BBQ Pitmasters on TLC

Tonight the BBQ Pitmasters series debuts on TLC. There is great anticipation from within the bbq community, and it will be interesting to see how the show is perceived by the general viewing public. I have been checking out some of the tweets and there are some mixed emotions about the promo.

The show will feature seven competitors, following them at five KCBS events as well as the Big Pig Jig and a grandiose finale tabbed the Johnny Trigg Shootout.

Here are the five KCBS events:

Smokin' in Mesquite Nevada Open BBQ Championship - Mesquite, NV
Decatur Jaycees 15th Annual Riverfest - Decatur, AL
Murphysboro Barbecue Cook-Off - Murphysboro, IL
30th Annual American Royal Barbecue - Kansas City, MO
Diamond State BBQ Championship - Dover, DE

Here is the lineup of the featured competitors with my own commentary:

Paul Petersen is competing as PABLO DIABLO BBQ. Petersen is a classically trained chef that is competing in bbq competitions for the first time as part of this show. He will be cooking on a new Klose pit, but I think the viewers will see that there is a lot more to bbq than just being a good chef. Don't let me spoil it for you, but he definitely doesn't dominate the competition. Knowing that he finished DAL or close to it, it will be interesting to see how the show plays this out.

Lee Ann Whippen, aka Token, of Wood Chicks BBQ is the only female in the competition. This offers the obvious Man vs. Woman in a male dominated competition storyline, but Lee Ann is not someone that was just pulled off the street. She has competed for several years and has won several competitions all across the country. Lee Ann cooks on Big Green Eggs and I think that she will relate to most of the viewers.

Jamie Geer of Jambo Pits just might have to change his phone number after this show airs, because three of his pits will be prominently featured on this show (Jamie, Tuffy, and Johnny). I don't know all that much about Jamie other than his pits have one more contest than any other cooker.

Tuffy Stone of Cool Smoke is the owner of Q Barbeque, and the 2007 KCBS Team of the Year. That year, Tuffy won six contests and he still manages to win several contests a year while opening a new bbq restaurant. Tuffy is a really nice guy and it will be interesting to see if the show plays him out to be a nice guy or a bad guy.

Johnny Trigg of Smokin Triggers is so often called the "grandfather of bbq" that it is becoming cliche. Johnny is what you think of when you think of a Texan, and I would say that it is a safe bet that the show will play up his Texas roots.

Harry Soo of Slap Yo Daddy BBQ is most famous for taking first place in all four categories at the Way Out West BBQ Championship in Stockton, CA. Being from California, Harry will be playing the role of the "outsider" considering he does not fit the primary stereotype of a BBQ Pitmaster.

Myron Mixon of Jack's Old South is definitely going to be portrayed as the bad boy of the show. Don't be fooled though - the all black look is not something that was done up for this show. That is his full time look. Myron is a three time winner of Memphis in May, and at the Murphysboro MBN contest he got a chance to strut his stuff.

So tune in tomorrow night at 9pm CST. I will also try to post my thoughts after each episode.

For more information on the show check out this great interview with the executive producer John Markus.

Hot Chicken Festival Judges Announced

The celebrity judges for the 2009 Hot Chicken festival amateur cooking contests have been announced.

* Mayor Karl Dean, City of Nashville
* Lorrie Morgan, Country Music Star
* John Dwyer, WKRN/News 2
* Scott Couch, WZTV/Fox 17
* Chris Ferrell, SouthComm CEO & former Metro Council member

Music Thursday: Jack Daniels If You Please

Jack Daniel's Smoker

This weekend marks the 20th Annual Jack Daniel's World Championship BBQ Contest. This is one of the premier events in all of bbq and it holds a special place in the history of Ulika BBQ. In 2005, the founding members of Ulika headed to Lynchburg to take part in the festivities. We knew nothing about the world of competitive bbq, but we were there to just see what it was all about. We arrived on a Friday evening and began wandering around the grounds talking with some teams and taking pictures of several pits. The first person we talked with was Jerry King from Midland, Texas. He explained to us how teams got invited to the Jack and which teams were the favorites to win on Saturday. He talk to us about how teams travel the country in hopes of an automatic bid to the Jack. We talked with another team from Texas that cooked with only mesquite wood and called all fruit woods "candy". We talked with a few of the International teams and we were very intrigued that people all over the world cook bbq. One of the things that makes the Jack truly unique is the international aspect. Seventeen teams from ten different countries compete in the same categories as the US teams, and they have an added category of "Home Cookin’ from the Homeland". This is where they make a dish native to their home country. I would love to judge that category some day. But anyway...

On Saturday, we hung around the judging area and got samples fed to us from one of the table captains. After all of the judging had been completed, we wandered around and got some samples from some of the teams we talked to on Friday night. We sampled some chicken from Jerry King and brisket from the guys from Texas. Later we were able to taste some Caribbean Jerk style ribs from the Jamaican team and they were wonderful. Big Bob Gibson was there and they were handing out samples of their sauces. This is when I first discovered white bbq sauce. We also purchased some bbq and ribs from some of the vendors including Texas Rib Rangers and Music City Pig Pals. Needless to say, we had a great time. It really opened our eyes to the fun that we could have doing something that we already loved doing. We never really knew that it would turn into such an addiction.

Here are some pictures from that weekend:

The celebrity judges are always a hot topic.

Silky O'Sullivan's Table


Bill Hall


Lynchburg's own Johnny Majors


Steve Gill

Some teams have upgraded their Land Yachts:


Lotta Bull in '05 at the Jack


Lotta Bull in '08 - that ain't a bad way to travel right there. The Geer Pit remains a staple.


Field of Smoke


Judging Area


The Texas Team's Pit


Slab o ribs


Chicken turn-in box

Well, the next spring we had a pit built (a custom-designed pit made from a 250-gallon propane tank) and headed to Winchester to compete at High on the Hog (where we proceeded to finish second to last). Clearly, our enthusiasm wasn't all we needed to make it in this sport. But we've kept at it and have just finished our third season where we got a call in every competition that we entered!

Now, three years later, we are returning as spectators with several friends that are cooking. This year's experience will be quite different than our first year, and we are really looking forward to the party. Hopefully some day we can return to cook in this event where it all started for Team Ulika.

Good luck to all the teams that are competing this weekend. We are looking forward to hanging out with some friends and meeting some folks that we have only communicated with electronically.

David Allen Coe - Jack Daniel's If You Please