All Hogs go to Heaven Win Back-to-Back BBQ Grand Champions

August 15 - 16, 2009

Fairfield, California 

The 6^th Annual West Coast BBQ Championships held in Fairfield, California on August 15 and 16 was the first to crown three KCBS Grand Champions in two days. Carolyn Wells, Founder and Executive Director of the Kansas City BBQ Society said, “As the largest governing body of BBQ contests in the world, we sanction nearly 300 contests every year. It is a rare occasion that we will have a double, where two open KCBS four meat contests are held back-to-back on one weekend. Never before have three full four meat KCBS barbeque contests ever been attempted in two days.”

In order to squeeze three contests into two days, organizers had one contest each day and the third contest divided between the two days. This meant a lot of planning on the part of the teams competing.

One of those teams was All Hogs go to Heaven, a competition BBQ team headed by Steve and Vicki Madaule from Lancaster, California. The rest of the team was filled out by Vince Madaule, Ted and Ardith Richardson from Lancaster, and Ron and Toni Hoch from San Bernardino, and webmaster, Julie Smith, from Discovery Bay, California.

In addition to the regular categories of chicken, ribs, pull pork, and brisket, West Coast BBQ Championships also had a Mystery Meat category known as “Safeway Rancher’s Reserve® beef Competition”. Contestants did not know what cut of meat they were to cook until just hours before turn-in. The mystery meat ended up being round steak and All Hogs go to Heaven decided to make Philly cheese steak sandwiches. Ron prepared the meat to perfection, while Toni prepared the plate provided by Julie.  Ardith cooked the onions and bell peppers and it all came together at turn-in time. All Hogs took 4^th place out of 36 teams.

Steve was up early Saturday morning cooking the four meat categories, and it got a little hectic with seven turn-ins that day. Ted made sure that the boxes were at the turn-in table on time. It was truly a team effort. When the first contest day came to a close, we were exhausted, but ready to do it all over again on Sunday.

At the awards for the first contest we received Grand Champion out of 26 teams, with a 5^th in chicken, 4^th in ribs, 1^st in pull pork, and 1^st in brisket. In the second contest we placed 11^th overall out of 37 teams with a 24^th in chicken, 13^th in ribs, 2^nd in pull pork, and 17^th in brisket.  In the third contest we received Grand Champion again with a 4^th in chicken, 8^th in ribs, 1^st in pull pork, and 3^rd in brisket out of 26 teams.

First of all, to have three contests in one weekend was a major accomplishment and for All Hogs go to Heaven to win the Grand Championship in two out of the three contests is the most amazing feat ever! All Hogs will be competing in the Lancaster Dueling BBQ competition on October 4 at the Antelope Valley Chamber of Commerce flea market and car show at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds. Come out and say hello!