Southwest international bbq cook-off

chandler, az

November 9-11

This 2007 “Season Ending” event was the last chance for cookers to get sanctioned for the “Biggies” of 2008! This event combines the best of the BBQ community all working to qualify for the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS) and the International BBQ Cookers Association (IBCA) National Championships. This event included 47 competition teams, the public and their support for Arizona Autism Support Events.

This type of dual sanctioned event has only been done 3 times before. It is a rare event to have it sanctioned by 2 of the 3 big sanctioning bodies in the United States. The reason for the dual sanction was the differences in the two sanctioning body’s methods of cooking and judging and they wanted to see what a true side by side comparison in real live competition environment would produce. KCBS uses mainly CBJ's (Certified Barbecue Judges), while IBCA uses a lot of the general public to do the judging. It was interesting to see how the final CBJ's and public scores differed.

This was a big event for us. Ted and Ardith left on Thursday morning and spent the night in Blythe. We pulled into a gas station in the middle of the desert and who would be pumping gas, but Kim and Brent from QN4U. A small world indeed! Steve and Vince would leave Thursday evening around 10:00 pm. They drove all night and arrived at the Rawhide grounds around 5:00 am. We all met up and set up our area. It’s always fun to go early and visit with the other arriving teams. Toni and Ron would be flying over on Friday. They got to the BBQ area in late afternoon, and Toni proceeded to set up our booth display. She out did herself on our display, decorating the trailer with fall colors.

Saturday was the big day! There were 8 turn-ins starting at 11:00 am. IBCA, then KCBS, and we had to make sure we had the right box for the right time and contest. It was a challenge but we made it.  Between 2:00 and 4:00 pm was the people’s choice, where we gave out food. Kathy was at the table and did a great job at bringing in the people to try our meat. 

At the awards ceremony in the IBCA we received the Reserve Grand Champion out of 47 teams, with a 1st in Chicken, 10^th in pork, and 1^st in Brisket. It was the first time we received two firsts in the same event.  In the KCBS we finished 20^th overall out of 47 teams. We received 29^th in chicken, 22^nd in ribs, 17^th in pork, and 18^th in brisket. 

The next day was the Backyard BBQ cook-off. Steve did the beef ribs and the hamburgers, while Ron was in charge of doing the salsa and the carne asada. Toni had a handle on the garnish for each category. She worked for several weeks getting just the right tray and garnish for each category. The team pitched in to help get the decorations and trays completed on time.

At the awards ceremony we finished 2^nd in the beef ribs and 3^rd with the beef hamburger out of 10 teams.  This was a great event and was for a worthy cause. We will definitely come back to this event. We wish to thank Mike Reimann for all of his time and effort in making this event a great success.