This Duke Employee Cooks Up Community, One Competition at a Time

A Duke locksmith by trade and a pitmaster by passion, Lee Clayton brings people together one meal at a time

Lee Clayton at the FMD Chili Cookoff
Whether he's winning chili cook-offs or providing dishes for community causes, Duke Facilities Management's Lee Clayton loves bringing people together through food. Photo courtesy of Duke Facilities Management.

In the fall of 2024, Lee Clayton helped a team of undergraduates in Duke’s Engineering, Design and Communications course develop an app that controlled solar-powered mechanisms that could raise and lower the flags on campus.

Once the project was complete, Clayton, who competes in barbecue contests around the state, celebrated its success by giving his student collaborators – who hailed from places far from North Carolina, including Brazil – a taste of his other area of expertise: North Carolina barbecue.

Whether he’s at Duke, where he’s worked for 15 years, or indulging his passion for cooking competitions, Clayton savors opportunities to use food to spread joy and bring people together.

A Winning Formula

Lee Clayton shared the recipe for his award-winning chili with us. Give it a shot in your kitchen.

Try the Recipe

“It’s about making new relationships and enjoying people’s company,” said Clayton, a locksmith in Duke Facilities Management.

To celebrate the app project, Clayton brought a pork shoulder cooked over wood coals in the traditional North Carolina barbecue style for the engineering students to enjoy last fall in the Brodhead Center.

Clayton told them how the meat’s dark brown exterior packs a flavorful punch and how to find the succulent “money muscle.” He then helped students chop up and season the tender pork.

Lee Clayton, right, shows a Duke student how to prepare barbecue in the traditional North Carolina way. Photo courtesy of Duke Facilities Management.

“To share a North Carolina tradition with people from all over the world was awesome,” Clayton said.

Clayton’s cooking roots lead back to the Bethesda community in southeast Durham County, where he grew up and where his grandmother, Hettie, hosted Sunday dinners for family, friends and people through church.

He cherishes the memories of the warm, welcoming atmosphere where there was always enough chicken, snap beans, cornbread and potatoes to satisfy crowds that often numbered more than 20.

“I associate family, love and togetherness with food because that’s the way I was brought up,” Clayton said.

Growing up, Clayton experimented with new recipes and perfecting ones he loved, such as his dad’s barbecue chicken or the chili his mom, Marian, would make on cold winter evenings.

In 2023, Lee Clayton and his fellow members of the Stem Ruritan Club prepared a lavish holiday meal for staff of Duke Facilities Management. Photo courtesy of Lee Clayton.

When he bought his first pig cooker – a large trailer-mounted grill big enough to cook a whole hog – more than a decade ago, it ignited his competitive fires.

Using his cooker and years of barbecue experience, Clayton and a rotating cast of friends began entering barbecue competitions where they’d pit their chicken, beef or pork against that of other teams. Competitions where teams cooked whole hogs hold special regard in North Carolina, leading Clayton and his friends – they eventually became known as Grill Team 6 – to cook as many as 14 hogs in one year to hone their approach.

While Grill Team 6 has earned honors at events such as Durham’s Bull City BBQ Bash and Hillsborough’s Hog Day, Clayton said the true lure of the competitions is the camaraderie found among people with a shared passion for food.

“I don’t really care about winning,” Clayton said. “I really care about being there, having fun and learning something.”

In more recent years, Clayton has embraced new cooking challenges. As the president of the Ruritan Club in the Granville County town of Stem, where he’s lived since 2020, he organizes the many barbecue and Brunswick stew cooking efforts the group uses to raise funds for local causes.

As a way to sharpen his skills even more, Clayton took a job as a part-time grill cook at the Raleigh steakhouse, the Angus Barn, where last fall, his brisket recipe was served as the main course in a special dinner celebrating a bourbon developed especially for the restaurant.

While he cooks for restaurant diners, barbecue judges and his neighbors back home, Clayton finds a special thrill cooking for his Duke colleagues.

In February, Lee Clayton's deceptively named "Throat Punch" chili won first place in the Duke Facilities Management Chili Cook-Off. Photo courtesy of Duke Facilities Management.

Last August, when Duke Facilities Management Carpenter Dale Perry and his motorcycle club organized a fund-raising ride for a child battling cancer, Clayton and Grill Team Six stepped up to provide meals.  Clayton brined and seasoned a staggering amount of chicken that was smoked for hours for more than 150 meals for the event.

“Everything he cooks is delicious, and he can cook anything,” Perry said. “Lee is a remarkable person because he just loves doing that kind of thing.”

In February, Duke Facilities Management revived the pre-pandemic tradition of a chili cook-off. Held in Smith Warehouse, the event drew eight competitors who chatted and joked with colleagues – who were also judges – while ladling chili into small cups.

Earlier in February, Clayton’s recipe earned first place in the Fourth Annual Mystic Chili Cook-Off’s spicy category. His creation looks intimidating at first as it has roasted habanero peppers nestled in the mahogany chili.

The threat of heat was all bluster as the chili itself – you can find the recipe here – was a rich, balanced concoction flavored with roasted tomatoes and poblanos alongside dark cocoa, coffee and coriander.

“I’m trying to get in your head, trying to psych you out,” Clayton said about the chili’s intimidating name. “I really want you to remember me and how good the chili was.”

Clayton’s chili took first, earning him a medal and a homemade trophy consisting of gold-painted cans and a bowl. Before hearing his name called as the winner, Clayton, who wore a smile throughout the event, had already gotten what he came for.

“Just being together, when everyone’s food is laid out and we’re having a good time, enjoying something good to eat, that’s what I love,” Clayton said.

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