Woman in charge of creating new menu items for Chili's Grill stops in Hub City

Cammie Spillyards didn't grow up dreaming of a career as a chef.
Her mother, tired of picky eating habits, dragged her to a cooking class when she was young.
"Really, because my mom took me to a cooking class kicking and screaming against my will," she said.
It wasn't long before the young girl realized cooking was her passion, Spillyards said.
"I just absolutely fell in love with it," she said. "I liked the rush of the busy night and the cooking. It's a fast-pace job and that's one of the things I liked about it. And I just love combining flavors."
The 33-year-old director of food and beverage innovation for Chili's Grill began cooking professionally at age 11. She stopped at the restaurant's location at University and Mac Davis Lane to help kick off some new menu items for the chain.
From the her first cooking class, Spillyards went on to several apprenticeships in Dallas area restaurants, including the Plaza of the Americas Hotel and L-Entrecote, she said.
Not long after her graduation from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. in 1996, Spillyards was hired by Chili's as an assistant product development chef.
Some of her creations include the chain's Burger Bites, Mesquite Grilled Chicken Salad, and Spicy Garlic and Lime Grilled Shrimp Salad.
"To create food that all of America will love and be excited about is really a challenge I love," Spillyards said.
She was especially proud of her latest creation - a salty, sweet, spicy and tangy barbecue sauce that serves a centerpiece for the chain's new menu items.
The new Chili's Grill and Shiner Bock BBQ Sauce, she said, can be a tasty complement to grilled chicken, hamburgers and the restaurant's pecan-smoked ribs.
"All those juices from the ribs are starting to drip down," she said as she brushed the barbecue sauce on a rack of ribs on a grill the restaurant's kitchen. "I just love the flavor that the fire gives to things."
The chef revealed the recipe for the barbecue sauce in hopes home cooks will be enticed to visit Chili's after trying the sauce at home.
Spillyards' stop in Lubbock was part of a statewide tour to promote the restaurant's new menu items, said Chili's spokeswoman Stacey Sullivan.
Sullivan said Chili's chose Lubbock as the first stop on its tour partly because Spillyards hadn't recently been to the town where the chef is working on a potential culinary program with Texas Tech.
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PEOPLE/Woman in charge of creating new menu items for Chili's Grill stops in Hub City to show off innovations. Source lubbockonline.com