About Grill Dog

George Bakley, M.Ed., first started performing as Grilldog for Community Television in 2005. His unique and fresh conceptualized cooking show, Grilldog Presents, quickly became one of the most distributed shows on Community Television in the world, airing all over the United States, Australia and New Zealand. Since then he has continued to be showcased in the public eye with interviews on Fox News and even mentioned on the Food Network! Having achieved success with his first book, Grilldog’s Guide to Food, Fun & Friends, he is in the process of completing a second book, recipes from his 1st 50 cooking shows. In late 2010 George formed his own business, Grill Dog International LLC, which marks the change from Grilldog to Grill Dog. With a Master’s Degree in Education, George brings his teaching skills to his performances as Grill Dog to encapsulate both performance and training in an enlightening and entertaining manner. Whether it’s in front of the camera, on the radio or one of his live performances, Grill Dog outshines the rest.

Introduction

As a child I remember being fascinated by Julia Childs and the Galloping Gourmet on our small black & white TV; that is when the antennae hadn’t fallen off the roof. In the early 60’s that’s all we had in our small rural community. In fact, one of my earliest childhood memories was standing on my tip toes and turning the knob to the channel where those shows aired. It was no wonder that my first job back in the 70’s was working as a short order cook. In fact I worked in the food service industry all during college where I earned a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Psychology and Sociology.

After receiving my Master’s degree in Education, I began working for Department of Defense Contractors. As part of my job I traveled all over the world. In my spare time I would meet local chefs and restaurant owners to study the local cuisines. I would also take recipe books from these locations and study them on the plane ride home. I began experimenting and developing my “own style” of recipes based on this eclectic background. As a result my recipes have been show-cased in such places as Witwatersrand University in South Africa and even prepared for the Vice President of South Africa.

I strongly believe if it wasn’t for a life threatening disaster I might have never even attempted to pursue my ambitions. When I was 34 I was in terrific health, working out, playing softball, tennis, etc. I even was a male model and started acting. However, during a vacation to Miami, my life was changed. There was a torrential lighting storm overhead when I heard something struggling in the canal. Running over I saw that a large Labrador had fallen in and was drowning. Quickly, without regards to my safety I jumped over the seawall and onto a floating platform. Despite the claps of thunder and lightning overhead I was able to call the dog over to me. It took a lot of strength just to pull his head up on the dock. As soon as I did he began coughing up water and started to relax so that I was able to pull the rest of his body out. The poor dog had cataracts in both eyes and was blind. Most likely frightened by the storm he started running and went right over the wall into the water.

Once he calmed down I was able to lift him up to some passersby who came to lend a hand. As I climbed up the seawall and onto dry ground, my chest started pounding and felt like someone was sitting on it. I could barely breathe. I quickly jumped into a cold shower in order to slow down my body functions. Once back home I went to the doctor, took a treadmill test and two hours later was having an angioplasty. I had a 90% blockage of my left anterior artery. The doctors said that if I hadn’t saved the dogs life, I would never have known I had a problem and would have been dead in about 6 weeks. From that point on, I always tried to focus on the happier things of life. I look at what we have rather than what we don’t have. Therefore, I modeled my shows on the concept of Food, Fun and Friends. After all, if everyone just stopped fighting and sat down to a BBQ, wouldn’t the world be a better place?

I have been producing and editing Grilldog Presents since 2005. Sometimes it gets time consuming but I love making people happy and feel I’m doing my part to make the world a better place. We started airing the show in June of 2010 in Austin, and you can catch it on Time Warner Channel 10 With all of the successes, cookbook, interviews on the news and mentioning on the Food Network, I’m still the same lovable Good ole Grill Dog and will continue my efforts to make the world a better place through Food, Fun and Friends.