Bright’s Creek chef John Wilson and Jim Tabb, the founder of the Blue Ridge Barbecue, are teaming up to provide a scrumptious meal at the Tryon Fine Arts Center’s Peterson Amphitheater Thursday, June 9.

Asheville bluegrass legends, Buncombe Turnpike, will be performing in the amphitheater, and the local Pacolet Junior Appalachian Music (PacJAM) students will be performing during the dinner hour.

Tickets are still available by calling 828-859-8322.

Chef Wilson says for the TFAC event he has ordered St. Louis ribs, pulled pork and local Bradley Farms free range, organically raised chicken. He and Tabb will be in the McMillan Gardens parking lot at TFAC with Tabb’s Smokin’ Joe cooking rig slow-cooking all day — 14 hours — for the 150 lucky diners who will be on hand that evening.

“That is the same cooker Jim used for many events,” Wilson says. “We will be using a blend of apple and hickory woods.”

In addition, Wilson will be blending his original “sweet tangy sauce,” and will mix up some of his cole slaw adding fresh fennel and apples.

“When people arrive at 5:30, we will be taking the meat off the cooker and chopping it up,” Tabb said. “The best time to eat barbecue is when it comes right out of the cooker. That’s what we’ll be doing up there.”

Tabb is also cooking his “best I’ve ever had” baked beans recipe, the one he wowed diners with at events he personally catered for Julia Child. Quite a compliment considering the crowd he served there.

Tabb, a Navy fighter pilot and later commercial trans-Atlantic pilot, first started cooking barbecue with Navy buddies in Jacksonville, Fla. He became so enamored with it that he was tapped to start judging at Kansas City BBQ Society events, and used his pilot airline passes to go all over the world judging events.

Twenty-three years ago, when Charlie Neff was president of the local chamber of commerce, Tabb approached him with the recommendation that the chamber start a sanctioned barbecue contest in Tryon. From the start, with Tabb’s help, the local festival was named the North Carolina Championship Barbecue Cook-Off.

Wilson began his barbecue experiences also in Florida, where he learned a mixed barbecue and Carribean style, called Floribian. He has since cooked in Phoenix, Ohio, Tampa, Fla. and in this area for many years.

He lives in Tryon, and looks forward to the Bluegrass and Bar-B-Que at the Tryon Fine Arts Center, the first annual event, and a fundraiser for the local arts center.

“It will be nice to be close to home and to do something for the community,” Wilson said.