Jim Carte had a hard time naming his favorite barbecue sauce. “I like Texas red but also Georgia vinegar and mustard. I also like the hot, sweet, spicy Memphis style,” Carte said. “I love them all.”

Carte would know. He’s the owner of The Missing Rib BBQ, a mobile grilling and barbecue catering service.  

It’s equally difficult to choose his favorite meat to barbecue. “It has to be baby backs but I love spare ribs too. I love barbecuing anything,” he said. 

Which three people would you most like to have dinner with? (American gourmet chef) James Beard, Hank Williams Sr., and (Swedish diplomat and author) Dag Hammarskjold.

What was your first job? I earned pocket money as a paperboy, but my first real paying job was at the Sizzler steak house on Trancas Street here in Napa.

How did you get into this business? I have always loved working in the food business, and wanted my own restaurant. I was working as a private chauffeur for Dr. Ernest Bates who lives here in town. He recognized my love of cooking and gave me an opportunity to get my own business started. I couldn’t get good traditional barbecue here in Napa, and figured others probably felt the same way. So I started The Missing Rib BBQ as a mobile catering service specializing in traditional American barbecue. 

What is the difference between barbecue and grilling? Barbecue is low and slow. You cook at a lower temperature over a longer period of time. Grilling is over direct heat. A lot of people cook meat in an oven and slather it with sauce and call it barbecue. That’s not barbecue.

I can’t live without: Cooking. It’s not only my job, my business, but is also my passion. Cooking is my way of relaxing, of blowing off steam. I love seeing people enjoying something I have fixed for them to eat. For me, it’s the ultimate satisfaction.

What’s on your to-do list? I still want to have my own restaurant, a retail site where I can spread the gospel of good barbecue.

What’s something people might be surprised to know about you? I am an 11-year cancer survivor. On my 42nd birthday I was informed I had bladder cancer. But today, I’m in remission and hopefully continue to be. I’m 55 now.

If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be? Touring all the great barbecue joints from the Carolinas to Tennessee, down through Georgia and Alabama, up to St. Louis and back down to Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.



What is one thing you hope to accomplish in your lifetime that you haven’t yet? To celebrate my golden wedding anniversary with my wife, Sandy, by dancing on a moonlit beach somewhere in the tropics.



What other business person(s) would you like to see featured in “10 Questions?” Erich and Jennifer Jinks, Erich’s Tech Help; Tom Cilluffo, Napa Valley Limousine; Tom Bailey, Cold Stone Ice Cream.

Online special questions

What job would you like to try/not like to try? I’ve always wanted to be able to create advertisements for television. I figure I couldn’t do much worse than some of the ads we see on TV today. I definitely would turn down being a steeplejack — an iron worker up on bridges and skyscrapers. I have a deep respect for heights and gravity.

What’s the worst job you ever had? Working as an orderly on the graveyard shift in a geriatric ward back in Omaha while I was a college student. Dealing with senility and mortality while in the prime of one’s youth is not something you can do for a long period of time.

What’s one thing Napa could do to help local business? Cut back on the red tape — it seems like worthwhile projects get mired in paperwork and political positioning until either one party or the other gives up. Too many business people prefer not to deal with it and usually end up going elsewhere.

What are your favorite charities? American Cancer Society, Avon Walk for Cancer, the Susan G. Komen Foundation — anything that may shorten the time we have to deal with cancer as a society.

What’s the most significant project you’ve been involved with in your career? It would have to be helping feed the thousands of people who have participated in the local (San Francisco) Avon Walk for Breast Cancer held for the past several years on the second weekend in July. Seeing survivors, friends, family members of victims, and countless others who participate for their own reasons, sharing love, comfort and support is a truly moving experience. Being able to provide them with a good meal is the least I could do to help.

What is the biggest challenge your business has faced? It has definitely been the economy. Everyone has had to cut back and the hospitality and service industries have taken a major hit.

Who do you most admire in the business world? It’s not a single person, but rather a class of people — our health care workers; doctors, nurses, and everyone else that works in today’s difficult health arena.

What’s your favorite gift to give? An ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on, an open hand to help and a smile where there is none.



What was your childhood ambition? To travel among the stars. I would lay at night on the lawn looking up at the stars and wonder what it would be like to see them up close. Perhaps my grandchildren may have the chance to find out.

Jim Carte and The Missing Rib BBQ can be reached at 363-2278.

Each Wednesday, the Napa Valley Register’s Business Focus asks “10 Questions” of a local entrepreneur or businessperson. Readers are welcome to suggest business people to be profiled. To suggest a candidate for “10 Questions” e-mail: jhuffman@napanews.com