2010 Stagecoach Music Festival at Indio, CA

Lots of Awards
Lots of Awards

I thought I was dreaming when we got a call for 6th place Best Booth. We’ve never been a best booth team with our bare bones advertising banner approach to decorating our booth.  It must have been the showmanship portion that won us an award as I really enjoy shooting the breeze with the judges who stopped by to chat.  We did well at this KCBS sanctioned contest finishing 3rd overall with 2nd Brisket, 2nd Ribs, 6th Pork, and 21st Chicken amid 27 teams.  I was ecstatic to learn my buddy Dave Malone, who helped me win GC at Wildomar last week, won his first GC!  Way to go Dave!  Who says it doesn’t pay to be dishwasher/helper on our team!

Amy Soo, Mimi Tamayo, Wesley Saiki, Natalia Tamayo
Amy Soo, Mimi Tamayo, Wesley Saiki, Natalia Tamayo

It was nice to have my family and friends cook this event and help with the People’s Choice sampling.  We were sold out within several hours with the hungry 50,000 music fans who descended upon BBQ row where teams were situated.   Our BBQ Spaghetti was a big hit and we got clobbered.  Our team tees also sold well, and we were able to donate to Operation Homefront and Save The Children charities with 50% of food sales and 20% of tee proceeds.  Our BBQ was written up in the local Desert Sun newspaper

Spanish Seafood Paella w Chorizo and Saffron
Spanish Seafood Paella w Chorizo and Saffron
Seared Ahi Tuna w Maui Onion Dressing
Seared Ahi Tuna w Maui Onion Dressing

I prepared a couple of our easy-to-make-on-camp potluck dishes, and they were a hit and went fast.  I told those who asked for the recipe that the video and recipes were on my Slap Yo Daddy recipe page if they wanted to try them.  No secrets here!  It’s available for everyone to try.

Fans of TLC BBQ Pitmasters
Fans of TLC BBQ Pitmasters
More fans of Pitmaster Chicken Hat Harry
More fans of Pitmaster Chicken Hat Harry

We were able to meet Mike and Beth from QUAU, who are at time of writing, the number one ranked KCBS team in the nation.  Nice folks who drove 2,000 miles from Illinois to cook this event which was on the Kingsford tour they were on.    I’ll see them in a few weeks in Kansas City as we’re cooking the Great American BBQ on May 22.

Mike and Beth Wozniak from QUAU
Mike and Beth Wozniak from QUAU

A big thanks goes out to Thom Emery for organizing this awesome event. Thanks goes to Kelly and Kathleen for officiating and to all the judges, helpers, and volunteers.  A big thanks goes to my good buddy Chris Juencke for letting us use his FEC500 to help cook our sampling meats.  Congrats go out to all who took a walk!

A big thanks also goes to our terrific Sponsors:  Rocks BBQ System for our Stoker temperature control system, T&H Meat and Sausages for our meat products, TheSlabs.com for our rub products, Cajun Grill for our Weber stainless replacement doors, Smokin Guns for our rubs, Butcher BBQ for our injections, and Snake River Farms for our Wagyu meat products.

Congrats to my buddy Dave Malone for GC. Well done!
Congrats to my buddy Dave Malone for GC. Well done!