Sloan Rinaldo was 50 when she walked into the headquarters of a Texas grocery chain, carrying a brisket and a hunch. After decades of working in the outdoor living world, she was drawn to her family’s barbecuing tradition. 

Those years in outdoor living and barbecue now shape the way she commands a stage. At home and garden shows across North America, she moves easily between outdoor kitchens, irrigation systems, grilling setups, and functional entertaining spaces. The confidence is the same whether she’s talking hardware or handing out brisket. 

“You never light a fire for yourself,” she said. “You’re always lighting it for someone else — your family, your friends, your community.”

She will bring that momentum to the Southern AZ Home Show at the Tucson Convention Center Friday, Oct. 16, to Sunday, Oct. 18.

Other highlights include celebrity guests Matt Blashaw, contractor and landscape/outdoor expert known from shows like HGTV’s “Yard Crashers,” “Professional Grade” and “Vacation House for Free.”

Rinaldi has been on Bravo’s “Top Chef,” Netflix’s “Barbecue Showdown” and Food Network’s “Chopped Grill Masters.” Both will give presentations and demonstrations and meet with audience members on Oct. 16 and Oct. 17.

“I am so excited, you can’t even imagine,” Rinaldi said about Tucson. “I, for one, have never been to Tucson — shamefully I must say. I do have lifelong friends who relocated there almost a decade ago. I still have not visited. 

“I have a whole area mapped out. I wanted to see if I could make it to the Grand Canyon while I was there, but that’s ridiculous. You have enough right there; I could definitely enjoy the landscape.”

After being in landscape construction, landscapes are “very much a part of my life.” She enjoys traveling and taking in the beauty and majesty of places like Colorado.

DEEPER DIVE: 10 Arizona restaurants make Yelp’s Top 100 Mexican food spots

Confident move

For Rinaldo, the grocery‑store pitch didn’t take long. 

“Before I even sat down, it was done,” she said. “We’re going to put you in every store we have.” She wasn’t surprised. “I knew that, between the name Texas Q and our logo, we were a perfect fit. And the quality of the sauce was a no‑brainer.”

The twist: she had never cooked a brisket before that day. “It was just one of those light‑bulb moments,” she said. “God said, ‘Here, I’m going to bless you with this ability.’”

Rinaldo laughs when she talks about her rise, but she’s serious about the work.

“I start with flavor, and I end with flavor — layer after layer,” she said. “Layer after layer.” That philosophy defined her run on Netflix’s “Barbecue Showdown,” where she set the series record for challenge wins. She cooked full meals over live fire — refried black beans, rice she still calls her “best ever” — and impressed judges with a Spanish Iberico pork seasoned only with kosher salt. Iberico pork is often called the “Wagyu of pork” because of its rich marbling and beef-like color.

“All you’re tasting is what that pork tastes like, and that’s incredible.”

Her “less is more” approach extends to home cooks. When someone asked how to make brisket in an apartment oven, she handed over her demo brisket and wrote out the process on the spot. The photos that came back looked like they were made on a smoker. “Absolutely perfect,” she said. She credits the hold — a four‑to‑12‑hour rest — for that. “It’s the most critical part.”

Texas Q has since expanded into sauces, rubs, cookbooks and heirloom cutting boards made from locally sourced Texas wood. She reformulated her sauce to drop high‑fructose corn syrup. 

“Everything is handcrafted, premium ingredients, from scratch,” she said. “I’m the only woman my age doing all of it — smoking all the proteins, cooking all the sides, all the desserts.”

Her innovative nature continues. She’s developing a global culinary travel series, “From Texas, With Love: United We BBQ,” built on the idea that live‑fire cooking connects cultures. Houston’s barbecue scene is her starting point. 

“We’re fusing Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Italian and Mexican — everything,” she said. “No one else is doing what Houston is doing.”

At 63, she says she feels 33. “I outwork most men,” she said, laughing. She’s energized for what’s ahead, including her appearance at the Southern AZ Home Show. 

Her résumé now spans pitmaster, television personality, entrepreneur, outdoor living expert, and live‑fire authority. But she sees it all as one mission: gather people, feed them, and make the space around them feel like home. “I feel like I’m just getting started,” she said. “There’s still so much I want to do.”