Meet Melissa Reome, a pharmacist, grill master and the creative cook behind “Grill Momma”

Melissa Reome, a full-time pharmacist in upstate New York, loves nothing more than to light up one of her grills after work to unwind. Although she came from a family with three other siblings, she was the one who truly loved to help her mother cook. Her grandmother made huge family dinners with enough food to feed three times as many people who were there to eat.

Growing up, Melissa’s family only owned a mediocre gas grill. In college, she cooked for her friends (as long as they agreed to do the dishes, of course). It wasn’t until Melissa owned her own home and became a mother herself that her love of grilling really took off. The first grill she fell in love with was a kamado style grill. “Once I started cooking on it, I was hooked,” said Melissa.

As soon as she heard about the kamado grill, she was intrigued. A grill you can use to cook “low and slow”, “hot and fast” and everything in between sounded perfect to her.

Where she lived, Melissa couldn’t get true, decent “barbecue” and that was a big driving force behind her grill purchase. The only ribs she could buy were from a commercialized restaurant and forget about finding brisket.  It wasn’t going to happen.

In 2015, Melissa started a page on Instagram named “Grill Momma” with no intent other than to document her family cooks. Little did she know back then, her following would quickly grow, and she needed a crash course on the ins and outs of social media.

Just two years later, Melissa was part of the winning team “Eggcellent Eats” at Big Green Egg’s annual festival Eggtoberfest. “It wasn’t about just one person.  It was about a group of us working together with a common goal. To make people happy with our food. Winning was just icing on the cake,” shared Melissa.

Today, Melissa loves to grill on all different types of equipment ranging from live fire cooking over wood or charcoal, to gas grills, Kamado style cooking, pellet grills and just about everything in between. “There is beauty in knowing that as long as you have an adequate heat source and know how to manage temperature, you can cook just about anything, anywhere,” said Melissa.

Today, with accounts under the “Grill Momma” name on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, as well as a website, Melissa stays very busy. Her ultimate goal is to inspire more women to get behind the grill. After all, the grill knows no gender. If you can cook indoors, you can certainly cook outdoors.

Melissa loves the challenge of mastering any grill she cooks on and educating people on how to up their grill game. “Usually, people are intimidated at first but it’s fun to show them how easy it is,” shared Melissa. “Plus, if grilling can bring me so much happiness, it’s exciting to think how much joy it could bring others as well.”

Do you live in an area with cold, snowy winters like Melissa? She created a blog just for you! Check out her 10 tips for grilling in the winter. Plus, try her decadent recipe for Grilled Bananas Foster French Toast.