How I Finangled a Spot as a BBQ Judge

Keep your Julia Child's French butter sauce or your stuffed pasta concoctions: America's contribution to fine dining is a slab of meat or chicken, cooked over hot coals and seasoned with a special kind of sauce.

What's not to love about real, smoky barbeque? And if you do love it, come to the BBQ Contest at Saturday to watch some serious "Q-ing" going on.

Mt. Bethel launched the contest last year as a quick fundraising project, guided by Kansas City Barbeque Society-certified judge Mark Russo, who suggested it as something a bit less time intensive than the company's month-long Christmas tree sales fundraiser in December.

For those in the know, a KCBS barbeque contest is the standard for barbeque contests, and while Mt. Bethel's event is being done in accordance with the KCBS' rules and procedures, there will be some variations.

"What we're doing is just chicken and ribs," Russo said. "The other stuff (pork and beef brisket) takes overnight."

The 10 teams entered so far will begin cooking in time for the judging to start about 1:30 p.m. Judges will award points to each team's product in blind judging, based on appearance, taste and tenderness.

The teams include "three or four serious competitors," Russo said, and last year's champions, the Grill-billies. 

KCBS rules allow six pieces of meat per judge, so with two meats, Russo calculates he needs more judges than teams—which is how he drafted me, a true connoisseur of barbequed chicken and ribs, but possibly a poor judge (I'm a fairly indiscriminate eater!)—and how you could join me at the judges' table.

Russo noted the challenge for the judges is to stay focused on the teams' entries, and not some great grilling you had at a cousin's house in Alabama 10 years ago.

"The hard part of being a judge is to forget about any other barbeque," he said. "It's human nature to compare things to your favorite, but you just can't do that here."   

But if you're not up for that kind of commitment, Russo has another variation from strict KCBS contest rules that's sure to please many (and add a little more to the fundraising effort): he's encouraging the teams to throw a little chicken and a few ribs on his own grill, which Russo will cook and offer for visitors to sample. Normally, no one but the judges eat at a sanctioned contest, but this is a fundraiser, so it's a bit different.

It's not too late to enter a team or sign-up to help judge—just call 908-756-7025. But hurry: this kind of a lip-smacking offer won't last as long as a plate of drummies on the judging stand.