U.S. Patent 4,590,848 · 1986
W’ham® Turbo Cooker
Less smoke. More heat. The cooker that built a record.
1983 — First fielded at Memphis in May; grand champion in its debut year · 1984 — Patent application filed (May 30) · 1986 — U.S. Patent 4,590,848 issued (May 27) · 1995 — Refined into its stainless-steel form
John Willingham created and patented the W’ham® Turbo Cooker nearly forty years ago and made his mark in culinary history. First fielded at the Memphis in May World Championship in 1983 — where it won the grand championship in its debut year — patented in 1986, and refined into its stainless-steel form in 1995. The cooker minimizes the smoke but maximizes the taste, using an offset/indirect heat source to keep the fire away from the meat while cooking at the low temperature that defines classic barbecue.
The basic version (60 inches wide, 35 inches deep, 77 inches tall) is built of durable, sanitary stainless steel — to last and last.
“No less an authority than Nathan Myhrvold, the former Microsoft technologist known for his painstaking research into cooking techniques, credits the W’ham® Turbo Cooker for the best ribs he’s ever made.”— Documented in Modernist Cuisine Research
What It Can Cook
In a single load, the basic cooker holds:
built to last
The Commercial Version
Willingham’s® also developed a commercial version of the cooker that can handle up to 125 slabs of ribs, 40 butts or briskets, or two 130-pound whole hogs at the same time.
United States Patent
4,590,848
Sheet 1 of 11 · Figs 1–4 · Side, front, rear & opposite-side views
A cooker for cooking food such as bar-b-que. The cooker has a cooking tower with a rotating carrousel and various means for holding the food as it is being cooked. There is a heat source offset from beneath the cooking tower and positioned below a warming tower located alongside the cooking tower. Both towers are movably supported by a wheel carriage.
— from the patent abstract
Cited as prior art in 23 later patents
Between 1989 and 2021, twenty-three later patent filings cited 4,590,848 as prior art — most of them raised by USPTO examiners rather than volunteered by the applicant, and among them filings by The Broaster Company, Sunbeam Products, Hardt Equipment Manufacturing and Wood Stone Corporation. A prior-art citation is not an endorsement; it is the patent record pointing back to the same design, for thirty-five years.
Still on the Trail
Still in use by the Willingham’s® competition team, the W’ham® Turbo Cooker has won fans all over the country, and has been the foundation of Willingham’s® record in barbecue competition (along with, of course, the rubs and sauces).
On Permanent Display
American Royal Barbecue Hall of Fame
Kansas City, Missouri
One of the original cookers can be found there, alongside the records it helped earn.
“I doubt you can find a better cooker regardless of price: Haint no brag if ya kin doit.”— John H. Willingham
A Note on Availability
All W’ham® Turbo Cookers are custom built. To inquire about a build and availability, please contact us for further information.
W’ham® Turbo Cooker Owner?
We’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line at info@willinghams.com or tag us on social — Instagram @willinghams_bbq · Facebook @willinghamsauces. We’d love to add pictures of your cooker to an owners gallery on this page.
The cooker that built the record. Still building it.
Taste what the record was built on. Shop W’ham® seasonings and sauces →