West Coast Barbeque Championship

Fairfield, California

August 2007 

This event is always a lot of fun as the Tomato Festival (that is held in conjunction with the BBQ contest) draws over 45,000 people of all ages. This celebration of Solano County’s agricultural heritage features Tomato Alley where more than 50 varieties of heirloom tomatoes and gourmet tomato products can be sampled and purchased.  There were nearly 200 craft and commercial vendors in attendance, and live music fills two stages.  The West Coast Barbeque joins the festival with a great competition.  The California BBQ Association had 29 teams cooking together for the BBQ cook-off at Jefferson and Texas Streets. 

All Hogs Go to Heaven team members Toni and Ron were unable to attend because of a work commitment.  Ted and Ardith started for this contest on Thursday and set up camp in Madera.  They were joined by Steve and Vince around 9:30 pm, and as always the train tracks were near by so you could hear the trains whistle all through the night.  We left the next morning and headed for Fairfield after getting set up it’s always fun to visit with the other BBQers.  The wind blew all weekend, making cooking an interesting challenge. We were in the downtown section of Fairfield and with the big buildings we were in a wind tunnel of sorts, which meant a constant watch of the fire and temperatures. 

All Hogs Go to Heaven finished 7^th overall with 14^th in Chicken, 22^nd in Pork ribs, 8^th in Pork Shoulder, and 6^th in Brisket.  It was a great event and we would like to thank Ben and Nate for a great job in setting up the event.