Michael Maddox has a simple job: Save turkeys and relationships, one phone call at a time.

Or at least, that’s what he and his wife Susan like to jokingly tell each other.

The pair are among more than 50 people who spend their time during the holiday season answering questions about everything from thawing to brining to spatchcocking turkeys. They are joined by a team of culinary and food science experts at the Naperville-based Butterball Turkey Talk-Line, a hotline designed to help people make the best turkey possible for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Launched in 1981, Butterball’s hotline was started as a way to help make the task of preparing the Thanksgiving bird a little less intimidating. In its first year, Butterball only had just six experts answering the phone — and received more than 11,000 phone calls.

The calls have been rolling in ever since, with thousands of people seeking help from across the U.S. and Canada for advice on how to make the best turkey for the holiday season.

“Butterball does a holiday annual report every year,” Maddox said. “We learned from our report that 5% of the hosts share that they would rather stand in line at the DMV to get the Real ID than to host Thanksgiving.”

Michael Maddox, a College of DuPage faculty arts member, has helped answer people’s questions about preparing turkeys for the holidays as a member of the Naperville-based Butterball Turkey Talk-Line since 2021. (Butterball)

Maddox, an assistant professor at the College of DuPage’s Culinary Arts program, joined Butterball’s hotline team in 2021.

“My wife was actually here first,” Maddox said. “She was here the year before me, and told me how much fun she was (having) making people happy, giving them confidence with cooking and prepping tips and things like that.”

His wife, who is an adjunct instructor at the COD’s Culinary Arts program, is ultimately the person who inspired him to join. Now, the pair sit next to each other at the call center in Naperville, where they occasionally give each other tips for handling customer questions, pass each other notes and, yes, even hold hands.

It is getting to work with his wife, and giving confidence to strangers in cooking their turkeys, that brings him back to the hotline each year, Maddox said.

Joining the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line is no small feat. Everyone who is part of the team must have some kind of degree in food. Beyond that, training for the hotline begins in October and every person, no matter if it’s their first year or 10th, goes through the training before the service launches for the season.

The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line in Naperville will remain open until Christmas Eve. The hotline was started in 1981 as a way to help ease the stress of cooking for the holidays. (File photo)

“We know our industry, but we need to understand the Butterball (product) and things we don’t think about that often,” Maddox said. “So that training is wonderful. … For me, it was good to have a little more background (and) foundational information on how to grill a turkey, how to smoke a turkey — a lot of people have electric roasters, how to utilize that — cooking in a bag, right?”

Phone calls in the beginning of November are usually centered around purchasing the turkey and all relevant products, including how much to buy and how far in advance. As the season continues, the questions tend to be more about the cooking process itself, such as brining, smoking or curing the turkey. The hotline is available through Dec. 24, with expanded hours on Thanksgiving.

Calls typically average five to seven minutes, Maddox said. The longest call he’s been on with one person was about 20 minutes. There are a handful of calls that have stayed with him, he said.

One time, he talked a man through opening the turkey package all the way through putting it in the oven. It was memorable because the man was so grateful, he said.

Then there was the man from the Pacific Northwest who called for help and, on an unrelated note, told Maddox about the year he bought a few Butterball turkeys that wouldn’t fit in the fridge. He put them out in the snowbank in the hope that they’d stay cold but ultimately didn’t find them until the snow melted the following spring.

But his favorite is the conversation with the husband-and-wife that took a turn.

“We have a nice conversation and I’m explaining a few things,” Maddox said. “(The wife) was in the kitchen and all of a sudden it got quiet, and she was whispering. I said, ‘Is everything all right?’ She goes, ‘No, my mother-in-law and father-in-law just got here. I’m hiding in the closet because I don’t want them to know I’m calling you for information.’”

If you need help with preparing your turkey for the holidays, you can call 1-800-BUTTERBALL or text 844-847–3456.

The Butterball Turkey Talk-Line is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Nov. 24-26. On Thanksgiving day, the hours are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on the Friday after Thanksgiving, you can call from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The hotline will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 1-5, 8-12 and 15-19. From Dec. 20-21, the hours are 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Dec. 22 and 23, you can call from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. On the final day, Dec. 24, the line is available from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

cstein@chicagotribune.com

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/11/25/college-dupage-naperville-butterball-turkey-talkline/