Here's an upcoming article I wrote for the KCBS newspaper, the Bullsheet (probably August edition). Posting it here because, although I wrote about the people aspects of competition barbeque for the article, it is just as applicable to participation in a forum like Let's Talk Barbeque. It is the food that brings us together, but that is not what keeps us participating
Hub
How To Be Successful In Barbeque
By
Gordon Hubbell
Over the years I’ve poked around in and among several different hobbies, always immersing myself deeply and trying to learn as much as I could about them. I still maintain at least two of those enjoyable pursuits and can’t see myself having any kind of quality life without them. Cooking, specifically
outdoor cooking, has been a passion of mine for my entire adult life. That, in and of itself, isn’t exactly what I’d call earth-shaking. What
is earth-shaking is how many people share my passion and, even more so,
how they choose to share it!
I recently Judged the 20th Annual Blue Ridge BBQ and Music Festival in Tryon, North Carolina – an event that I greatly look forward to every year. But, this year was special in more ways than just being the 20th in what I hope will be a long, long contest history. It was special to me because, as the day wore on, I realized how much more important the people who judge and cook there are in my life than is the food.
The food was, as it always is at this robust contest, excellent. However, the day there was a vastly different event in my life than every prior contest I’d attended either as a cook or judge. I don’t know why it all came together for me there, but it did. As I drove home that evening I felt more satisfaction from my day at a contest than I’d ever felt before. Why?
From the moment I arrived and found my way to the usual line-up of judges waiting to sign in until the time I dragged my tired carcass to the car to go home, I was almost constantly involved in conversations. And, these conversations weren’t all about barbeque, either! I talked with both judges and cooks, old hands and newbies, old friends and new ones. What we all had in common was, only superficially, barbeque. Barbeque was just the central focus of our attendance, not the main reason we were there. It was sort of a necessary excuse to convene.
Of all the hundreds of hobby-related get-togethers I’ve gone to in my life, I’ll blatantly opine that contest barbeque is a magnet for the finest bunch of citizens our planet has to offer. A barbeque contest is a noisy oasis of civility in a world of noise that often makes little sense. For whatever calming reason, it is a spot in the week and in the world where you’ll find veterans with two-digit judge numbers chatting contentedly with nervous first contest attendees and not setting themselves apart or acting superior. It is a place and time where cooks who are cutthroat competitors will gladly loan the team next to them something needed but left at home. A contest is a temporary Eden where education, status, politics, and other sociological classifications of the attendees take a deep back seat to the love of the effort. It is an environment that for some magnificent and magical reasons, brings us into a moment of harmony and oneness badly needed in our lives and that is deeply, humanly, satisfying to the soul.
Old and even semi-experienced hands at the competition barbeque “circuit” will know exactly what I’m talking about. So, this article is mainly for the folks who are new and not yet fully oriented. I have some advice to offer them.
First, just relax. The judging will focus on the food. So will the competition. We will compete fiercely and we will judge intensely, but in an atmosphere of friendship and camaraderie and with our hearts and minds in the right places. Enjoy that as much, if not more than, the feast.
Second, catch the spirit and help spread it. It isn’t a secret and there is room for many more fine people who want to participate. Our hobby has caught on with the “Reality TV” business of late and that sometimes gives it an appearance that is far from real. In the real “reality” there are very few grandstanders, stuffed shirts or publicity hounds. Just a bunch of friends you haven’t met yet.
Like my other hobbies, competition barbeque has taken some time to understand and fully appreciate. When I first got involved, I thought it was all about the food. Now, several years “down the road” I have learned that the food is important and very necessary, but not the most enjoyable aspect. Not by a long shot!
“Success” in this endeavor might be measured in trophies and prize money (in which case I’m way, way down the ladder) or by the attaining of a Master Judge certification In which case I’ve crawled up a rung or two) but both measures would be superficial and wrong. A much better measure of success is the number of friendships started and maintained whilst hanging out in the smoke.
