It started, as most great things do, with a few beers and a backyard BBQ with great mates. Somewhere between the coldies and the smoke, the conversation turned (as it always does during a good sesh) to the flavours nobody makes like they used to. That charcoal chicken shop smell drifting down the street as a kid. The crunch of proper southern fried chicken. The simple magic of a seriously good chicken salt on a batch of hot chips fresh out of the fryer. Food that just tasted like it should. You know the feeling.

For over 15 years I had been developing a serious passion for backyard low and slow BBQ, and from 2014 falling deep into the world of competition barbecue, judging (KCBS, ABA, SCA) , earning my stripes running unsanctioned comps and as a KCBS Contest Rep / Certified Judge Trainer, and on occasion jumping headfirst into a comp BBQ team just for the hell of it. I have spent more weekends standing around smokers with mates than is probably considered healthy. NOTE: A massive thankyou to my wonderful family who unconditionally accepted this.

“I have spent years judging and running competition BBQ at the highest level in Australia and overseas. I know what great flavour tastes like, and when I couldn’t find what I wanted I made my own.”

When COVID hit in 2020 and I stepped back from the corporate world for a year, I went back to those childhood flavours with fresh eyes and got properly to work. The brief was simple, recreate the tastes that actually meant something. Atomic Chicken launched in March 2021 with a Chicken Salt, a Southern Fried Chicken coating, and a Charcoal Chicken rub — three flavours pulled straight from a young bloke’s memory and rebuilt from scratch with the fantastic help of my friends and founders of Stagg & Co, my co-packing partner.

The range has grown since then, but the philosophy hasn’t shifted an inch. Every Atomic Chicken product I develop is built to work brilliantly for a midweek family meal all the way through to the competition team chasing a Grand Championship on the weekend. From the backyard to the turn-in box, no dumbing down, no compromises, just a bloody good Atomic Level of Flavour.

And for that nickname, well somewhere along the way someone in my BBQ family started calling me The Head Rooster. Honestly, I have absolutely no memory of who said it first, and nobody's owning up to it. But it stuck and given what I have been building I am going to say whoever it was had excellent instincts, but no chance of any royalties.