East Texas barbecue spices up Perry's party

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

January 30, 2003 -- It's no exaggerated Texas-style brag that 13,500 people were fed over 8,000 pounds of barbecue and fixin's in 29 minutes. It's just what Eddie Deen's Catering can do - and did on Jan. 21 on the capitol grounds in Austin.

Eddie Deen's traditional East Texas barbecue was chosen to serve the thousands that gathered for the inaugural celebration. The barbecue, which consisted of 800 beef briskets, 2,000 pounds of smoked turkey, 2,000 pounds of Earl Campbell's Smoked Sausage and Martin Preferred Meat's venison sausage, and 300 pounds of ham, fed the masses following the noon inauguration of Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in Austin.

Deen said the brisket was cooked and smoked, then frozen, the week before the big event, but the majority of the cooking began at midnight Tuesday, Jan. 21, on the capitol grounds. It took over 100 employees to complete the task, and 20 of those were cooks.

The goal: "Make the governor look good," said Deen, who has developed his catering business over the last 22 years. His signature barbecue sauce is a key part of the business, but Deen also described several principles he has developed and "teaches within our organization.

"Our objective was to make him (Perry) look good; to show he made a good choice by choosing us" to cater the huge affair," Deen explained.

Deen's Catering has a commissary in Terrell, but the business is also known for the Eddie Deen's Ranch in downtown Dallas, a western-themed event facility, that of course, supplies the barbecue.

The signature barbecue sauce was "created in less than an hour" 20 years ago, Deen related. He feels the creation was a "spiritual gift" because later it took him years to develop the perfect recipe for his signature cookie.

Deen, originally from Wills Point, has an agriculture education degree from Texas A&M University, and he did his student teaching in 1979 in College Station. But with his background in science, and his love of human psychology, Deen developed an organization that focuses not just on cooking and serving great-tasting barbecue, but on utilizing several principles (such as respect, integrity, cooperation) to reach personal successes.

"I'm still involved in agriculture, but I'm further away from the production and closer to the consumer," Deen said.