At The Place with Grill Master’s, Maddie & Kiki
Maddie & Kiki, Canada’s favourite female Grill Masters, have earned recognition as two of the Top 10 Grill Experts in North America and are regularly featured in Forbes.
As the hosts of Gusto TV’s BBQ Barn, they’ve built a loyal following across the U.S. and Canada, inspiring audiences through morning shows, podcasts, radio, and live events. Their mission? To share their love of outdoor cooking and prove that grilling is for everyone.
Beyond the spotlight, Maddie & Kiki run The Grill Studio—a repurposed barn transformed into a state-of-the-art media space—where they host a lively cooking show every Friday at 12:00 PM EST.
We sat down with Maddie & Kiki to get to know the queens of the grill!
How did your love for grilling begin, and when did you realize it could become a career?
From an early age, we knew that grilling wasn’t just for men. Our mom – affectionately known as BBQ Mama – was the queen of the grill, and we grew up watching her turn out incredible meals over the flames. At the same time, we were obsessed with food television. So, we decided to combine our two passions – grilling and TV – and pitched a cooking show to our local community station. To our delight, they said yes!
For years, we juggled filming the show and other culinary projects as a side hustle while working full-time in the social service field. But in 2018, we took the leap, quit our day jobs and went all in on our BBQ dreams.
What was the first thing you ever grilled together, and how did it turn out?
Our parents let us experiment with cooking from a young age. When we asked if we could throw some hot dogs on the grill, it was love at first whiff! Nobody on the face of this earth can deny the aroma of a grilled hot dog!
Being sisters, how do you balance family and business while working side by side?
We’re best friends (and often call each other soulmates), but we’re also two strong-willed sisters with big personalities. Over the years, we’ve learned the importance of listening to one another and giving each of us the chance to take the lead on different projects. Working together is truly one of our greatest joys, and we feel grateful every day to do what we love. Especially after spending years in jobs we didn’t enjoy.
How do you come up with inspiration for your content and/or recipes?
We love creating recipes that we actually want to eat. We have never been a fan of doing anything “for the ‘gram.” Making a burger with 9 smash burger patties just isn’t our style. We make food that is delectable, approachable, and with the intent to take the fear out of BBQ/cooking. We want everyone to feel comfortable firing up their grill and making food at home!
What are your secrets for styling your videos and/or recipes?
We love Canva! We use it for videos, stories, thumbnails, photos, etc.!
Do you each have a signature dish that you claim as your own?
Not signature dishes but definitely signature ingredients! If Maddie is steering the ship, she’s always going to add Jarlic (jarred garlic). If Kiki’s running the show, you can bet the farm she’ll be adding lots of nutritional yeast! As one of the world’s only vegan grill masters, she adds it to everything.
You’ve been featured in Forbes and host your own TV show — what’s been the most “pinch-me” moment of your career so far?
The moment we walked out of our previous place of employment, we knew there was no turning back. It was time to take our passion and make it happen! We put ourselves on a strict one-year business plan that involved saying yes to almost every work opportunity that came our way, trying new things, and pushing ourselves way out of our comfort zones. It was a wild ride, and we are so grateful to still be on it six years later.
If you could invite three dream dinner guests to a backyard BBQ, who would be at the table?
Kiki: The Dionne quintuplets, such a tragic but compelling Canadian story.
Maddie: Sebastian Maniscalco, because he’s hilarious.
M&K: Jamie Lee Curtis, because she’s the face of aging naturally, and she rocks!
What advice would you give to young women wanting to break into the culinary scene?
Just get started and know that everyone sucks at the beginning! If you aim to improve at least 1% with every recipe, video, live event, etc., before you know it, you’ll be miles ahead of where you started!
What’s next for Maddie & Kiki — any projects or goals you’re excited about?
We just revived our YouTube series, Film Feast, after taking a break from it last year when our mom received a life-altering diagnosis. BBQ Mama is beating the odds and doing great today. So, we are very excited about shooting that series again. It is a show where we select a classic movie, and each create a recipe inspired by the movie. It’s a lot of fun and we have a blast creating it!
Follow Maddie & Kiki on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook for the best grilling recipes out there.