golinvaux was recently in New Zealand, looking at expanding the reach of Lillie’s Q products/ The sauces are currently stocked in selected leading New World and other premium food stores around the country, and Golinvaux is looking to roll out nationally in time for the summer barbecue season. The sauces are distributed by Cook & Nelson and are available in specialty stores such as Farro Fresh, Smith & Caughey’s and Ballantynes. Lillie’s Q sauces come in attractive 16 fl.oz (453ml) bottles. Also in the pipeline is a range of kettle chips in traditional Southern flavours such as Pimento Cheese, Hot Pepper Vinegar and Carolina Dirt, Lillie’s Q’s take on BBQ flavouring. “We had to do a BBQ flavour,” explained Golinvaux. “We’re a BBQ company!”
From Western Carolina to Southern Alabama and now down to New Zealand, Lillie’s Q is the best range of all-natural and gluten free BBQ sauces.
