Helen Turner

Helen Turner is the pitmaster of Helen's Bar-B-Q in Brownsville, Tennessee — one of the last true practitioners of traditional wood-pit barbecue in the South. She cooks over hickory and pecan in a cinder-block pit, the same way it's been done for generations.

Jim viewed Helen Turner as one of the last keepers of the old-school flame. In an era when gas-assist and pellet grills were taking over the competition circuit, Helen was still doing it the hard way — and doing it better than most.