This was my third visit to Feather Falls Casino and Lodge in Oroville, CA to attend the Hot Q's & Cold Brews BBQ Competition as a barbecue judge. The last two years I sampled the entries, but this year I volunteered as a table captain. It's been a long time since I've been a table captain but I like doing it and will probably do more of it in the future.
Forty-four teams from California, Oregon, and Nevada turned out for a chance to win some of the $25,000 in prize money. Feather Falls Casino is a gracious host and sponsor, and Ben Lobenstein is a contest organizer extraordinaire. Add to that four great KCBS contest reps--Julie Poe, Ian Schmidt, Merrialyce Alvarez, and Steve Alvarez--and you've got a contest that runs like a well-oiled machine that takes care of the teams, the judges, and the visiting public extremely well.
Weather was great, not too hot and not too windy. From what I heard, there was some very high quality barbecue served to the judges. Congrats to Jerry & Lupe Aguilar of Burnin & Lootin BBQ for taking GC and Ridge Route Boys BBQ for taking RC.
Here are a few photos I took on Friday night as the teams were getting things setup. Lots of WSMs at this event, as you'll notice in the photos. Enjoy!
Here's your GC winner Jerry Aguilar of Burnin & Lootin BBQ, working his garnish on Friday night. I joked with him that this pile of lettuce was not unlike the pile of cash he might be hauling home at the awards ceremony. I guess I was right!
This is Benny Adauto and his cooking partner, they compete as FunTime BBQ. Benny cooked as a partner with Harry Soo of Slap Yo' Daddy BBQ for quite some time.
Benny wanted to show me the additional cooking surface he rigged in his 18.5" WSM by adding legs to a 14.5" WSM cooking grate.
Here's a close-up of Benny's additional cooking surface.
This is Big O & Mo BBQ. I can't remember if he's O and his wife is Mo or if it's the other way around. In any event, they're cooking all-Weber with two WSMs.
Here's a better shot of their grills.
I don't think I've ever seen (or noticed) anyone using 5-gal buckets to keep WSM lids off the ground. Interesting!
Continued...
Forty-four teams from California, Oregon, and Nevada turned out for a chance to win some of the $25,000 in prize money. Feather Falls Casino is a gracious host and sponsor, and Ben Lobenstein is a contest organizer extraordinaire. Add to that four great KCBS contest reps--Julie Poe, Ian Schmidt, Merrialyce Alvarez, and Steve Alvarez--and you've got a contest that runs like a well-oiled machine that takes care of the teams, the judges, and the visiting public extremely well.
Weather was great, not too hot and not too windy. From what I heard, there was some very high quality barbecue served to the judges. Congrats to Jerry & Lupe Aguilar of Burnin & Lootin BBQ for taking GC and Ridge Route Boys BBQ for taking RC.
Here are a few photos I took on Friday night as the teams were getting things setup. Lots of WSMs at this event, as you'll notice in the photos. Enjoy!
Here's your GC winner Jerry Aguilar of Burnin & Lootin BBQ, working his garnish on Friday night. I joked with him that this pile of lettuce was not unlike the pile of cash he might be hauling home at the awards ceremony. I guess I was right!
This is Benny Adauto and his cooking partner, they compete as FunTime BBQ. Benny cooked as a partner with Harry Soo of Slap Yo' Daddy BBQ for quite some time.
Benny wanted to show me the additional cooking surface he rigged in his 18.5" WSM by adding legs to a 14.5" WSM cooking grate.
Here's a close-up of Benny's additional cooking surface.
This is Big O & Mo BBQ. I can't remember if he's O and his wife is Mo or if it's the other way around. In any event, they're cooking all-Weber with two WSMs.
Here's a better shot of their grills.
I don't think I've ever seen (or noticed) anyone using 5-gal buckets to keep WSM lids off the ground. Interesting!
Continued...
