The popular BBQ chef will be remembered for the time he battled Bobby Flay and won.
Alexander “Butch” Lupinetti was a nationally recognized Barbecue Pit Master who received numerous awards and was well known for his many appearances on the Food Network. But it will be the time he beat Bobby Flay that will live on in the memories of fans.
After Lupinetti died Aug. 4, 2010, the Food Network rebroadcast a 2006 episode of “Throwdown with Bobby Flay,” where Bobby battles Butch, a self-described “lover, looker, and barbecue cooker” from Mount Laurel, New Jersey.
Raised on a farm in Pemberton, New Jersey, Lupinetti learned about the less-glamorous end of grilling early in life: he and his brothers were often tasked with removing hogs’ hair with a corncob before the animals were butchered and cooked.
Later, he toured as the singer for a rock band and then opened a roadhouse bar in 1967. It was there he started roasting pigs for his customers and began working on perfecting his own barbecue sauce. After entering his first competition in the late 1980s, he was hooked. In 1996, he sold his bar to compete full time in cook-off competitions.
“Barbecue to me is a 365 day-a-year job,” he told the Food Network in 2006. He spent over six months each year on the road, and had racked up an impressive 600 cooking awards at the time of his death. He also sold his own line of sauces and rubs, authored a book on BBQ, and owned a stand serving sports fans outside the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia.
His secret? “Cook it low, cook it slow, serve no swine before its time.”
With a busy summer travel schedule, Lupinetti rarely had time for a real vacation. But this year, he’d decided to travel with his family to Italy, a place his wife told Phillyburbs.com he’d been talking about visiting for 40 years.
Lupinetti died in Pompeii, Italy, after suffering a heart attack. He was 69.
Butch lives on in the hearts of his family, friends, and fans, many of whom are just discovering the barbecue cooker, thanks to the re-aired episode of “Throwdown.” The mouth-watering episode had folks going to Google to find out more about the affable, bearded owner of Butch’s Smack Your Lips BBQ.
