Slap Yo Daddy BBQ Blog

Cast and Crew hamming it up

Our Calif. buddy Chris joins us in Vienna

The Big Pig Jig in Vienna, Georgia, was an MBN event which meant on-site judging with live judges in the categories of whole hog, ribs, and whole shoulder. Since our team utilized small Weber smokers, there was no way we could cook a whole hog or shoulder in our tiny pits. Consequently, we stuck to cooking ribs only. Since I was only cooking one category, it would be a very easy contest.  To keep things interesting, I decided to cook an elaborate Friday evening dinner for cast and crew. The reason was two fold: one, it would be nice to share a hot meal with the cast and crew after being on the road together for three months, and two, it would be great to cook something other than BBQ. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy cooking and eating BBQ but I also enjoy cooking other foods. After much thought, I decided to prepare a no-holds-barred an Italian dinner for 40 persons featuring:
• Salmon Carpaccio over Organic Tortilla Shell and MicroGreens
• Grilled Rosemary Garlic Crusted New Zealand Lamb with Porcini Polenta
• Make Your Italian Grandma Cry Tennis-Sized Meatballs with Spicy Marinara Coulis over Spaghetti
• Grilled Portabella Mushrooms, Asparagus, Corn, and Sweet Peppers with Balsamic Glaze

Italian Dinner by Harry

It was fun getting the other pitmasters Lee Ann and Paul into helping cook this Italian dinner. Everyone loved the meal and many got seconds. I even got Johnny to eat the raw salmon. That’s two Soo-shi items I’ve successfully fed to Johnny this season!

Johnny Triggs w Raw Soo-shi

In the contest on Saturday, we came in 16th for chicken and 22nd for ribs. Not bad considering there were over 100 teams. The weather was beautiful the entire contest and was a welcome respite after the rain and cold in Dover, Delaware, the previous week.

Beautiful Weather

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Windy, Cold, Wet, and Brutal

One word sums up the Diamond State BBQ contest aka Episode 6 in Dover, Delaware: brutal, as is brutally cold, wet, and windy. It was already raining with temperatures in the 40’s when we touched down in Philadelphia enroute to our hotel 70 miles away in Dover. With the “licking” from the American Royal Open two week ago behind me, I wondered how we could push ahead, dig deep, and bring on our A-game amid the dismal weather conditions. Dismal, at least, to a Californian like me, who likes to dress in shorts and tee for a BBQ contest. Being swaddled like a Michelin man in winter-wear and soaked to the bone cooking BBQ outdoors was really not my cup of tea.
Gary arrived safely at our hotel in Dover after a 16 hour marathon drive from St. Louis where our van was parked after the Royal. The next morning, we suited up like gladiators battling wind, rain, and cold with thermal undergarments, sweaters, and jackets as ventured out the contest site which was the center oval of the Miracle Mile NASCAR racetrack at the Dover Downs Casino complex.
Mark and I cooked this contest without Gary as he struck out on his first solo contest and first outing on the East Coast. Since Gary learned many secret details about how I cook, it would be like a Star Wars plot where Anakin the Paduan tries defeats his Master Obi-Wan. Gary combined the BBQ secrets he learned being on our team with his formidable skills as pitmaster of his Notley Que team to try to defeat us using equipment borrowed from other teams after posting an SOS on the Internet BBQ forums. The specter of two California teams cooking to win at this windy Siberia-like contest motivated both teams to do well amid the 80+ teams who showed up.
We were wet and cold by the time we finished setup Friday morning. I was worried because I saw several teams wearing tees saying “I survived Dover 2007” as a badge of honor as tornado-like conditions swept through then and sent many EZ-ups to the dumpster and many teams home prematurely. I was nervous as we tied our EZ-up down to the van as the wind was gusting.
I had to put our two WSMs under our 10X10 canopy so things were pretty cramped. I started the long-haul butts and briskets at 8 pm instead of our usual 11 pm due to the adverse weather. Our crude water heater blanket insulation around the WSM worked quite well and I had to refuel after 6 hours when temperatures dipped in the early morning. During the night, Mark and Gary sought refuge in our rental car and ran the engine and heater while I retreated to our minivan for shelter.
By daybreak, I was hoping for a respite from the rain and cold but that was not forthcoming. The contest by now was becoming an endurance battle and my focus shifted from winning, to finishing the contest. I was tired and chilled to the bone. I was thinking about my new tee which would say, “I survived the wet, windy, and cold Dover”. Of course the other East Coast teams that stopped by were unfazed by the weather and were amused that a little weather would bother our California team. I would too if I had a nice warm RV or trailer.
At awards time, we edged out 52 teams and lost to 29 teams coming in 29th overall out of 81. Not a terrific finish but not a bad one. Congratulations to Gary who beat us and came in 26th overall despite us beating him in three categories: chicken, ribs, and brisket. For reasons unknown to me, the judges hated our pork and that low score really set us behind allowing Gary to edge us out in overall standings.
I’d like to thank the organizers, hosts, judges, and TLC for making it possible for us to cook our first East Coast event. Thanks also go out to our sponsors: T&H Meat and Sausage, TheSlabs.com, and Rock’s Barbecue Systems.
The rain finally let up as we boarded our plane back to LA. Gary will drive our van and park it at Dallas Fort Worth airport and fly home. I’m already thinking of how to improve in our problem areas: chicken and pork, for our next adventure. Stay tuned.

Awards time

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DIY cold weather mods for our trusty Weber smokers

Our results were dismal at the Sunday Open contest with about 500 teams taking part. I take 100% responsibility. I was exhausted from not getting much sleep Friday and Saturday night from cooking the Royal Invitational. I awoke startled early Sunday morning with that gut-wrenching feeling after realizing I overslept by 1 hour. I tried to recover by upping the temps but one mistake compounded the next and we had our worse finish ever as a BBQ team coming in 256 out of about 500 teams. Our chicken was 315th and brisket was 385th.  Major OUCH!

When I was an airline pilot, we had to study how airplane crashes occurred so as to learn from them. One truth that emerged was that there were always a minimum of 3 mistakes before the plane crashed. A mistake often led to an overcorrection which was exacerbated by a third error. When I awoke late, I upped my ribs temps then forgot that my chicken needed less time as it was in the rib smoker. As I worried that ribs would be underdone, I forgot about my brisket. In the end, the chicken and briskets were overcooked.

BBQ is a microcosm of everyday life with ups and downs. The Open was a downer for us. When you’re up, life is easy. It’s when you’re down that you’ve got to motivate yourself to drag yourself out of the hole.

To win in BBQ, just like winning in life, you’re got to have more than knowledge because knowledge can only get you so far. The greats like Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, Kobe Bryant, et. Al., have all sprung back from defeat. To do so, you need more than knowledge; you’ve got to have the 3 F’s: Faith, Fire, and Focus. Faith refers not to religion but a unwavering belief in yourself; Fire is the passion you have for what you do; and Focus is the 100% concentration you need to stay completely on top of what you’re doing. To win, you must have both: knowledge and the three F’s. My focus was off and I got what I deserved.

I have two weeks before our next contest to put the “licking” from Open behind me, push ahead, and dig deep and bring our A-game and 3F’s to win!

Mark, Gary, and Harry at the Royal 2009

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Slap Yo' Daddy BBQ at the American Royal Invitational

The 7 teams on the BBQ Pitmasters TV show were scattered throughout the massive American Royal contest site in Kansas City so we couldn’t spend much time hanging out. We found two other California teams cooking in the Invitational: Smoking Yankees and Ric’s Righteous Ribs; as well as Larry Hill and Neil Strawder who were there cooking with the Fast Eddie and BBQ Brethen teams respectively.

There were 124 teams in the Saturday Invitational which was the largest Best-of-the-Best teams contest in the world as only teams who won a Grand Championship the previous 12 months were invited. There were a total of almost 500 teams there, combined, for the Sunday Open. The Open was a huge partyfest as many teams hosted lavishly produced corporate parties. For example, our super-nice next door neighbor Terry hosted a 200+ person party Friday night with a live band much like many dozens of parties in full swing.

Chris Juencke and Harry Soo BDay Party in Kansas City

Birthday Boys!

On Thursday night, I treated Chris Juencke, his Dad Fred, and our three-person team to dinner at Gates BBQ, a well known Kansas-style BBQ institution. We shared a combo platter with Mac w Pickle Juice, Beans, and Roasted Potatoes. The spare ribs were a little salty. The turkey and ham were good, and the brisket was outstanding – sliced thin and very flavorful. The sauce was not sweet and had a good tang and kick.

Our spot #890 was at the end of one of the BBQ alleys and luckily we were able to barricade ourselves behind bales of hay to keep the very drunk public out. We had our share of excitement Friday evening outside our booth with: two women arguing and almost coming to blows; two men fighting with one having his head kicked and the kaka beat out of him (they were supposedly friends); a young attractive stupid-drunk woman who was lost and disoriented whom Gary and Chris helped out as good Samaritans; our producer and camera crew were showered with rum and coke by irate mean drunks during an on-the-fly (OTF) interview with me for the show, a 32 year old guy wanting to pawn his foxy 22 year old girlfriend for “favors”, and someone tried to jack my minivan by testing to see if the doors were unlocked (I was sleeping inside). And, hot babes showing up after midnight with the line,”so-and-so team sent us to you because you have the best ribs so could we have a taste?” Of course, silly me being a first time Royal competitor didn’t realize that the hungry drunks were out to get fed and would show you their rack for a taste of yours! The other teams told me later that they cook ribs just to get flashed! Next time, I’ll cook ribs and get my camera ready!

Harry, Gary, Mark

The weather was beautiful and a little chilly when we had the Friday potluck dinner (Spanish Paella, steaks, spaghetti, vegetables) with the Juencke family of the Smoking Yankees team from Stockton: Chris, Bekah, Scottie, and Megan. Chris’ Dad Fred surprised the heck out of everyone by jumping out of Ric Gilbert’s car as none of the Juencke family expected him to make the trip after his recent successful cancer surgery. It was moments like this hanging out with close friends that is the essence of the American Royal experience. To win an award is nice but the real magic at a BBQ contest is the right-here-and-how spending time with great friends.

Our good buddy Kyle from The.Slabs.com dressed to impress

The overnight cook went normally. I opted to guess the Kansas flavor envelope again and tried to cook it sweet. Our results were respectable as we came in 51st of 124 teams (89th chicken; 72nd ribs; 53rd pork; 21st brisket). Nothing to write home about but we did finish ahead of 70+ GC teams in the process. We’ve been struggling trying to obtain contest quality meat while on the road. The butts flown in from our sponsor T&H Meats and Sausage from San Marcos were great but the chicken, ribs, and brisket we obtained from a local specialty butcher was not really contest quality.  A big shoutout goes to Tuffy Stone of Cool Smoke.  Awesome 3rd place overall finish among the 124 GC teams who showed up for this legendary throwdown.  We completed out first Royal Invitational tired but happy.

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