Chef Gerald Allen: Secret Sauce Recipes from the Roadside BBQ Maestro

Last summer, as I mulled over starting my company, I met Chef Gerald Allen at his roadside barbeque pop-up at the legendary SIW farmstand in Chadd’s Ford, Pennsylvania. His barbeque rig was hitched to the back of his massive pickup truck, and was loaded up with scores of herb-crusted fresh chickens roasting over oak and applewood on a beautiful summer afternoon.

He was busy packaging to-go dinners with freshly grilled vegetables, potato salad and pickles for a lineup of people who had pre-ordered. In the vacuum created by restaurant closures, word had gotten out through social media and the clamor for Chef Gerald’s cooking reached a fever pitch. Needless to say, Gerald was very busy the afternoon we met.

Gerald certainly looks the part of a grillmaster – soft spoken with a hundred-yard stare. Yet, he is also kind-eyed and patient – not your typical fireball-throwing chef. This makes sense when you learn that he works with kids as a Culinary Arts teacher and wrestling coach at a local vocational high school. After years working up the ladder from line cook to running kitchens at well-established, high-volume restaurants in Arizona, Gerald realized he wanted a change in lifestyle. A native of Bear, Delaware, he found his home was calling to him, along with the idea of teaching and coaching youth. After all, his culinary inspiration came from long summer afternoons as a child, learning from his mother how to taste, cook and appreciate simple dishes made with impeccable technique. His love for fresh produce came from working alongside his grandfather in his vegetable garden in Lewes. He landed a gig at Hodgson, the very same vocational high school he had attended, where he began teaching culinary arts and coaching wrestling.

At the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Gerald’s wife Natalie Eguez, an Executive Chef for the Marriott Corporation, was laid off. Gerald could clearly see that Hodgson would be going virtual. His family, like so many others in the country, was experiencing first-hand the pandemic pinch. Gerald longed for creative outlet that might also ease the pinch, and called on local farm owner and friend H.G. Haskell, owner of SIW farmstand, and proposed a roadside barbeque dinner series. Wilmington locals could pre-order and pickup safely and word spread very quickly, and before long Gerald was serving up to 180 dinners each time he would set up.

Nourishing others has always been an integral part of Gerald’s motivation for cooking as is working with a family-driven team, so he assembled a team to assist him that includes his mother, his wife, his cousin and his good friend and business partner Khoran Horn. In a year full of uncertainty and trauma, the pop-up dinner series was a bright spot for so many families, including Gerald’s own.

Later in the year, I was able to collaborate with Gerald and his family on a socially-distanced natural wine tasting and dinner to-go at one of our local favorite wine shops, Swigg. Over 100 tickets were sold and, for an evening, things felt a lighter and a bit more hopeful. So hopeful, in fact, that Gerald will continue the pop-up and roadside dinners, along with teaching and coaching.

Visit Chef Gerald on Instagram @gravyboatjones