PICNIC pitmaster gets ready to go whole hog

"I was in law school (at UNC) and the pig cooking habit kind of flared up," Dickson said. And then Lantern's owner Andrea Reusing, fresh off of her 2011 James Beard Award for Best Chef Southeast, called Dickson.

"Andrea called me out of the blue and asked I could cook a pig for Lantern's 10th anniversary," Dickson said. "Of course, I said yes and freaked out because how does she even know who I was?"

Dickson took the job and said Reusing encouraged him to pursue a career as a pitmaster. At the time, Dickson wasn't completely sold on becoming a lawyer. He finished law school and was even studying for the bar exam, but something was holding him back.

"My dad passed away. My marriage wasn't going well," he said. "I ultimately decided that the odds of my becoming a well-adjusted adult were slightly better slinging barbecue than being an attorney."

Barbecue was always part of Dickson's life. The Fayetteville native was the son of elected officials, so he spent a lot of time at political fundraisers that often involved pitmasters cooking whole hogs.

"I just sort of was drawn to the guys cooking the pig in the back," Dickson said.

Dickson continued to cook pigs as a hobby while an undergraduate at UNC. "I sort of became the guy to cook a pig on the weekend."

Following college, Dickson ended up moving to New York to work as a paralegal before eventually returning to UNC to attend law school. He continued to cook whole hogs and discovered farm-raised fresh pigs.

"I got kinda hooked up with some local farmers and started cooking what I call real pigs – pigs raised outdoors on a local farm," he said. "I decided that I wasn't going to cook another factory pig."

PICNIC owner plans to celebrate the whole hog at new Raleigh restaurant

People can pre-order PICNIC's barbecue and sides for pickup on Thursday afternoons in front of the future home of Wyatt's Whole Hog Barbecue at 2431 Crabtree Blvd. in Raleigh's Gateway Plaza.