St. George man quits job to become taste-tester for wife's world-renowned barbecue recipes

ST GEORGE – When Todd Bulloch came home from work to find a plate of prime ribs slathered in a flavor that he had never experienced before, he knew he had to slice it up and devour it.

"There was a rack of ribs still warm, sitting on the counter with jalapeños on it," Bulloch recalled. "I bit into it, and I ran upstairs (to my wife) and I was like, 'What is this?!' She's like, 'It's a new recipe I came up with.' And I said, 'It's my new favorite thing.' That's when I caught the vision."

The vision Bulloch is talking about is his wife Susie Bulloch's business, Hey Grill, Hey, that aims to turn ordinary people into "backyard barbecue heroes."

In the early 2010s, Susie Bulloch started working as a recipe writer for a grill company. She had no grilling experience but did know how to cook and, more importantly, how to read a recipe.

"I told (my boss) that I didn't know anything about grilling, and he said, 'That's OK. We kind of like the idea of starting from scratch and learning as you go,'" she recalled.

"My dad also told me before I went to college that if you can read a recipe, you can cook anything. He made sure all of us knew how to read a recipe."

As Susie Bulloch immersed herself in the world of barbecue, she started to realize that she was good at it and that she had a passion for teaching others. She also started to see there were very few women in her newfound world. She soon found herself with a new motivation for success.

"I wanted my daughter to grow up in a space where she could see that girls could do anything they wanted to," she told KSL. "In barbecue, I had hit a couple of hurdles before I started my own website where it still felt like there was a little bit of a boy's club at that time. If I believed that (my daughter) could go anywhere she wanted to go and do whatever she wanted to do, that had to be true for me, too."

Bulloch started a blog and social media accounts, and people started taking notice. She made appearances on the Food Network, and her website started to get views in the millions. Things started to grow to the point where she needed help, so she decided to present her husband with a proposal.

"I hit a point where I said (to Todd) that I either need to hire help with the kids, I need to hire an employee or (he) need(ed) to quit (his) job, come home, take on lead parenting and kind of support me in the business," Bulloch said. "He went all in ... and he gave me a huge vote of confidence. He came home and took over lead parenting duties so I could focus on building Hey Grill, Hey, and we built the rest of it together."

Todd Bulloch has a background in accounting and was working as a chief financial officer for a company in Orem at the time. He said he was grateful for the opportunity to leave the corporate world and come home. His wife has also changed the way he views barbecue.

"I grew up thinking I didn't like barbecue, but it turns out, I just don't like cheap barbecue sauce," he said. "The first time we got a pellet smoker ... I just wanted to stick my head in it. I just wanted to breathe it in — it smelled so good. The food coming off of it was just a completely different flavor than I've ever had."

But Bulloch doesn't only get to smell the smoke coming out of the grill or grab ribs off the kitchen counter. Over the past few years, he has been known as "Taste-test Todd," and he has gotten to showcase in real time what it's like to taste good barbecue cooked by his wife.

"They've shortened it to 'Triple T,'" Todd Bulloch said, laughing.

Susie Bulloch added that "Hey Grill, Hey would not be Hey Grill, Hey without Taste-test Todd."

"The first run of product started with Todd," she said. "We're really focusing on expanding our product line. We have a line of seasonings and sauces and a cookbook."

The cookbook, titled "Backyard BBQ Hero," is self-published and is coming out in April. The couple said it aims to help people make better barbecue so they can "feed the people they love and become a backyard barbecue hero." The parents of three also say they couldn't have dreamed of a better life for their family.

"I've participated in Guinness World Record events, been on the Food Network, and taught Shaq how to cook his Thanksgiving turkey," Susie Bulloch said. "It's really been an amazingly wild ride. We always say it's the best job we ever made up for ourselves."

"It's such an amazing thing to have for our family and to watch (Susie) succeed and to drive this thing to the stratosphere," Todd Bulloch added. "I don't know where she can take this thing. She has big dreams. I'm just holding on for dear life."

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