Seth Watari

Seth Watari

Pit Master: Some-R Swine – Competition BBQ Cooking Team

Winner of  2009 – Pig on the Ridge

Winner of 2010 – Smoke at the Lodge

Reserve Grand Champion – 2010 Smokin at the Speedway

Seth Watari is a Native Californian that’s been transplanted into the Deep South. Having lived all over the country, he developed a fairly respectable approach to regional cooking and a taste for many traditional dishes. Living in the Washington DC area for almost 30 years, he learned what BBQ is really all about; you see growing up in California the word barbecue or barbeque is a verb since they “barbecue” everything including tofu!

Seth got his first taste of that good old Southern Tradition of slow smoked BBQ when visiting the Savannah River Plant in Aiken SC where two of the local gentlemen took him out for a quick bite…you’ll have to ask him about that story.

After that Southern BBQ became a goal to strive for as he developed his own touches to rubs and sauces. Seth spent more than 15-years managing festivals in Northern Virginia serving North Carolina Barbecue, sometimes cooking up and serving over 5,000 sandwiches in a weekend. Once relocating to the Low Country, Seth continued his pursuit of traditional barbeque by joining the South Carolina Barbeque Association where he eventually met Jack and Mary Waiboer. With his interest growing in Traditional Southern Barbeque, Seth’s wife, Nona, gave him an enrollment into the 2009 Carolina Pit Master’s Cooking School for Christmas and the rest is history.

Having graduated from CPM, Seth decided that competing in local events would be a great addition to his cooking hobby. He enlisted the help of his wife and together they became team Some-R Swine and began competing in September of 2009. They have completed their first year in competition receiving several awards; they are ranked in the top-ten in South Carolina’s Master Barbeque Awards program. Competing on the BBQ circuit is a family hobby with Seth, Nona and their two sons, Bill and Chris whom occasionally join them for competition events. Yes, they are hooked on competition barbeque cooking and compete in events throughout the South.

In 2011 they are branching out into events sanctioned by Kansas City Barbecue Society and Southern Barbeque Network where they’ll compete in competition cooking on wood fired cookers producing all four meat categories.