Doug Worgul

Doug Worgul (born 1953) is a Kansas City author and journalist regarded as a leading chronicler of Kansas City barbecue. His book The Grand Barbecue (2001) is a definitive history of the city’s barbecue culture, and his novel Thin Blue Smoke is set in a fictional KC barbecue joint.

Biography

Worgul moved to Kansas City in 1989 and wrote for The Kansas City Star from 1996 to 2006 as a writer, book and features editor, and editor of Star Magazine.¹ In 2001 he published The Grand Barbecue: A Celebration of the History, Places, Personalities and Techniques of Kansas City Barbecue (Kansas City Star Books), which became a standard reference on the subject.¹

From 2010 to 2020 he served as Director of Marketing at Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que.¹ A widely cited expert on American barbecue, he has appeared on national programs, and his debut novel, Thin Blue Smoke (UK 2009; US 2012), is set in a Kansas City barbecue restaurant.¹²

Within the KS.City cluster, Worgul is the proposed co-curator of the Heritage Recognition Year-1 program honoring KC barbecue lineage.³

Legacy

Worgul has done as much as any writer to document and dignify Kansas City barbecue — its origins, its pitmasters, and its place in the city’s identity — bridging journalism, history, and fiction.

See also

• joes-kansas-city-bar-b-que
• henry-perry

Sources

Footnotes

1. “Doug Worgul,” Wikipedia — born September 13, 1953, in St. Johns, Michigan; moved to Kansas City in 1989; The Kansas City Star 1996-2006 as writer, book and features editor, and editor of Star Magazine; The Grand Barbecue: A Celebration of the History, Places, Personalities and Techniques of Kansas City Barbecue (Kansas City Star Books, 2001); Director of Marketing at Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que 2010-2020; Thin Blue Smoke published by Macmillan in the UK in 2009 and by Burnside Books in the US in September 2012.` for corroboration. Per Wiki-Living-Persons-Policy Part 2 rule 2 this is not a claim requiring two sources, but a second is preferred for a date of birth.] ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Thin Blue Smoke, Doug Worgul — publisher record, Pan Macmillan (ISBN 9780230739642, Macmillan New Writing). A Kansas City Public Library recording of Worgul discussing the novel is archived at the Internet Archive: archive.org ↩

3. KS.City Heritage Recognition Y1 planning — Worgul proposed as co-curator. Internal vault record, not a public source: Doug-Worgul-Heritage-Y1-Co-Curator-Outreach (04_Concepts/Awards-And-Rankings/Heritage/Doug-Worgul-Heritage-Y1-Co-Curator-Outreach.md). This is a KS.City proposal, not a commitment by Worgul. ↩