Award-winning chef and BBQ entrepreneur is our Daytonian of the Week
27 Feb 2019
Chris Cavender has a restaurant resume that sounds more like a “Who’s Who” directory of local eateries. Among his stints: Cavender served as the former executive chef at Jay's Restaurant in Dayton and Sycamore Country Club in Miamisburg and the co-founder of 1572 Roadhouse Bar-B-Q restaurant near Waynesville.
But it’s his role as a barbecue entrepreneur as founder of UrbanQ Smokehouse specialty food products that has been showering Cavender with accolades most recently. His UrbanQ Smokehouse Bayou Classic Creole Q Sauce was named the No. 1 “Cooking Sauce” in the 2019 Fiery Food Challenge ZestFest. And his Smokehouse Blues sauce earned third place in Fruit-Based Barbecue Sauce category in the same competition.
We caught up with Cavender between batches of sauce to find out a bit more about this local chef and business owner.