They're part chef, part athlete, and part five-star general. They talk a big game and walk it like they talk it every step of the way, no-nonsense men and women with grease on their hands, sweat on their brows and meat on their minds from sun-up to sundown. They are the BBQ Pitmasters, the leading cooks of America's burgeoning barbecue circuit, where reputations and respect ride on the virtues of one perfectly glazed rib, and where hundreds of thousands of dollars are won or lost after a single, mouth-watering bite of brisket.