Cool Day for BBQ - Competition Q, that is!

As promised, I'm trying to get back to posting regularly here beginning today. It's been an odd couple of months in my life (to say the least) but I think we're now back to a semblance of "normal." Part of "normal" in our lives is judging BBQ competitions and we ate some fantastic smoked meats at the Sam's Club National Barbecue Tour's regional competition held at Sam's in Laurel, Maryland today. This contest was a second tier event in this inaugural tournament series. All of today's 30 cook teams had already cooked in local contests and won, qualifying them for this round. In two weeks, today's winners will compete for $100,000 in prizes at the final step of the tournament in Bentonville, Arkansas (Sam's home base.)

Sam's initiated this tournament to raise their customer's awareness, knowledge and understanding of barbecue and to promote their many BBQ related products. Competitive cooks have long purchased many of their supplies and meats from their local Sam's Clubs, so the partnership seemed to be a good one. They turned to the Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) for assistance in this project.



The entire tour- nament which began with 40 local contests beginning back in March, has been coordinated by Troy Black, a former KCBS Board of Directors member and a long-time competitive cook himself. In addition to coordinating each individual contest, Troy is also doing cooking demonstrations for the public while the competition is going on. The folks attending the demo are getting to sample some excellent food. (I'll personally attest to the excellence of the smoked lamb this morning!!)

The competition itself is run strictly by KCBS rules and includes only the 4 meat categories required by KCBS to be a sanctioned event - chicken, ribs, pork and beef brisket, in that order. All judging is done by 100% Certified Barbecue Judges. Sam's has taken great care to be sure all fields have been equal throughout the country for all local competitions and then, for all of the regionals - even down to the basic physical layout of the event. Judging rules have been very tight and additional rules and restrictions have been in place. All to insure that all competitors have a fair shot at walking away with the big prize and bragging rights.

The only thing Sam's can't control is the weather and today created it's own challenge for the pit crews (cooking teams). We've been very wet around these parts lately (Maryland has had almost 4 times the normal rainfall for the month of September.) and high humidity poses challenges to the cooks. They must be careful to avoid over-smoking the meats. Over smoking (when using wood, as required by KCBS) creates a creosote effect and really tastes a lot like starter fluid. (Want to insult a competition cook? Accuse him of having a starter fluid taste. Them's fightin' words, my friend!)

Most of today's cooks came from areas between New York and Georgia so all should have gotten used to cooking with high humidity, however, last night the mercury also chose to suddenly change the playing field. Temps through the night dropped into the high 40s and low 50s. They stayed below 55 throughout the day. Cool temps make it more difficult to maintain steady temperatures in the smokers. Temperature variations cause tenderness variations. Tenderness is a large part of the scoring.

I'm thrilled to say, these cooks, on the whole, successfully overcame the challenges and the competition plates presented to my judging table were top-notch. There wasn't a bad entry among them. Some, of course, were better than others. That's how competitions are won.
I do not yet know who the winner was as we left before the Awards Ceremony. (I will be checking the website in the morning to find out.) We were completely chilled through from sitting out there in the cold breeze for so many hours. This is why the BBQ season is now wrapping up here in the Mid-Atlantic region. This will probably be our last contest for the 2011 season (no guarantee about that, though).

I'm already looking forward to our first event of 2012 in mid-April.

Last BBQ Competition for the season - for us, anyway.

Saturday's judging was the last of the year for us. We'll just have to savor the memories, smells and tastes for a few months. The new season will begin in April which sounds like a really long time away. So much can happen in between.
This last event for awhile was, thankfully, a great one. The Mt. Airy Smoke'n BBQ (in Mt. Airy, MD) was a fantastic KCBS competition combined with a terrific community Fall festival that included music, entertainment, a car show, spaghetti and wing eating contests and even a yo-yo demonstration and lessons by a representative of the Duncan Yo-Yo Company! This was the first spaghetti eating competition I ever witnessed. they could use their hands but no utensils. I only thought spaghetti could be messy before this!

The weather was ideal (I even got a little sunburn! Last of the year I guess.) and a good time was had by all.

BBQ Pitmasters - 2nd Season

Just what we need, another cooking competition TV series!!

The powers that be at TLC have begun to tweak BBQ Pitmasters, their hit series from last season. They averaged almost a million viewers per episode of the short series and had double-digit increases in the difficult demographic of male viewers. So, what do you do with success? You make changes. A typical cookers row at a KCBS contest, just before turn-in.

Apparently we don’t have enough game-show style cooking competition series yet. They’re revamping this one into a competition much like the old Outdoor Living Network did. Enough of that format, already!!

For whatever reason, a change in hosts was apparently necessary. These things happen in the TV world. They’ve hired Kevin Roberts, “The Food Dude“. You may remember Kevin from his attempt to become the Next Food Network Star. You may even have seen him on The Today Show this morning. (He was the one squirting French’s mustard down his throat like Reddi Whip!) Kevin is good for a laugh. He’s fresh, enthusiastic and entertaining. I can’t fault them on this change.

They say they plan to put an emphasis on the “all-star judging” process this season. Perhaps they should have stuck to the reality/documentary style format and followed certified judges who regularly judge the events on the competitive BBQ cooking circuits, doing both KCBS (Kansas City Barbecue Society) and MIM (Memphis In May) competitions.

While “all star judges” may sound fancy, there is many a highly trained restaurant chef that knows absolutely nothing about barbecue. This was proven in last season’s accounts of Paul’s attempts at competitive cooking. Paul is a classically trained chef who runs his own very acclaimed restaurants but found he had no training applicable to the competitions, consistently coming in last until he studied at the hands of Johnny Trigg. Johnny Trigg has been an all-star cook in the competitive BBQ world and is extremely well respected in that arena. Amazingly, Paul was at least called after Johnny’s tutoring.

A gaggle of Certified Judges awaiting judging time.

“Certified” judges are trained as to what constitutes excellent smoked meats. Many judge on an almost weekly basis throughout the competition season and have trained their taste buds to identify what is award winning smoked meat. I am a Certified Judge for KCBS. I know these people well and many have been judging for years. It’s not just a hobby for them, it is their passion.

The other aspect the show’s producers feel can be shown in the new format is the preparation of a variety of foods, not just the standard competitive categories. Had they chosen their contests carefully, they could have shown the many ancillary (or “extra”) cooking categories included in many KCBS contests. We have judged many contests that feature seafood categories (both general and specific seafoods), steaks, poultry (goose, duck, turkey), side dishes, other meats (goat, lamb, other beef cuts), creative burgers, shish kabobs, and more.

They could have covered some of the back-yard competitions featured in many of the events where the average Joe or Deb can compete in a particular category using their own back yard style grill. Many also feature Kids Que competitions for kids under 12. I believe folks would watch something they felt they had an actual chance of participating in not just superstars in a specific field.
Memphis In May competitions include on-site judging which was lightly touched on this past season. At these events, competitors go all out decorating their sites. This was not shown but could make an interesting segment. Or they might touch on what it costs to actually compete, Not just costs associated with those driving the huge rigs but talk to the majority who are making do with less formal setups. We know cooks who compete with a few Webers and a folding table under an E-Z Up and we know another who designed and built their own spectacular rig from scratch at a cost of about $40,000.
They say some of last years cooks will be featured “in some form” in the new format. Myron and Lee Ann were specifically mentioned. If they aren’t cooking, I consider this an extreme waste of talent. I have judged many contests where Lee Ann and Tuffy have been cooking and a few Myron has participated in, too. (Yes, we judged at that miserable rainy and cold contest in Dover featured last season.) Although all judging at a KCBS event is blind judging, the odds are, I have tasted some things cooked by each of them along the way.

Please folks, just give us back the Pitmaster series we came to enjoy this past season. Follow a few different cooks. Cover other competitions. Feature other aspects of the contests.

Stop messing with success!!