Competition Barbecue: A Behind-the-Scenes Look

WEBVTT

00:00:00.100 --> 00:00:05.092
Today's episode of the Meet Greet Barbecue Podcast is brought to you by AOS Outdoor Kitchens.

00:00:05.092 --> 00:00:09.111
They are the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.

00:00:09.111 --> 00:00:23.408
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Meet Greet Barbecue Podcast.

00:00:23.408 --> 00:00:33.048
Today we'll be speaking to Kev from Comp Barbecue UK, who's going to talk us through everything competition barbecuing in the UK, and it'll be great to hear his story and learn more.

00:00:33.048 --> 00:00:38.792
And please do have a look around our Instagram page, socials and also our website.

00:00:38.792 --> 00:00:41.368
You'll see a new feature where you can send us a message.

00:00:41.368 --> 00:00:49.582
We'd love to hear from you, but please note we're not able to reply back through it, so leave your name and, if you'd like us to get back to you, the best way you'd like us to contact you.

00:00:49.582 --> 00:00:51.587
But I can't wait to hear more from Kev.

00:00:51.587 --> 00:00:54.052
So, without much further ado, here is Kev.

00:00:54.052 --> 00:00:56.341
Hello, kev.

00:00:56.341 --> 00:01:00.307
Thank you so much for coming on to another episode of the Meet and Greet Barbecue Podcast.

00:01:00.307 --> 00:01:04.492
For anyone who doesn't know, please do introduce yourself and how you're linked to barbecue.

00:01:04.953 --> 00:01:06.835
Hey guys, listen, thanks so much for having me.

00:01:06.835 --> 00:01:11.084
So how am I involved in barbecue so emotionally?

00:01:11.084 --> 00:01:37.010
I'm involved in barbecue on a general level, but more specifically I, along with my wife, run an organization called Comp Barbecue UK and we, as well as organising our own barbecue contests in various different locations and at different events, we also kind of promote other people's contests and try and get more people involved in competition barbecue.

00:01:37.010 --> 00:01:47.353
And then outside of that, me and my wife also go and judge loads of barbecue contests here in the UK, in Europe, occasionally in America.

00:01:47.353 --> 00:01:51.731
So yeah, we get about a bit when it comes to barbecue and competition barbecue.

00:01:53.100 --> 00:01:56.932
I mean straight off the bat, judging competition barbecue.

00:01:56.932 --> 00:02:01.911
I mean, who doesn't want to just sit there and eat loads of food, right, yeah, yeah.

00:02:02.722 --> 00:02:05.653
It sounds like so enticing, right, and?

00:02:05.793 --> 00:02:18.800
And when we do the occasional um comps, where you can, you can see the judging happening in front of the people, um, you can see kind of people standing there going oh my god, this is incredible, this is like amazing.

00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:55.242
But particularly there's particular types of of so the kind of the really classic American low and slow competition KCBS, which is the Kansas City Barbecue Society, their contest pork ribs, pork shoulder brisket and there is nothing more depressing than when you've sat there for an hour and a half eating the first three to then be faced with invariably six great, big, thick, incredibly savory slices of brisket, um, which if you were just eating them on their own, you'd be like that oh my god, this is amazing.

00:02:55.242 --> 00:03:03.087
But when you're full and all you want is an ice cream, trying to get those six bits of brisket down is, yeah, it's.

00:03:03.087 --> 00:03:14.366
Listen, I'm not going to say it's the hardest thing in the world, but it's all there am I right with kcbs, though it everything's kind of very regimented in a way that the presentation it has to have.

00:03:14.848 --> 00:03:22.263
You know, they get served in those little boxes and it has a little bit of green and you have to just has to be sliced and everything, and in a very sort of uniform.

00:03:22.263 --> 00:03:25.837
And is that the same across all of the?

00:03:25.837 --> 00:03:36.872
You know, obviously, if you're judging a lot of competitions, does that generally happen across all types of competition or is it specific to the KCBS where it is very regimented how they want it?

00:03:37.540 --> 00:03:50.212
It's funny actually, because in the UK we've got a huge scene at the moment of what we loosely call freestyle barbecue competitions which, as the name suggests, is much more freeform.

00:03:50.212 --> 00:03:59.181
There's much more kind of creativity involved in the dishes and essentially, whoever's setting the rules can set the rules and the rounds and whatever.

00:03:59.181 --> 00:04:00.682
As much as they like you know doing whatever they like.

00:04:00.682 --> 00:04:03.163
Whatever as much as they like you know doing whatever they like.

00:04:03.163 --> 00:04:33.677
But you're right, yeah, so KCBS, which there's only one KCBS contest in the UK this year, which was one that we organised, same last year, but there are a fair few in Europe and there are hundreds in the States and every single one of those contests I think there was something like 600 KCBS contests last year, I didn't count them all, but roughly Obviously the bulk in America Every single one of those is done to exactly the same set of rules, standards, timings.

00:04:33.677 --> 00:04:42.947
The only difference is in America all of the turn-ins happen on Saturdays, whereas for some reason all the turn-ins happen on Sundays in the UK and Europe.

00:04:42.947 --> 00:04:47.060
All the turn-ins happen on Sundays in the UK and Europe.

00:04:50.860 --> 00:05:03.411
But yeah, so it is funny that me and my wife go and judge in Europe at some of the KCBS contests in Belgium and the Netherlands that when we go to America you're doing exactly the same thing 5,000 miles away from where you last did it, and it's exactly the same.

00:05:03.411 --> 00:05:04.555
Things taste pretty much the same.

00:05:04.555 --> 00:05:05.329
And it's exactly the same.

00:05:05.329 --> 00:05:05.444
Things taste pretty much the same.

00:05:05.444 --> 00:05:07.548
The boxes look exactly the same.

00:05:07.548 --> 00:05:10.353
It's uh, it's kind of very impressive.

00:05:10.353 --> 00:05:30.386
But also there does come a point where you go oh, I wish there was a dessert round coming next rather than another meat round and you mentioned something that interests me there, the fact that you said stuff kind of tastes similar across, yeah, the globe.

00:05:30.807 --> 00:05:44.266
But let's talk more about that, because I think a lot of people will be guilty in thinking that, classically, uk barbecue is behind europe and america and there would be quite a lot of differences, particularly, particularly, in competition barbecue.

00:05:44.266 --> 00:05:49.235
So how much further ahead are we than people think?

00:05:49.235 --> 00:05:52.009
And if there are subtle differences, what do they tend to be?

00:05:52.800 --> 00:05:54.687
So in terms of competition.

00:05:54.687 --> 00:06:00.689
The worst barbecue I've ever eaten in contest barbecue was in the States.

00:06:00.689 --> 00:06:09.951
In fact, both times we've dressed in America the standard was much lower than we normally see in Europe.

00:06:09.951 --> 00:06:18.567
So what you tend to get is because, with KCBS particularly, you're not judging or you're not.

00:06:18.567 --> 00:06:21.548
The teams aren't trying to cook something that the judges will like.

00:06:21.548 --> 00:06:35.785
They're trying to cook a standard which is set by kcbs and that is broadly um kind of complimentary taste not too savory, not too sweet, not too sour, not too salty, all that sort of stuff.

00:06:35.785 --> 00:06:44.975
But everything balanced out, um, the textures are laid out, so what the meat should and shouldn't do and uh, and what they need to look like in the box.

00:06:44.975 --> 00:06:47.362
So it's very standard inevitably.

00:06:47.423 --> 00:07:10.254
What's happened is that when we've kind of imported competition barbecue or that type of competition barbecue into europe, a lot of the flavors have come with, come with it and because, particularly I would say in the early days of competition barbecue kind of five, six, seven years ago, it was hard to get like barbecue, european barbecue sauces, like good, really good quality.

00:07:10.254 --> 00:07:16.403
So a lot of people bought barbecue sauces from the states or there was companies bringing them over and selling them on.

00:07:16.403 --> 00:07:32.269
So there's this kind of uh, ongoing, kind of knowing glance that goes around barbecue teams and judges, which is when you get an entry or you've cooked an entry that's got blues hog on it or it's got a sauce based around blues hog barbecue sauce.

00:07:32.269 --> 00:07:43.831
Everybody knows, because everyone knows it's such a good, inoffensive sauce that you can tweak a little bit here and there to make it match the meat and things like that.

00:07:43.831 --> 00:07:57.312
So inevitably the teams kind of all find a level what scores well, what um is kind of inoffensive enough that no one's going to be sat there going oh my god, it's too spicy, oh my god it's too sweet.

00:07:57.312 --> 00:08:04.288
But equally is interested enough and tastes enoughlot barbecue that the judges are interested in it and it tastes nice.

00:08:04.288 --> 00:08:06.490
So yeah, it's kind of.

00:08:08.012 --> 00:08:15.576
We are far ahead, I would say, in terms of quality.

00:08:15.576 --> 00:08:29.487
Obviously, in terms of the size of the community and the competition environment, it's much smaller and obviously it's much more niche and so many people don't know there's a competition barbecue scene or you know, I've never heard of it.

00:08:29.487 --> 00:08:31.908
You know it's one of those things.

00:08:31.908 --> 00:08:36.491
So yeah, so we're kind of like, definitely in terms of quality, we're up there.

00:08:36.491 --> 00:08:38.447
We've got one of the best teams in the world in the UK.

00:08:38.447 --> 00:08:42.328
So a bunch of swines have been to the States.

00:08:42.328 --> 00:08:43.532
They've won in the States.

00:08:43.532 --> 00:08:51.442
They've won some of the biggest contests in the states and they turn up to pretty much all of our contests here in the uk, um, and they're great.

00:08:51.442 --> 00:08:54.539
You know, ed and emma have bunched the spines and they'll pass on their knowledge to everyone.

00:08:54.539 --> 00:08:57.267
Um, but uh, but yeah, so we're.

00:08:57.267 --> 00:09:04.125
So we're not far behind at all, um, in terms of competition barbecue, just in terms of scale.

00:09:04.125 --> 00:09:05.629
It'd be great if we could get it bigger.

00:09:07.562 --> 00:09:15.173
And you mentioned a lot more in the UK et cetera, that there's freestyle more so than the kind of the strict KCBS stuff.

00:09:15.173 --> 00:09:18.519
So, typically then, what are you finding?

00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:24.519
What are the rounds and how do they differ, or do they differ from competition to competition if you are doing kind of freestyle?

00:09:24.659 --> 00:09:31.989
Yeah, I think what you see with freestyle is that you can kind of go as big as you like or as small as you like.

00:09:31.989 --> 00:09:40.748
So in theory, what you could do is you can kind of pair it right back and the organiser whoever's setting the rules can make it really simple.

00:09:40.748 --> 00:09:44.811
So you know, on one hand, they could go right, it's chicken drumsticks, that's it.

00:09:44.811 --> 00:09:45.442
You know, really simple.

00:09:45.442 --> 00:09:47.029
So you know, on one hand they could go right, it's chicken drumsticks, that's it.

00:09:47.029 --> 00:09:50.123
You know you've got to turn in six chicken drumsticks, ten chicken drumsticks, whatever it might be, and it could be as simple as that.

00:09:50.123 --> 00:10:03.186
At the other end of the scale, you've got these really kind of nebulous themes like banquet or picnic or, you know, pie or or things like that and the whole gamut of things in between those two things as well.

00:10:03.186 --> 00:10:06.072
So it depends what the organiser wants.

00:10:06.072 --> 00:10:13.451
If they want it to be big and visual for an audience, maybe when it's being judged, then yeah, they'll tend to go big.

00:10:13.451 --> 00:10:17.431
They'll go big platters of this or, you know, big banquets of that.

00:10:17.431 --> 00:10:29.014
If they're looking for kind of really specific you know skills that they want people to show, they might go a bit smaller, go very specific in terms of what they want teams to cook.

00:10:30.179 --> 00:10:35.493
What's at the heart of barbecue competitions is teams, right.

00:10:35.493 --> 00:10:41.253
So you want teams to want to come and show off essentially what they can do.

00:10:41.253 --> 00:10:46.403
So you need to make the rounds interesting to them as well and something that they want to cook.

00:10:46.403 --> 00:10:48.552
So we talk about kcbs.

00:10:48.552 --> 00:11:00.335
If you just went, oh, we're doing a freestyle contest and it's the same as kcbs, but it's it's to our rules, not to kcbs's rules then the teams aren't going to be that keen because you know it's not very interesting.

00:11:00.335 --> 00:11:01.801
So you've got to make it interesting for the teams.

00:11:01.801 --> 00:11:04.903
You've got to challenge the teams and get them to be interested in it as well.

00:11:07.025 --> 00:11:11.051
I'd love to come in because you mentioned obviously some of the events that you do, as well as promoting others.

00:11:11.051 --> 00:11:16.576
I'd love to come back to that in a minute about what you look to do with your own events.

00:11:16.576 --> 00:11:18.868
But just quickly back to the judging side.

00:11:18.868 --> 00:11:24.711
If you are trying six or seven versions of the same chicken, the same pork?

00:11:24.711 --> 00:11:31.744
Ribs the same brisket, et cetera, no matter whether it's in the UK or US, and they are following the same sort of rules.

00:11:31.744 --> 00:11:32.904
How do you pick?

00:11:33.926 --> 00:11:44.596
Well, the key thing is, as hard as it is and probably almost impossible to do, the general rule is that you don't compare one to another.

00:11:44.596 --> 00:11:48.663
So you taste one and you judge it purely on its merits.

00:11:48.663 --> 00:11:52.812
So if it's a chicken thigh, generally, you'll take one by.

00:11:52.812 --> 00:11:56.765
You'll think about the um, the texture.

00:11:56.765 --> 00:11:58.931
You'll think about did the skin come off?

00:11:58.931 --> 00:11:59.631
That was there like?

00:11:59.631 --> 00:12:00.173
Did the?

00:12:00.173 --> 00:12:00.961
Did it bite through?

00:12:00.961 --> 00:12:01.825
Did the meat come away from the bone?

00:12:01.825 --> 00:12:03.350
Then you'll think about kind of what it feels like in your mouth.

00:12:03.350 --> 00:12:07.187
And then you'll think about kind of what it feels like in your mouth and then you'll think about the taste.

00:12:07.187 --> 00:12:10.609
Is there like a nice balance, like I said, is it too salty, too sweet, whatever?

00:12:10.609 --> 00:12:21.971
And the idea is that once you've finished judging that, you'll score it against what we call the KCBS standard, which is the perfect kind of chicken thigh.

00:12:21.971 --> 00:12:27.306
And then, once you finish that, you move on to the next one.

00:12:27.306 --> 00:12:30.057
But you'll kind of almost try and forget the first one completely and start all over again.

00:12:30.057 --> 00:12:38.902
We're all human beings, so obviously that's um, never going to be, uh, a deer to, kind of constantly, but that's what you try to do.

00:12:38.902 --> 00:12:45.113
So even if you get another one that tastes completely different and maybe it's flavors that you much prefer.

00:12:45.113 --> 00:12:48.849
You still try and go okay, I might prefer these flavors.

00:12:48.849 --> 00:12:50.354
Are they a nice balance?

00:12:50.354 --> 00:12:53.423
Is it sweet enough, salty enough, savory enough, whatever?

00:12:53.423 --> 00:13:00.488
And then again, try and judge it completely on its own merits and try and get rid of your own preconceptions about what's nice and what's not.

00:13:00.488 --> 00:13:03.423
Um, so that's how you try and do it.

00:13:03.423 --> 00:13:07.452
You're trying to compare and we try to bring that through into kind of the freestyle side of things as well.

00:13:08.059 --> 00:13:25.149
It can be very easy for one freestyle entry to be huge and over the top and kind of really dramatic to look at and then one that adheres to exactly the same set of rules to be quite small and kind of not underwhelming but kind of basic, of basic.

00:13:25.149 --> 00:13:31.149
And actually, if the rules don't say it needs to be massive or it needs to be small, you've got to kind of go okay.

00:13:31.149 --> 00:13:32.474
So what are the rules?

00:13:32.474 --> 00:13:33.020
Are the rules?

00:13:33.020 --> 00:13:35.006
Are it's got to have cheese in it, for instance?

00:13:35.006 --> 00:13:36.190
Can I taste the cheese?

00:13:36.190 --> 00:13:36.961
Is the cheese nice?

00:13:36.961 --> 00:13:38.143
Is it never nice balance?

00:13:38.583 --> 00:13:50.988
So you could, you should be able to judge those two things fairly independently, despite the fact that they're quite different and also, you know, look different, taste different or whatever.

00:13:50.988 --> 00:13:54.070
So that's the theory anyway and that's what we try and do.

00:13:54.070 --> 00:14:05.244
And it sounds kind of grandiose, but it is hard, especially when you've just eaten something which you really liked and then you get something which you're kind of I'm not so sure.

00:14:05.244 --> 00:14:29.006
But I still need to try and judge it objectively and kind of make sure I'm giving it the kind of the focus and commitment that I should is it that there's like a set ruling that you need to plan everything across?

00:14:29.028 --> 00:14:33.022
or, and what the different types of kind of events that you plan, whether it be in the uk or anything you're linked with in europe as well?

00:14:33.702 --> 00:14:40.485
um, so yeah, so we try and keep relatively consistent in terms of the kind of the overall structure.

00:14:40.485 --> 00:14:59.662
So generally you will have a number of rounds which make up a contest, um, and sometimes you'll have contests on the saturday and a contest on the sunday which are completely separate, and sometimes you'll have rounds on a saturday and rounds on a sunday which will be added together just for one whole weekend contest.

00:14:59.662 --> 00:15:11.515
So so, generally speaking, the structure of barbecue contests is done in rounds, usually kind of three or four per day, which can add it up to a contest.

00:15:11.515 --> 00:15:14.779
There's some types of contests which are kind of very, very simple.

00:15:14.779 --> 00:15:25.355
So SCA, which is the State Cook-Off Association, that's another American-based organization which we're doing a lot more in the UK at the moment.

00:15:25.355 --> 00:15:44.193
That's a really simple contest for people to get involved in because you can turn up with a kettle or even just a chimney starter and some charcoal and a match and you can compete with all of the other teams with their huge setups to cook one steak.

00:15:44.193 --> 00:15:58.491
The steak gets provided for you, so everyone kind of has the same quality steak, um, and if you can cook that on your kettle or just your chimney star or whatever, um, then you, it's kind of a level playing field.

00:15:58.491 --> 00:15:59.662
It's really nice and simple.

00:15:59.662 --> 00:16:05.609
And the reason I say chimney star is because some teams do cook their steaks over chimney starters to get um, to get the heat.

00:16:06.240 --> 00:16:12.572
So, generally speaking, yeah, contest structures and the events around them are quite standard.

00:16:12.572 --> 00:16:19.131
We try and do our events at places that are quite visible.

00:16:19.131 --> 00:16:28.306
So we try and do kind of like food festivals, music festivals and things like that, things we know where the public are going to be.

00:16:28.306 --> 00:16:38.029
Because our main ethos as Con Barbecue UK is to try and get more people involved, get more people interested, not just in competition barbecue, in barbecue in general.

00:16:38.029 --> 00:16:50.365
So if we there are some private contests knocking around as well, but if we can do ours very visually where people who might be interested are, then that's great for us.

00:16:50.365 --> 00:16:55.712
We can use it as a bit of a shop front for getting people interested and involved.

00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:02.566
And typically, how many events are you doing at these food festivals, like you said, music festivals?

00:17:02.566 --> 00:17:07.028
What does a typical comp season look like?

00:17:07.851 --> 00:17:08.251
in the UK.

00:17:08.251 --> 00:17:10.564
So for us.

00:17:10.564 --> 00:17:20.626
So this is only our second year organising contests, so we only did one last year, but weirdly it was kind of quite a big one, not in terms of teams but the location.

00:17:20.626 --> 00:17:49.188
So last year we did our very first contest, a festival called valley fest, uh, down near bristol, which is like a huge music festival, um, which is organized, at least in part, by the same people to do glastonbury um, so it's like a massive music festival on this beautiful farm that overlooks um, I think it's two Magna Reservoir just outside Bristol, and we did it there and it was an amazing contest.

00:17:49.188 --> 00:18:05.999
It rained all weekend and on the Saturday morning, or sorry, the Sunday morning, the water main burst at the top of the hill and we had a river running through our contest area all day, which was great fun, but that was our.

00:18:05.999 --> 00:18:07.021
That was our first one.

00:18:07.021 --> 00:18:08.384
This year we've done two.

00:18:09.125 --> 00:18:14.093
Um, we did, uh, a contest at um tubby toms.

00:18:14.093 --> 00:18:21.311
So, uh, for anyone who doesn't know, tubby tom makes amazing rubs, sauces, seasonings, uh, out of his unit.

00:18:21.311 --> 00:18:28.208
Uh, just outside gloucester he organized a really small kind of festival just on his industrial estate and asked us to organise a contest there.

00:18:28.208 --> 00:18:29.244
That was great fun.

00:18:29.244 --> 00:18:34.008
Just one day we did an SCA stake round and, I think, three rounds of freestyle.

00:18:34.008 --> 00:18:38.450
We had guest judges who were pals of ours.

00:18:38.450 --> 00:18:42.267
They came along and did some judging and all kinds of stuff.

00:18:42.267 --> 00:18:45.884
It was such good fun, really small but such good fun.

00:18:45.884 --> 00:18:58.529
And then about four or five weeks ago we ran our second contest, cheltenham Food and Drink Festival, which was really good.

00:18:58.529 --> 00:19:05.228
I mean, weather was beautiful, we had eight teams, people there, obviously there for food and drink and stuff.

00:19:05.228 --> 00:19:09.752
So people were interested um, and yeah, it was kind of it was a great contest.

00:19:10.194 --> 00:19:12.280
We're hoping to do three contests next year.

00:19:12.280 --> 00:19:14.626
Fingers crossed, we'll do another one which will be tom.

00:19:14.626 --> 00:19:34.048
Um, hopefully we might do cheltenham again fingers crossed and we're kind of thinking about a few options for a third one, whether we tag it onto an existing event or whether we maybe organise something, not sure, but yeah, so we're hoping to do three next year.

00:19:34.048 --> 00:19:42.352
Outside of that, there's probably this year, since COVID, there's been more contests this year than we've had for a long time.

00:19:42.352 --> 00:19:48.263
So although they had to cancel, one pro-q organized um a couple, um everyone.

00:19:48.263 --> 00:19:55.227
Weekend just gone, or a fair few people were down at the um great dorset chili festival, doing a chili cook-off down there.

00:19:55.227 --> 00:19:57.992
Um, um, we've got.

00:19:57.992 --> 00:19:59.320
What else have we got coming up?

00:19:59.320 --> 00:20:04.669
I know smoke and mold and smoke and fire, obviously, yeah, in a week or so's time.

00:20:04.669 --> 00:20:17.153
So, yeah, there's kind of more stuff than ever before and if we're not organizing it, then generally we turn up to make a nuisance of ourselves and either just say hello to friends and stuff.

00:20:19.220 --> 00:20:32.579
Just out of interest, obviously, now organizing your own as well as promoting others and, like you said, kind of being there and judging, yeah, how, what's the perception of the general public, you know?

00:20:32.579 --> 00:20:36.895
So if it is at a music festival, that's not particularly barbecue.

00:20:36.895 --> 00:20:43.796
I still think barbecue is still fairly niche in the uk oh yeah, definitely even though there is a big community.

00:20:44.056 --> 00:20:45.420
Yeah, because we're in it, we know it.

00:20:45.420 --> 00:20:46.402
Yeah, so it's.

00:20:46.402 --> 00:20:58.377
I'm interested to know when there is literally eight teams that lined up over a load of heck, you know, in their gazebos or whatever, just in an area, yeah, what is the kind of you know, general perception from members of the public?

00:21:00.134 --> 00:21:12.156
I would say the primary reaction is one of confusion, but for the right reasons, because that's kind of what we want, because we want more people to find out about it.

00:21:12.156 --> 00:21:16.125
So if they weren't confused, it means they knew about it before and there's no point.

00:21:16.125 --> 00:21:18.070
But yeah, it's kind of.

00:21:18.070 --> 00:21:19.032
There's a.

00:21:19.032 --> 00:21:22.019
It's an interesting thing to see.

00:21:22.019 --> 00:21:32.332
When you turn up at a food festival, you turn around a corner and there's a line of eight gazebos with various different types of barbecues out front.

00:21:32.332 --> 00:21:39.069
You know there's offsets and there's barrel smokers and there's bullet smokers and there's kettles on the go, there's pellet grills, that you know.

00:21:39.069 --> 00:21:44.942
There's all sorts going on and it's very visually kind of interesting.

00:21:44.942 --> 00:21:48.395
So you get a lot of people going what's this, what's going on?

00:21:48.395 --> 00:21:52.675
And and that's great because you can tell them and go, this is a barbecue contest.

00:21:52.675 --> 00:21:55.114
This is, you know, this is a big deal in america.

00:21:55.114 --> 00:21:58.340
We do it here as well, and this is it and um.

00:21:58.340 --> 00:22:06.132
And I think, hopefully, what people who might be interested in it see as well is that it's relatively easy to get into.

00:22:06.211 --> 00:22:11.152
Lots of people think that it's all professional chefs or people who cook for a living, and it's not.

00:22:11.172 --> 00:23:07.343
It's just people who who've got a passion for this hobby, which is for a weekend trying to cook the best food they can to impress, invariably, some people that they know and you know some friends and stuff, friendly competition amongst the teams and then they all go out for a drink and a meal in the evening or if they're all camping there, they all sit around a fire pit and, you know, drink and chat and kind of have a laugh and a joke and it's such a social community but also visually kind of very arresting for someone who's never seen it, particularly if someone's you know general experience of a barbecue is, you know a B&Q grill which they spend an hour and a half screwing together, used twice over the summer, and then you know it's rusting beyond the shed To see all these different types of barbecue and grills and whatever.

00:23:09.152 --> 00:23:13.919
It can be really interesting for the people you know who've got even just the slightest interest in it to also go.

00:23:13.919 --> 00:23:24.941
Wow, there's this whole world of barbecues, of food, of you know social get-togethers that never knew existed.

00:23:24.941 --> 00:23:39.375
So yeah, that's a very long and convoluted way of saying yeah, confusion generally of saying yeah, confusion generally rolling, rolling back a little bit.

00:23:39.394 --> 00:23:40.096
How, how did you even?

00:23:40.195 --> 00:23:41.157
get into this and when did your?

00:23:41.178 --> 00:23:52.837
that is a question I get, yeah, and also like when, where did your barbecue journey start and how did it progress into organizing yeah, competition standard barbecue?

00:23:53.439 --> 00:24:08.900
So I've always been interested in cooking so I've always been a bit of a kitchen warrior kind of cooking, and then, like most people, would kind of barbecue over the summer.

00:24:08.900 --> 00:24:21.118
I think my first barbecue was a like my first proper barbecue was a 37 centimetcentimeter compact Weber and it's tiny I've still got it and it's absolutely kind of minuscule now.

00:24:21.118 --> 00:24:23.616
But I had that and I used to use that a lot.

00:24:23.616 --> 00:24:38.392
And then I can't remember it was a birthday and we were having a small kind of birthday party and for some reason I'd seen on TV about this brand new invention called pulled pork and I was like well.

00:24:38.531 --> 00:24:42.041
I'm going to do that with no kind of real knowledge.

00:24:42.041 --> 00:24:49.721
And I remember trying to Google kind of how to do it, how long to cook it for, and then realising that I couldn't just do it.

00:24:49.721 --> 00:24:55.097
It wasn't just a case of putting the lid on the barbecue, that I had to offset the coals and all this sort of stuff.

00:24:55.097 --> 00:25:18.038
And I did that for that birthday party and then, I think, slowly from there it gathered a bit of pace until one day, for a reason I still don't know, a kind of a sponsored or advert popped up on Facebook for this festival which was called the Big Meat.

00:25:18.038 --> 00:25:29.396
It was organised and run by James from JL Butchers and this is a few years ago, which, fingers crossed, is coming back very soon.

00:25:29.396 --> 00:25:35.816
But there was this festival and it had barbecue in the name or barbecue in the description.

00:25:35.816 --> 00:25:37.661
So me and my wife went oh, let's just go down there.

00:25:37.661 --> 00:25:55.609
You know it's three hours away, but we've got nothing else to do and we turned up at this festival and we turned up at about midday and what generally happens is that once the teams have cooked everything and turned it in anything they've got left generally they've cooked loads of ribs to turn in six.

00:25:55.609 --> 00:25:57.194
They kind of give them out.

00:25:57.194 --> 00:26:05.238
And we were just walking around and these teams were just handing out these kind of gastropans full of ribs and we were going oh my God, this is the best rib I've ever eaten.

00:26:05.238 --> 00:26:07.249
Oh no, actually this is the best rib I've ever eaten.

00:26:07.249 --> 00:26:09.357
Oh no, this is the best rib I've ever eaten.

00:26:09.357 --> 00:26:12.402
And yeah, this is the best rib I've ever eaten.

00:26:12.402 --> 00:26:15.105
And yeah, and that was kind of our introduction to competition barbecue.

00:26:15.105 --> 00:26:17.838
Just stumbled on it completely by accident.

00:26:18.490 --> 00:26:25.136
The next year at the same festival Big Meat they were running a judging course, so we went along and did that.

00:26:25.136 --> 00:26:39.779
So we judged that year and then we judged the year after and then someone was running a KCBS judging course John Gower, down at Smoke on the Water.

00:26:39.779 --> 00:26:44.536
So we went there, we did that judging course and it just kind of snowballed.

00:26:44.536 --> 00:26:58.201
It was like one thing after another, one thing after another, and the next thing, you know, you're sat on a Eurotunnel at 7 o'clock in the morning to drive seven hours to the Netherlands to judge a barbecue contest.

00:26:58.201 --> 00:27:05.001
Kind of midday I need to turn around at three o'clock and drive all the way back home again because you've got to go to work the next day.

00:27:05.001 --> 00:27:11.498
It's kind of yeah, it kind of snowballs, it snowballs, and then you blink and you're like what the hell am I doing?

00:27:11.498 --> 00:27:17.702
This is the weirdest hobby in the world and at one point I thought I wanted to compete.

00:27:17.883 --> 00:27:23.220
So I got really interested in competing but really struggled to find any information.

00:27:23.220 --> 00:27:32.416
There was little bits here and there, but but nobody was kind of pulling together kind of information for um, uh, for people who were interested in competing.

00:27:32.416 --> 00:27:45.678
And I ended up getting the phone number of one of the teams who were at that festival Sean from Joker Smokers, who still compete now, and just spending an hour and a half on the phone with him going like what is it you need?

00:27:45.678 --> 00:27:46.299
What do you do?

00:27:46.299 --> 00:27:52.181
And then I kind of thought I'll tell you what I'm going to do.

00:27:52.181 --> 00:27:57.478
I'm going to build a website that pulls all of the information I've found out and just puts it there for people.

00:27:57.478 --> 00:27:59.657
And that's how Con Barbecue UK started.

00:27:59.657 --> 00:28:02.798
We were just an information website and it's just grown from there.

00:28:03.250 --> 00:28:32.861
We started doing more and more, working with different people and you know, yeah, here we are organising two or three contests a year now for our sins, which sometimes is great, and then other times it feels like the worst decision you've ever made, when you're particularly for my wife when she sets up the WhatsApp groups with the teams, and the teams have got a thousand and one ridiculous questions that they need answers to before they arrive and it seems like a very silly idea to have got involved.

00:28:32.861 --> 00:28:36.112
But, yeah, we do it together.

00:28:36.112 --> 00:28:52.212
There's only two of us at the moment, but yeah, so we kind of just do everything we can to spread the word, organise contests, promote other people's contests and, yeah, sometimes you go.

00:28:52.212 --> 00:28:52.938
I don't really know how we got here.

00:28:52.938 --> 00:29:07.098
I don't really know how we ended up spending all of these weekends in all these random small towns in Belgium, all because we accidentally stumbled on a contest at a festival in the UK, I think in 2016, I think it was.

00:29:09.993 --> 00:29:15.138
If you've been looking or thinking about an outdoor kitchen, then look no further than AOS Outdoor Kitchens.

00:29:15.670 --> 00:29:19.461
They are the South's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.

00:29:20.210 --> 00:29:34.958
Their extensive showroom is based just outside Bournemouth, on the Dorset-Hamishire border and, as well as numerous in-store displays, also features a live outdoor kitchen where they cook every week on Kamado grills, pizza ovens, and all filmed and shown on YouTube.

00:29:35.390 --> 00:29:48.317
They offer a wealth of knowledge on how to transform your patio into the most incredible outdoor dining area, with styles and options to suit every budget, and you can guarantee they will be able to create something perfectly suited to you and your home.

00:29:48.789 --> 00:30:01.584
They stock and supply everything that you're going to need for outdoor cooking, including barbecues, Kamado ovens, pizza ovens, outdoor fridges and every accessory that you would need to become the ultimate outdoor chef.

00:30:02.309 --> 00:30:12.922
So if you want to make yourself the envy of your friends and neighbours, get in touch with them today to arrange a consultation and take the first step in transforming your back garden into the most incredible entertainment space.

00:30:13.490 --> 00:30:15.135
Visit AOSKitchenscouk.

00:30:18.771 --> 00:30:19.856
You make a very good point.

00:30:19.856 --> 00:30:26.063
So I mean, owen and I have actually talked about kind of competing in the past and the pros and cons of it.

00:30:26.063 --> 00:30:36.760
I think the difference is Owen loves cooking for people, I love eating barbecue food and it's two very different reasons to cook.

00:30:36.760 --> 00:30:43.022
I think we'll end up at least trying to compete a few times.

00:30:43.022 --> 00:30:59.599
Yeah, but looking at it, driving to Newcastle from where we are down kind of relatively south, kind of Essex, suffolk way, yeah, it's arguably longer than driving to some areas in Europe and yet we never would have thought about the European scene.

00:30:59.599 --> 00:31:02.058
So can you talk us a bit through the European scene?

00:31:02.058 --> 00:31:05.921
And also, if people want to get involved, where do you even begin?

00:31:05.921 --> 00:31:07.857
They can go to the website, obviously.

00:31:07.857 --> 00:31:11.875
What would you recommend so with Europe?

00:31:12.155 --> 00:31:15.730
specifically, it's mainly kcbs and sca.

00:31:15.730 --> 00:31:52.862
So if you want to get involved in judging kcbs and doing what we do, which is meeting up with loads of friends that we know both british friends, uh, german friends, belgian friends, dutch friends, um, in random places, particularly in belgium and Belgium and the Netherlands go on the KCBS website particularly, or come and speak to us and find out where there's judging courses, because all you need to do to become a KCBS judge is go and do a judging course, which takes about two, three hours from memory, and then you can judge at any KCBS contest anywhere in the world.

00:31:52.862 --> 00:31:54.594
Like I said, we've judged in the States.

00:31:54.594 --> 00:32:01.580
We've judged in Belgium, in the Netherlands, in Ireland and obviously the UK.

00:32:01.580 --> 00:32:15.500
So that's all it takes, and I would be lying if I said we go all that way just to judge barbecue, because we don't, because the social aspect around it is so, so important.

00:32:15.500 --> 00:32:24.378
We've made some of the best friends that we have kind of doing this and travelling to weird and wonderful places.

00:32:24.378 --> 00:32:28.000
So Mark and Anju are kind of our reps in the UK.

00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:37.281
They're kind of both KCBS reps and SCA, which means they don't organise the contest, but they act on behalf of KCBS and SCA.

00:32:37.281 --> 00:32:43.046
They turn up at the contest and make sure they're kind of run to the right standard and to the right rules and processes.

00:32:43.046 --> 00:32:51.692
They're some of our best best friends and we would never have known them or met them had we not got involved in this.

00:32:51.692 --> 00:33:00.019
And now, yeah, we're kind of talking about whether we're going to go to meet them in Nashville next year for Angie's birthday, things like this.

00:33:00.019 --> 00:33:02.371
It's kind of it's so weird, but yeah.

00:33:02.652 --> 00:33:08.736
So if you want to do, like, just go and judge barbecue KCBS, sca just find out where there's a course.

00:33:08.736 --> 00:33:15.478
There's not many, so you do have to get lucky and find one and do the course and then you can go and judge.

00:33:15.478 --> 00:33:18.518
They're always done in English as well, so that's the rule.

00:33:18.518 --> 00:33:25.238
So whether that course happens in Belgium, the Netherlands, italy, the course is always in English.

00:33:25.238 --> 00:33:27.919
So that's the international language of barbecue.

00:33:27.919 --> 00:33:31.318
So anyone can turn up and do it, particularly from the UK.

00:33:34.170 --> 00:33:36.494
Um, so anyone can turn up and do it, particularly from the uk.

00:33:36.494 --> 00:33:47.175
Um, if you want to judge in this country, um, for you know, for freestyle and stuff we're at the moment we primarily use kcbs and sca judges to judge our freestyle contests.

00:33:47.175 --> 00:34:00.941
Possibly next year we're going to start running a course for people just to learn about judging freestyle barbecue, so that hopefully might be something next year that people can get involved with.

00:34:00.941 --> 00:34:06.569
But yeah, that's kind of like how you get involved, particularly kind of in Europe.

00:34:06.569 --> 00:34:15.501
You do a course and turn up and make friends and go and drink eculously strong Belgian beer in bars in Belgian towns.

00:34:15.501 --> 00:34:16.041
It's great.

00:34:18.253 --> 00:34:37.518
And obviously you mentioned right at the beginning that you're here to promote competition barbecue across the UK primarily, as well as Europe People joining and competing but what you've obviously just been talking about around judging is there also a need for more judges here?

00:34:37.539 --> 00:34:47.960
yeah, I think there was a time where we had a lot, a lot more judges than we needed um for the amount of contests, but that's that's gone now.

00:34:47.960 --> 00:35:04.213
Um, so the the kind of the mildly challenging situation we have, particularly around kcbs, is like I said at the start, there's there's only one kcbs contest uh in the uk at the moment and that's the one we organized um back before covid.

00:35:04.213 --> 00:35:16.626
There was kind of four or five um, so that's kind of it's quite hard in the UK to get into that KCBS world.

00:35:16.626 --> 00:35:23.996
But because it's now been a long time since we were at that peak of judges, people as they do kind of drift away.

00:35:23.996 --> 00:35:25.288
They get involved in other things.

00:35:25.288 --> 00:35:33.581
It is a hobby and, hand on heart, it can be an expensive hobby if you want to gallivant all over Europe and stuff like that.

00:35:33.581 --> 00:35:36.456
So people do tend to drift in and drift out.

00:35:36.456 --> 00:35:39.262
Generally there's a core but that does happen.

00:35:39.262 --> 00:35:51.865
So, yeah, so we, like you say, we'd love new people to get involved, compete in teams, whether it's just like one person or two, three, four friends who want to get together and form a team.

00:35:51.865 --> 00:35:57.114
But also, yeah, we need people who are interested in in in judging as well.

00:35:57.697 --> 00:36:06.485
Um, it sounds strange, but the contest that we ran in chowk nom, we had judges that came from, let me get this right.

00:36:06.485 --> 00:36:09.012
So we had judges from nashville, we had judges from dallas, uh, texas.

00:36:09.012 --> 00:36:09.873
We had judges from the?

00:36:09.873 --> 00:36:10.393
N Texas.

00:36:10.393 --> 00:36:25.503
We had judges from the Netherlands, australia and Ireland as well, and they all came on their own dime to judge our tiny little contest in Cheltenham.

00:36:26.831 --> 00:36:28.217
And that's the kind of community it is.

00:36:28.217 --> 00:36:31.099
People make a, they do it as part of a holiday.

00:36:31.099 --> 00:36:33.755
They go off travelling around Europe, particularly the Americans.

00:36:33.755 --> 00:36:38.413
They do like to come and travel around europe and do like two, three, four contests while they're here.

00:36:38.413 --> 00:36:51.333
But because that happened, there was another contest the same weekend in the netherlands and they were struggling for judges purely because me and my wife were in this country.

00:36:51.333 --> 00:36:55.838
Mark and ange were repping our contest and they would have normally been judging.

00:36:55.838 --> 00:36:59.900
The two Dutch judges who'd come over to our contest weren't available.

00:36:59.900 --> 00:37:03.777
So they were struggling to get judges because of our tiny little contest.

00:37:03.777 --> 00:37:11.159
So we do need more people to get involved and it'd be great if they were kind of British people who want to come judge some contests.

00:37:11.159 --> 00:37:27.996
Like I said, join the little community of barbecue judges that meets up in the UK, in the States not in the States, sorry in Europe, you know, and kind of get involved in that because it's just such a great social scene.

00:37:28.038 --> 00:37:32.519
I've always said A different view of what you're talking about.

00:37:32.519 --> 00:37:38.081
Do you think becoming a judge has improved your barbecuing skills?

00:37:38.081 --> 00:37:39.847
Because you know what you're looking for.

00:37:40.188 --> 00:37:42.153
Yeah, yeah do you know?

00:37:42.153 --> 00:37:43.255
Do you know what it's kind of?

00:37:43.255 --> 00:37:45.360
I'm not a big fan of like.

00:37:45.360 --> 00:37:48.875
I would never cook a competition brisket or competition ribs.

00:37:48.875 --> 00:37:51.739
Um, I like my ribs much.

00:37:51.739 --> 00:38:03.460
You know, if you were judging my ribs when I've cooked them for KCBS, you would say they were massively overdone, because KCBS standard is that the meat doesn't fall away from the bone.

00:38:03.460 --> 00:38:18.079
So from a KCBS point of view it's good to get tips and tricks, you see, kind of speak to the teams and find out how they do certain things, where they get some of their meat from and things like that.

00:38:18.079 --> 00:38:20.938
But I would never cook meat like that.

00:38:22.170 --> 00:38:30.972
But interestingly, the freestyle stuff and it's like some of the teams are so creative and come up with some amazing things and I'll give you an example.

00:38:30.972 --> 00:38:35.871
So our contest last year at Valleyfest, one of the rounds was just cheese.

00:38:35.871 --> 00:38:37.907
That was the round name, it was cheese.

00:38:37.907 --> 00:38:40.688
You could do whatever you want as long as the main thing was cheese.

00:38:40.688 --> 00:38:52.690
And probably the best freestyle team in the UK, a team called Wonky Donkies, which is a great name they did this really simple kind of cheese pie.

00:38:52.690 --> 00:39:06.661
I think it was like a cheese and ham pie, um, and it was like it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever eaten, um, and you kind of and it's moments like that you go, oh, I could, that's the thing I could.

00:39:06.661 --> 00:39:10.652
Like that triggers something in me that goes, oh, when I cook that I'm going to do that.

00:39:10.652 --> 00:39:14.351
So the freestyle stuff definitely kind of.

00:39:15.364 --> 00:39:22.889
While I am kind of a bit creative when it comes to like cooking and stuff like that, I never have those big ideas, those big grand ideas.

00:39:22.889 --> 00:39:38.490
So having those little triggers from these amazing teams, that kind of cook these incredible things, just having those little triggers like just to make me go, oh yeah, that's a good idea, I can use that idea or you know, that theory or whatever.

00:39:38.490 --> 00:39:40.588
So yeah, yeah, it's great.

00:39:40.588 --> 00:39:54.907
It's definitely given me loads more ideas and probably more confidence as well, because you kind of understand what's possible and it's easy to kind of think that a barbecue, you know, in the traditional sense, is all about sausages and burgers.

00:39:54.907 --> 00:40:03.588
Or, you know, if you kind of obviously come from American Southern States, it's all about low and slow, but actually it's kind of so much more.

00:40:03.588 --> 00:40:18.293
It's baking, it's frying, it's grilling, it's broiling, it's all these things, um, which, my own personal opinion, can be made better just with that flavor of smoke or that flavor of char or you know, or whatever.

00:40:18.293 --> 00:40:19.342
So so it's.

00:40:19.541 --> 00:40:31.666
Yeah, it's definitely both inspired me and educated me just seeing what these guys do one of the things that we hold really dear on the podcast Kev is our barbecue fails.

00:40:31.666 --> 00:40:35.050
We want to hear about some of the things that haven't gone well.

00:40:35.050 --> 00:40:44.250
So I don't really know, perhaps, what stories you've got, but it can be from your own personal kind of cooking experiences or even perhaps some real fails that you've had as a judge.

00:40:44.719 --> 00:40:47.400
Yeah, throw people under the bus is what I always ask there.

00:40:47.400 --> 00:40:53.005
It could be what you've done or you've heard some real crap, just lop that in front.

00:40:53.940 --> 00:40:59.365
I'll preface this by saying that I don't know the names of the people involved in this, and the reason will become clear.

00:40:59.365 --> 00:41:26.112
So the first time me and my wife went to the States to judge we didn't go specific for that, we were going on holiday we found a local contest that was happening and we went there and it was quite a big contest in Florida I think there was about 70 or 80 teams, which by our standards is huge, but by American standards is kind of mid-size contest and they tend to have in the States.

00:41:26.112 --> 00:41:33.351
They tend to have what they call the professional side and the backyard side, um, so kind of two parallel contests.

00:41:33.351 --> 00:41:38.650
The professionals aren't professional, it just means that they've competed before or they'd, they've won contests before.

00:41:38.650 --> 00:41:53.630
Um, and we our judging table was judging the backyard side and one of the teams that we ended up judging was a team of American guys who were on stag do.

00:41:53.630 --> 00:42:03.907
So basically their stag weekend they'd gone to American, they'd gone to a barbecue contest to cook and they decided they were going to for chicken.

00:42:03.907 --> 00:42:08.440
They did chicken wings and they were absolutely incinerated.

00:42:08.440 --> 00:42:16.666
Like they must have been so hungover because like it's hard to burn chicken wings right, especially if you're smoking them.

00:42:16.666 --> 00:42:19.588
So God knows what they did.

00:42:19.760 --> 00:42:21.106
But, yeah, this box turned up.

00:42:21.106 --> 00:42:30.179
They opened this box and you know, there's all these teams that spent hours, you know, cooking their, you know in their half million dollar kind of trailer rigs and stuff like that.

00:42:30.179 --> 00:42:38.784
And we get this one team that was hung over and cooked the most acrid burnt chicken wings I've ever tasted in my life.

00:42:38.784 --> 00:42:41.030
So so, yeah, so they didn't win.

00:42:41.030 --> 00:42:42.773
They came a strong second.

00:42:42.773 --> 00:42:43.255
No, they didn't.

00:42:43.255 --> 00:42:50.634
But yeah, yeah, and I was like I just thought the amount of money they must have spent to be there.

00:42:50.634 --> 00:42:55.527
And then they obviously woke up in the morning and just thought we've made a terrible, terrible decision.

00:42:55.527 --> 00:42:57.567
We just need to get something in a box.

00:42:57.567 --> 00:43:04.364
And then, presumably, they all went back to bed for six hours, woke up and realised that they'd burned the chicken wings.

00:43:04.364 --> 00:43:05.298
Still, handed them in.

00:43:05.298 --> 00:43:07.992
That's brilliant still handed up me.

00:43:11.570 --> 00:43:11.952
That's brilliant.

00:43:11.952 --> 00:43:16.789
Have you ever been to competitions where people have abandoned it?

00:43:16.809 --> 00:43:17.471
Just gone.

00:43:17.471 --> 00:43:18.775
No, we're going home.

00:43:18.775 --> 00:43:19.498
Do you know what?

00:43:19.498 --> 00:43:22.949
No, I don't, because generally speaking, you don't see it much.

00:43:22.949 --> 00:43:26.025
They're very strict, kind of all.

00:43:26.025 --> 00:43:29.610
Contests are very strict on what time you have to turn in your entry.

00:43:29.610 --> 00:43:37.382
So the general rule of thumb is one second late is disqualified.

00:43:37.402 --> 00:43:57.398
There's been some very, very near misses um, uh, mentioning no names, there's some kind of repeat offenders of people who kind of sprinting across a field with a box stretched out in front of them, hoping not to trip over to try and get it on the table before the the clock ticks round, um, so you, you get that, but I've never seen anyone throwing the towel.

00:43:58.101 --> 00:44:00.126
Generally it's a very supportive atmosphere.

00:44:00.126 --> 00:44:14.251
So if you're in trouble, if you're in like a bit like a uh and in a situation where you don't think you're going to get it done, you won't believe the amount of teams that will pitch in and help, um, kind of, and try and kind of get you over the line.

00:44:14.251 --> 00:44:22.280
Because, like a lot of teams have done quite well by having one terrible round and three pretty good rounds.

00:44:22.280 --> 00:44:29.751
So, like it's one round down, just get it in, just don't get disqualified, because you never know what could happen.

00:44:29.751 --> 00:44:45.885
So it is incredibly rare, to the point where I've never seen it, but uh, um, I think there's probably been a few that have been pretty close um, I'd love to move on to, uh, actually trying to give you a bit of a challenge to cook something.

00:44:45.905 --> 00:44:54.873
We're talking about competition, barbecue, uh, our barbecue bingo challenge, where, um, I'll show you the very expensive wheel that we've spent a lot of money on.

00:44:55.255 --> 00:45:00.306
Oh, I'm very excited about yeah, oh look at that, oh my word.

00:45:00.347 --> 00:45:00.768
Look at this.

00:45:00.768 --> 00:45:11.010
I know, I know kids haven't eaten for a week, so, uh, on, on here we've got a load of ingredients.

00:45:11.010 --> 00:45:14.702
All of these have been left by previous guests, right?

00:45:14.702 --> 00:45:16.865
Um, apart from my signature dish.

00:45:16.865 --> 00:45:19.751
So which would be your signature dish?

00:45:19.751 --> 00:45:21.320
What are you best known for?

00:45:21.320 --> 00:45:24.210
So if it lands on that, we'd love you to cook your signature dish.

00:45:24.210 --> 00:45:24.851
What would you say?

00:45:24.851 --> 00:45:27.228
People know, so my thing.

00:45:27.568 --> 00:45:36.050
It's probably not a specific dish, but what I love cooking the most mainly because I really like eating it and my wife really likes eating it is greek stuff.

00:45:36.431 --> 00:45:46.541
So we know, yes, so you know, yeah, like spinach and feta pies and slow cooked beef and kind of mediterranean sauces and stuff.

00:45:46.541 --> 00:45:47.704
So, yeah, we cook a lot of that.

00:45:47.704 --> 00:45:55.114
My wife makes this amazing, um, greek honey cake on the barbecue, which is because honey's obviously got a lot good.

00:45:55.114 --> 00:45:57.282
Honey's got that slightly smoky flavor.

00:45:57.282 --> 00:46:03.173
Anyway, greek honey cake done on the barbecue is insanely good.

00:46:03.173 --> 00:46:03.474
It's.

00:46:03.474 --> 00:46:07.239
It's one of my favorite things, um, which has reminded me she's not cooked it for a long time.

00:46:07.239 --> 00:46:25.925
So, um, probably need to get on that, but but yeah, so probably not a specific dish, but um, but probably, yeah, probably greek food as a uh, as a genre, more than anything um just for the list people listening conscious not everyone watches on youtube to name kind of some of the different ingredients.

00:46:25.985 --> 00:46:54.309
So, or things that are on here Paella, frog legs, squid, tripe, kangaroo Good luck getting that Beef neck, andouille, sausage, vindaloo paste, goat, octopus, pineapple, monkfish, chicken hearts, duck, szechuan peppers there's quite a few different bits and variety there and if anyone at home wants to play along, please do buy whatever this lands on and cook along and tag us in.

00:46:54.309 --> 00:46:57.684
We'd love to see what people can do absolutely right, kev.

00:46:58.025 --> 00:46:59.126
Uh, so we'll give it a spin.

00:46:59.126 --> 00:47:04.701
Um, actually, just before, is there anything that you're absolutely dreading?

00:47:04.701 --> 00:47:06.222
So?

00:47:06.242 --> 00:47:10.487
uh, so vindaloo paste.

00:47:10.487 --> 00:47:20.568
While I absolutely love spice and heat, my tolerance goes up and up and up and then it comes to an absolute dead stop.

00:47:20.568 --> 00:47:24.302
And then the second you go over that it's painful, I'm not interested.

00:47:24.302 --> 00:47:30.213
Um, and vindaloo, depending on where you get it from, can either be above or below that line.

00:47:30.213 --> 00:47:36.809
So, yeah, I have never eaten octopus and I have no intention of ever eating octopus.

00:47:37.739 --> 00:47:39.708
There's something about the suckers.

00:47:39.708 --> 00:47:48.259
Too many people have told me as well how delicious it is which has just made me even more stubborn that I've got no intention of eating octopus.

00:47:48.259 --> 00:47:51.389
So yeah, those are probably two that stand out.

00:47:51.389 --> 00:47:52.371
I'm not that pleased.

00:47:53.202 --> 00:47:54.458
You've tempted fate for sure.

00:47:54.458 --> 00:47:55.804
Right, come on, let's give it a go.

00:47:55.804 --> 00:47:59.269
It is generally random, but if it does land on it amazing.

00:48:03.380 --> 00:48:05.829
To be fair, last week it landed on what the person was talking about.

00:48:05.829 --> 00:48:09.025
I mean that's close.

00:48:09.025 --> 00:48:11.025
Right, it is close, but there's no.

00:48:11.280 --> 00:48:15.791
There's no suckers involved with squid, so it's not as great yeah, squid, there we are.

00:48:17.143 --> 00:48:18.045
What's your first thoughts?

00:48:19.146 --> 00:48:27.784
uh, calamari, obviously, is kind of the obvious thing, um, which is really probably the only thing I've ever really cooked with squid.

00:48:27.784 --> 00:48:39.860
Um, I have seen and eaten, um, lots of stuffed squid kind of that's cooked really like slow and low um, uh, but, but, but yeah, I'm not.

00:48:39.860 --> 00:48:42.126
Yeah, so probably something like that.

00:48:42.126 --> 00:48:46.644
I don't know how versatile is squid apart from just grilling it, calamari in it and stuffing it.

00:48:46.644 --> 00:48:48.670
I'm not sure there's much more you can do with it.

00:48:48.670 --> 00:48:52.067
Maybe there is, maybe I'm, maybe I'm still a storm when it comes to squid.

00:48:52.067 --> 00:48:52.487
Who knows?

00:48:52.929 --> 00:48:54.601
is it occasionally used in ceviche?

00:48:54.601 --> 00:49:07.708
I mean, it's not, not, not, not so much uh, barbecue though is it no, it's almost the antithesis of barbecue here's a kj now let's have some lime.

00:49:07.708 --> 00:49:09.590
Yeah, yeah.

00:49:09.610 --> 00:49:10.851
You could grill the lime at least.

00:49:10.851 --> 00:49:13.436
Yeah, yeah, okay.

00:49:13.436 --> 00:49:20.512
And so, to keep with tradition, what ingredient would you like to leave for potentially another guest?

00:49:21.822 --> 00:49:30.505
I would leave just something I've eaten this weekend actually, which I always really like, and then always forget about them for kind of eight months of the year.

00:49:30.505 --> 00:49:31.909
So Padron Peppers.

00:49:31.909 --> 00:49:38.246
I love Padron Peppers, oh yeah, and they're such an acquired, like a strange acquired taste, because when you eat them they go.

00:49:38.246 --> 00:49:46.242
These are so bitter and kind of savoury, but weirdly delicious Like olives.

00:49:46.242 --> 00:49:48.307
It's kind of like that similar sort of vibe.

00:49:48.307 --> 00:49:56.365
But yeah, padron Peppers, I've accidentally spun it twice, so sorry about that.

00:49:56.365 --> 00:50:10.045
I'm glad we I just saw that the second one said chicken hearts and I was like no, no, thank you uh, yeah, padron peppers again, not something that I have that often, but do you know?

00:50:10.206 --> 00:50:19.228
weirdly, I went through a stage a couple of years ago of growing chillies and I grew a load of Padron peppers and found out that you can't freeze them because they just turn to mush when you defrost them.

00:50:19.228 --> 00:50:25.427
But yeah, weirdly, the only place, the only kind of supermarket, that sells them is Lidl.

00:50:25.427 --> 00:50:29.505
That's kind of the only supermarket around here that actually sells them.

00:50:29.626 --> 00:50:31.050
Is that because they're a Lidl pepper?

00:50:33.123 --> 00:50:36.251
Yeah, you can't be pitching me stuff like that.

00:50:36.251 --> 00:50:41.465
And I can't be swinging for it.

00:50:44.130 --> 00:50:47.275
You cannot be throwing me stuff like that and not expecting me to bite at that.

00:50:48.141 --> 00:50:53.170
It's kind of, you know, when you see something that you grow, but like weirdly inside, you're very impressed.

00:50:53.170 --> 00:51:05.385
I'm not gonna say it was definitely like that, but it was definitely a bit like that yeah, and that was how the meat barbecue podcast finished talking about that, though.

00:51:05.525 --> 00:51:06.407
Um, I, um.

00:51:06.407 --> 00:51:08.530
So I had owen over on the weekend.

00:51:08.530 --> 00:51:13.228
A bit of a barbecue fail, slightly in a feline shaped way, but um, I did.

00:51:13.228 --> 00:51:14.010
I did a brisket.

00:51:14.010 --> 00:51:24.460
I'd been out friday night, got back at about midnight and put the barbecue on then and, um, this brisket about 11 and a half hours it took 3.75 kilo.

00:51:24.460 --> 00:51:31.853
Brisket came out really, really good, yeah, but I also I also did a pork belly bone-in.

00:51:32.079 --> 00:51:39.429
I took the skin off it to make crackling, which I've still got, which I'm going to have as a snack in the week because why not, why not?

00:51:39.429 --> 00:51:40.532
Yeah, exactly.

00:51:40.532 --> 00:51:44.420
So I cooked this pork belly, cut it up with some sausages.

00:51:44.420 --> 00:51:53.346
I was going to serve it with like little Pedron peppers on the side, and my wife'll blame steph for this was like you know what, put in the dining room.

00:51:53.346 --> 00:51:56.021
We'll sit outside, people just go in and serve themselves.

00:51:56.021 --> 00:52:01.605
Okay, so did that, did some sausages for the children as well, just in case they didn't want kind of brisket style pork belly.

00:52:02.527 --> 00:52:03.590
Really happy with how it came out.

00:52:03.590 --> 00:52:09.657
Luckily I had a few bits before kind of putting it on the side, put it out, said to everyone oh food, oh, food's out.

00:52:09.657 --> 00:52:10.619
And everyone said, oh, do you know what?

00:52:10.619 --> 00:52:16.043
We'll wait a little bit for the brisket, so we'll sit down and just give it a little while Two of the children come out.

00:52:16.043 --> 00:52:20.226
Five minutes later, cat's on the table.

00:52:20.226 --> 00:52:23.746
I was like right, do you want to expand on that?

00:52:23.746 --> 00:52:27.565
Yeah, he's licking all over everything.

00:52:27.565 --> 00:52:30.710
I said define everything, everything.

00:52:30.710 --> 00:52:32.213
I was like okay, have you?

00:52:32.213 --> 00:52:32.994
Have you got him off the table?

00:52:32.994 --> 00:52:33.994
No, no, he's still there.

00:52:33.994 --> 00:52:36.226
Why are you telling me this?

00:52:36.246 --> 00:52:38.286
So I was watching him for 10 minutes.

00:52:38.699 --> 00:52:45.347
I had to get rid of the full top level of the pork that I'd done, so like maybe half of the pork belly.

00:52:45.347 --> 00:52:51.021
I'd done six sausages.

00:52:51.021 --> 00:52:52.182
Three of the sausages went straight away.

00:52:52.182 --> 00:52:53.304
Right, should we bring everything outside now?

00:52:53.304 --> 00:52:58.782
But um it, it hadn't even occurred to me because, like we've recently moved, I've not talked around the podcast.

00:52:58.782 --> 00:53:05.545
It's not something that constantly comes up, but it's not something he's ever done before, even in the old house.

00:53:05.545 --> 00:53:09.532
So it never occurred to me that maybe a cat would like meat if we left it out.

00:53:09.532 --> 00:53:15.391
So, um, I learned a very strong lesson there, but at least the brisket came out really good.

00:53:15.512 --> 00:53:27.387
I think the main lesson to learn there is if no one saw it, don't tell anyone and it'll be fine oh well, I think it's pretty obvious when two children come screaming out to announce it.

00:53:27.387 --> 00:53:30.112
Not just everyone in the garden but the viewers?

00:53:30.152 --> 00:53:36.625
Yeah, actually I had a barbecue fail this week.

00:53:36.625 --> 00:53:40.550
That just annoyed me.

00:53:40.550 --> 00:53:44.306
So I've recently got a new wood-fired oven.

00:53:44.306 --> 00:53:53.786
So again, I don't want to use it just for pizza, I want to cook, you know, all sorts in it, yeah so uh it was just me and my wife.

00:53:53.806 --> 00:53:56.072
The kids were away at the in-laws, so it was quite nice.

00:53:56.072 --> 00:53:59.407
Um did a nice beef chili but I got some.

00:53:59.407 --> 00:54:05.744
I had some braising steak and originally I was going to do like a slow cooked chili or a casserole or whatever.

00:54:05.744 --> 00:54:08.750
And the wife was like, should we put it on in the morning?

00:54:08.750 --> 00:54:13.217
I went, no, no, that's fine, I tell you what I'm going to fire up the new wood fired oven and we'll cook it.

00:54:13.217 --> 00:54:30.429
So I was cooking this chili for about an hour and 20 minutes, hour and a half, and it started to really kind of um, thicken up and start, you know, you started to get the really nice kind of flavoring on the top, uh, and I was like, yeah, really happy with this, took the took.

00:54:30.429 --> 00:54:34.913
So, honestly, the beef was like chewing a shoe it was it just hadn't had that.

00:54:35.434 --> 00:54:37.280
Hours and hours just to kind of break down.

00:54:37.380 --> 00:54:42.054
I should have done it with sirloin steak, so I.

00:54:42.054 --> 00:55:05.849
The problem is I was making some content and I put it up on the store on our stories yesterday, so it looked all right, but no one actually knew that I couldn't eat it and had to actually do it, actually had to do, use a slow cooker the next day just to make it palatable, that's what I think that about most of the kind of instagram and tiktok you look, you go, that looks amazing, but I can't like.

00:55:05.909 --> 00:55:10.442
I just don't know how it tastes because the whole thing is texture, so it's just this kind of like.

00:55:10.442 --> 00:55:12.985
I just don't know how it tastes because the whole thing is texture, so it's just this kind of like.

00:55:12.985 --> 00:55:13.445
I just don't trust it.

00:55:13.445 --> 00:55:14.806
I don't trust that they're all amazing.

00:55:14.847 --> 00:55:17.630
I just don't Well like the brisket I did on the weekend.

00:55:17.630 --> 00:55:23.376
I didn't take any photos of it, once I'd actually properly sliced it up on the plateau, which annoyed me.

00:55:23.376 --> 00:55:32.634
But that's because I took photos when I initially cut it and a bit of video, and then I'm just focused on the food, because I want everyone to have hot food, nice food.

00:55:32.634 --> 00:55:36.990
You know, anyone who takes that long setting out was like that's, that's, that's cold, that's cool.

00:55:36.990 --> 00:55:39.326
I'm cooking a chili right now.

00:55:39.326 --> 00:55:51.036
By the way, it's been on for five hours, so I hope it's good and it's not boiled dry, because I can't do anything about it right now, but listen to all those burn bits on the bottom.

00:55:51.056 --> 00:55:52.759
That's texture and that's flame.

00:55:52.960 --> 00:55:58.565
Yeah, so this, that wasn't the end, unfortunately so then I was.

00:55:58.965 --> 00:56:02.400
I was panicking, trying to find something, so I ended up doing.

00:56:02.400 --> 00:56:05.786
Ended up doing beef chilli nachos because we had some mints, etc.

00:56:05.786 --> 00:56:08.500
But I bought some new pans recently.

00:56:08.500 --> 00:56:13.465
All of our non-stick pans had gone the the, the oven was still up and hot.

00:56:13.465 --> 00:56:15.590
So I thought, well, again, I'll use that.

00:56:15.590 --> 00:56:19.704
So put the new pan in and it seemed okay.

00:56:19.704 --> 00:56:25.521
But then as I pulled it out, actually that it's probably a bit too big for the oven.

00:56:25.521 --> 00:56:29.527
So I've scratched all of the non-stick off around the rim, which is great.

00:56:29.527 --> 00:56:38.655
Then I've got one of the old pans and which is a metal handle, and I was because I was just faffing around and end up taking it out without my glove on and burning my bloody fingers.

00:56:39.016 --> 00:57:00.213
So all in all, the whole evening was just fail, fail, fail, but I had some very nice beef nachos at the end of it speaking of hot, hot pan handles, when we were at our contest um at cheltenham there was a small barbecue demo stage right next to us and um shane mcbagley.

00:57:00.213 --> 00:57:04.190
So shout out to shane mcbagley, who does um great stuff on facebook and instagram.

00:57:04.190 --> 00:57:24.219
Uh, american guy that lives here in the uk now does a lot of lot of works for Weber and does a load of barbecue content In front of like a crowd of people watching him do a demo, picked up a metal handled pan that had been inside a big Weber summit for about half an hour.

00:57:24.219 --> 00:57:30.771
To be fair, he let it go really quickly so he didn't do any damage, but he fronted it out so well.

00:57:30.771 --> 00:57:36.567
We saw it and spoke to him afterwards so we knew about it, but no one else knew.

00:57:36.567 --> 00:57:39.925
So shout out to Shane for his demos.

00:57:39.925 --> 00:57:42.190
But also incredible pain threshold.

00:57:42.190 --> 00:57:43.873
He is a chef.

00:57:43.873 --> 00:57:45.887
Chefs have all got Teflon hands on anyway.

00:57:47.204 --> 00:57:50.751
Yeah, absolutely, anyway.

00:57:50.751 --> 00:58:05.186
So, just as we kind of come to the end, just is is there anything else that perhaps we haven't covered in in terms of competition, barbecue or barbecue actually it doesn't even need to be barbecue, but just you know, is there anything else that you want to kind of talk to us about or, uh, shout about?

00:58:05.688 --> 00:58:05.768
uh.

00:58:05.788 --> 00:58:14.505
Well, so just like, if anyone is interested in competing, getting involved, um, go to our website comp barbecue ukcom.

00:58:14.505 --> 00:58:17.034
You can find us on facebook.

00:58:17.034 --> 00:58:19.842
You can search for comp barbecue uk on facebook or instagram.

00:58:19.842 --> 00:58:22.269
Those are probably do a little bit on tiktok, but not loads.

00:58:22.269 --> 00:58:24.164
So that's our, our kind of primary stuff.

00:58:24.164 --> 00:58:25.547
You can drop us emails.

00:58:25.547 --> 00:58:26.550
If you go to our website.

00:58:26.550 --> 00:58:27.391
There's a contact us.

00:58:27.981 --> 00:58:35.932
Give me a shout, um, if you've got any questions, uh, about getting involved or uh just want more information and all that kind of stuff.

00:58:35.932 --> 00:58:39.007
Um, so yeah, that really just yeah.

00:58:39.007 --> 00:58:50.722
I guess the kind of the one message I just wanted to get across was that the competition barbecue is a kind of a really fun community of people who've just got this passion for this hobby that they do.

00:58:50.722 --> 00:58:52.789
So anyone can do it.

00:58:52.789 --> 00:59:10.708
If you've got barbecue and you can get hold of a gazebo or even just a big brolly or whatever, um, if it rains, you can come to these contests and cook stuff and compete and uh get involved, whether you do it yourself, with a family member, with you know two or three friends or whatever.

00:59:10.708 --> 00:59:14.289
You can pull your kit and all that sort of stuff.

00:59:14.289 --> 00:59:16.608
But, yeah, just get in touch, give us a shout.

00:59:17.079 --> 00:59:26.766
If anyone's at Molden, then I'll be knocking around the judging tent probably for most of the Saturday and Sunday, doing stuff.

00:59:26.766 --> 00:59:36.422
They had me up on stage doing kind of comparing last year, so I don't know whether that happened again, but um, but yeah, yeah, I'll, uh, I'll do my best to wear a comp barbecue t-shirt or hoodie or something.

00:59:36.422 --> 00:59:53.128
So, uh, uh, come and grab me and say hello and whatnot and uh, uh, yeah and and kind of yeah, just reach out and and give me a shout if anyone's got any questions or is interested to be fair, as a judge, are you not used to comparing things?

00:59:53.728 --> 00:59:54.070
That's two.

00:59:57.201 --> 01:00:00.032
That's two in a very short space of time.

01:00:01.920 --> 01:00:03.507
You can't leave me with things like that.

01:00:05.204 --> 01:00:06.327
We call him the cunning punt.

01:00:07.940 --> 01:00:10.369
The worst thing about that is, I feel like the second.

01:00:10.369 --> 01:00:13.447
I said it, he thought it, and then he was waiting for it.

01:00:13.568 --> 01:00:15.907
Oh yeah, yeah, that was long yeah.

01:00:16.940 --> 01:00:17.664
It was in the eyes.

01:00:17.905 --> 01:00:19.009
I've got to wait for this one.

01:00:23.561 --> 01:00:32.070
Anyway, kev, honestly lovely to meet you and it was really good to talk more about the comp scene and, yeah, thank you very much for coming onto the podcast.

01:00:32.333 --> 01:00:33.882
No, thanks for having us guys.

01:00:33.882 --> 01:00:38.947
It's been really fun and I appreciate you inviting me along and getting me to talk about what I love.

01:00:38.947 --> 01:00:39.829
So, yeah, thanks a lot.

01:00:40.456 --> 01:00:41.945
And apologies for Jan's shit jokes.

01:00:43.485 --> 01:00:44.108
Shut the hell up.

01:00:44.108 --> 01:00:47.864
Jealous Cook signing off right there.

01:00:47.864 --> 01:00:49.202
Thanks, thanks, kev, cheers guys.

01:00:49.262 --> 01:00:57.394
Jealous cook signing off right there, thanks thanks kev, cheers guys, cheers bye see you later.

01:00:57.434 --> 01:01:01.971
Bye that's it for another episode of the meet and greet barbecue podcast.

01:01:01.971 --> 01:01:07.699
It's great to hear from kevin understand a little bit more about the kind of competition barbecue scene in the uk and europe.

01:01:07.699 --> 01:01:11.130
Um, as ever, we'd want to hear from you.

01:01:11.130 --> 01:01:19.887
Please do get in touch through the socials the link in the description that you can contact us directly and until next time, keep on grilling.

01:01:19.887 --> 01:01:37.838
Today's episode is brought to you by AOS kitchens, the south's leading outdoor kitchen design and installation specialists.