From stress cooking to building a successful food business, Derry-based Emily McCorkell’s path into the food world has been anything but straightforward – but she has forged her own way through the challenges, with exquisite results.

These days Emily’s Lo & Slo business is made up of several different strands: a selection of award-winning sauces and rubs, a food truck which she uses to cater events and her Wild & Fired BBQ School.

McCorkell is from Philadelphia originally, which, as she points out, “is not necessarily the home of barbecue – but it is a super creative place with a lot of entrepreneurship, lots of independent spirit,” she says. “Anything is possible if we can be creative and work together.”

It’s an attitude that has served her well in her food career. In 2005, aged 22, McCorkell was studying psychology and social work in California, when she decided to come to Derry on a one-year internship.

“I didn’t know anything about the Troubles, but I did know that there was some cross-community work to be done with an age group that I liked working with, 11-14 year olds. I was already doing that in California. So I thought: ‘I’ll take a year out, do some youth work over there and then go back home and finish my degree’.

“In spite of the weather, I loved it here. I Ioved the kids, the work, I loved everything that I was doing.” Then she met Derry-born Norman McCorkell.

“We dated for a short time, got married, moved to Dublin, had our first child there and came back to Derry, had our second child up here and then moved back to Dublin again. That’s where Norman became unwell and we returned to Derry in 2015.”

The couple’s children, Elsie (13) and Lewis (11) were just four and two, when Norman unexpectedly had a grand mal seizure, which was incredibly traumatic for the family.

“I thought I was watching him die,” says McCorkell, recalling that night. He continued to have seizures – 19 over the next 12 months – before being diagnosed with frontal lobe epilepsy.

The couple didn’t know if he would ever be able to work again.

“We thought, we have two choices,” continues Emily. “We give up on life and we just exist, let life railroad us and live on benefits, or we fight it with everything we’ve got and we try to do what we can to have something to offer our kids, to show them that life is worth fighting for.”

Cooking challenges

Although dealing with PTSD and insomnia as a result of the family situation, Emily was baking, cooking and using food as a way to get a handle on the situation.

“I couldn’t work at the time because I needed to be there for Norman and to take care of the kids, but cooking was flexible. People said that they liked my food and that they would buy it. So that’s why I started.”

With two family recipes for barbecue sauces in hand, she applied for an Innovation Voucher from Invest Northern Ireland, who gave her £5,000 to invest in research and production.

“At the end of it, I had 800 bottles of sauce, 400 of each type. I took them to a food festival in 2018 – and I sold out!”

For Emily, it was like someone had turned on a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.

“For the first time, I thought ‘maybe there’s something here. Maybe we can, actually, provide a future for our kids. Maybe we can get out of this situation’.”

Once she committed, Emily went all in. By 2019, she was selling her sauces locally, had become involved in the nascent LegenDerry Food Network and, after spotting a cheap food trailer on a classified ads website, she began taking her Lo & Slo barbecue food to festivals and events.

Since then, she has built on the success of that street food offering and now, with an upgraded trailer, Emily brings dishes like delicious Philly cheesesteak (smoked brisket with peppers and onions covered in melted cheese), to corporate gatherings, weddings and parties.

With awards under her belt from Blas na hÉireann and Great Taste for her first sauce offerings – Original BBQ Sauce and Chilli Mop Sauce – she has since expanded the range.

“We now have six products and there’s a couple more in the pipeline.”

The ethos has remained the same throughout: Emily sources locally and ethically, she is careful about waste, energy and water use and avoids artificial additives in her food.

BBQ School

Her Wild & Fired BBQ School, set in the grounds of Derry’s historic Brook Hall Estate, was recently launched as part of Discover Northern Ireland’s Embrace A Giant Spirit portfolio of food experiences. Visitors learn to make their own fire and cook a delicious wood-fired meal, while connecting with fellow foodies.

And Emily isn’t finished yet: she has plans to embark on a new food tour venture, Derry By Fork, in early 2025.

The route into the industry has not been a traditional one for her, and she is very appreciative of what it’s taught her.

“Life broke down. It’s like when a mirror shatters, you know, it’s really painful to pick up the pieces. But you get to choose what pieces you want to pick up and which ones don’t serve you, the ones you want to leave back down again.Now my husband is okay and the kids are okay, so, although it was hard and I would never choose to go through it again, I’m thankful that we got through it. And that we were willing to grow through it as well.

“We’re fortunate. We’re very fortunate,” Emily adds optimistically. “Bad things can definitely be conduits for good opportunities.”