James Lemons is a Chicago-based pitmaster who was named a 2019 Barbecue Hall of Fame semi-finalist by the American Royal — one of nine nominees that year alongside Jim Quessenberry, Aaron Franklin, and Meathead Goldwyn.
Lemons represents the Chicago BBQ tradition — an underappreciated regional style descended from the Great Migration, where African-American pitmasters from the Deep South brought whole-hog and rib techniques north and adapted them to the city's neighborhoods and aquarium smokers.