Barbecue, Culinary & Hospitality Experience Consulting
Chef Mike Belobradic
Helping wineries, hospitality organizations, and event professionals design and deliver food experiences that engage guests, strengthen brands, and drive business results.
As a formally trained chef, barbecue and live-fire specialist, wine enthusiast, and a marketing and digital strategy professional with more than 30 years of experience, I help hospitality businesses design food experiences that are both memorable and commercially effective. I bring together culinary expertise and marketing strategy to design food experiences that are built for both guest enjoyment and business impact. Visit my marketing site at MikeBelobradic.com.
Helping organizations create memorable guest experiences through education, storytelling, and expertise in barbecue, live-fire cooking, food, and wine.
I design guest experiences that add value for your guests and drive business for you.
That means thinking about:
who is the guest
why they are attending and what is the value for them
how the experience is positioned
how it fits into your broader brand and business goals
how it encourages repeat visitation and engagement
how food and storytelling influence perception, value and sales
For wineries, hospitality venues, distilleries and event organizations, this means creating culinary programming that isn’t only enjoyable for guests, but strategically aligned with your business outcomes.
Winery Experiences
Wineries (and wine clubs) are often at the centre of my work because they represent where culinary experience, hospitality, storytelling, and wine culture naturally intersect. I help wineries design and deliver food and wine content and experiences that are engaging for guests, commercially effective, and aligned with the brand story of the winery. I am also available as a speaker to discuss wine pairings for barbecue that explore the finer points of how the fuel you use to cook (and your protein) directly affect your wine pairing choices. This is my unique Northern Barbecue™ fire and wine approach. It’s not about basic wine pairing, it’s about an experience and deeper perspective that guests won’t soon forget.
My work with wineries goes beyond traditional food pairing perspective. It focuses on creating experiences that connect guests more deeply to the wines through the science of fire, smoke, and flavour — combined with education and storytelling. These experiences are designed to increase engagement, encourage exploration across your wine portfolio (so you sell more wine from a unique perspective they won’t find anywhere else), and create memorable reasons for guests to return.
I work with wineries in three distinct but complementary ways: experience design, guest speaker and guest engagement.
EXPERIENCE DESIGN and CONSULTING
Culinary Experience Planning & Strategy
I help wineries design food and wine experiences that go beyond basic pairing menus. This includes structuring events, seasonal programming, and culinary activations that align with your vineyard calendar, brand identity, and guest experience goals.
This work can include:
Wine and barbecue pairing concepts
Seasonal culinary event planning
Wine club experience development
Harvest and release event programming
Menu and flavour direction for food and wine alignment
The goal is to create experiences that feel intentional, memorable, and consistent with the quality and positioning of your wines.
GUEST SPEAKING and EVENT LEADERSHIP
Wine & Barbecue Educational Experiences
I am frequently engaged by wineries as a guest speaker and culinary educator to lead food and wine experiences for guests, wine club members, and private events.
These sessions combine live-fire cooking knowledge with wine education, helping guests understand why certain wines pair exceptionally well with barbecue, smoke, and fire-cooked foods.
This is not a standard presentation, it is an immersive experience that blends storytelling, wine education, and live discussion of the fuel-and-flavour relationship. It can be combined with culinary or wine content provided by your in-house chef and beverage team for a complete experiential event. I will work with them to ensure a cohesive and strategic approach.
FOOD, WINE and STORYTELLING EXPERIENCES
Northern Barbecue™ Fire and Wine Programming
For wineries looking to create something more distinctive, I develop and lead curated fire and wine discussions that cover the relationship between live-fire cooking with structured wine tasting and storytelling.
These interactive discussions are designed to:
Showcase your wines in a new and compelling context
Increase guest engagement and dwell time
Create memorable, shareable experiences
Strengthen emotional connection to your brand
Unlike traditional pairing events, these sessions are built around the idea that fire brings people together — and wine completes the experience. I provide the content, you provide the wine and food with your in-house culinary.
More Hospitality Experiences Consulting
EVENT PROFESSIONALS & VENUES
Event professionals, planners, and venues are responsible for creating memorable guest experiences, where food often defines the overall impression of the event.
I work with event professionals to design barbecue and live-fire culinary concepts that align with the tone, structure, and purpose of weddings, corporate events, festivals, and destination experiences.
This includes menu concepts, guest flow considerations, service style planning, and culinary storytelling designed to enhance the overall guest experience while remaining operationally practical.
The focus is on creating food experiences that feel intentional, elevated, and memorable.
BREWERIES & DISTILLERIES
Craft beverage producers and barbecue share a natural connection rooted in flavour, culture, and experience.
I help breweries and distilleries develop food and beverage experiences, pairing events, seasonal activations, and hospitality programming that strengthen guest engagement and enhance brand perception.
HOSPITALITY ORGANIZATIONS
Hotels, resorts, golf clubs, tourism organizations, and private clubs are increasingly seeking unique culinary programming that differentiates their guest offering.
I help hospitality organizations design live-fire culinary experiences, seasonal food programming, and guest-focused activations that enhance their brand and create meaningful guest engagement.
These programs are designed not only to improve the food offering, but to contribute to overall guest satisfaction, storytelling, and repeat visitation.
RESTAURANTS
While restaurants remain part of my consulting work, my focus is primarily on helping operators integrate barbecue and live-fire cooking into their broader culinary offering in a way that is operationally realistic and commercially sustainable.
This includes menu development, production systems, workflow design, staff training, and consistency planning.
About Chef Mike Belobradic
Culinary & Barbecue Expertise
Formally trained chef and culinary school graduate
More than 25 years of barbecue and live-fire cooking experience
Creator of the Northern Barbecue™ Method
Accomplished barbecue chef and live-fire specialist
KCBS Certified Barbecue Judge
Wine & Beverage Education
WSET Wine & Spirits education (Wine & Spirit Education Trust)
Experience in wine and food pairing development
Focus on wine, barbecue, smoke, and live-fire flavour interaction
The role of wine in the outdoor kitchen
Hospitality, Marketing & Strategy
30+ years experience in marketing and digital strategy
Former Vice President and Managing Director in senior corporate marketing and brand leadership roles
Extensive experience in events, brand strategy, and audience engagement
Hospitality, tourism, and travel industry advisor and writer
Experience & Professional Background
My work sits at the intersection of culinary arts, hospitality, wine education, and marketing strategy. This combination allows me to design food and beverage experiences that are both creatively compelling and strategically effective.
Media, Writing & Public Engagement
Former travel industry writer and contributor
Experience developing food, travel, and hospitality content
Public speaker and educator in food, barbecue, and wine experiences
Experience designing and delivering guest-facing culinary storytelling events
Hospitality, Marketing & Strategy
30+ years experience in marketing and digital strategy
Former Vice President and Managing Director in senior business leadership roles
Extensive experience in events, brand strategy, and audience engagement
Hospitality, tourism, and travel industry experience
Media, Writing & Public Engagement
Former travel industry and wealth management content creator
Experience developing food, travel, and hospitality content
Public speaker and educator in food, barbecue, and wine experiences
Experience designing and delivering guest-facing culinary storytelling events, with a focus on high-net-worth clientele
Ready to Fire it Up?
My unique combination of culinary, wine, hospitality, and marketing experience allows me to help organizations design food experiences that not only delight guests — but also support engagement, storytelling, and business growth.
Contact me to learn more, or to get started.
Contact Chef Mike for More Information
Barbecue, culinary and hospitality consulting
Fire. Pair. Experience.
Understand the Fire. Elevate the Pairing. Shape the Experience.