Banquet Season

The winter seems to be a good month to have banquets celebrating the past year in BBQ. Big T'z Q Cru was busy attending two of them: the KCBS Annual Banquet, and the Iowa BBQ Society Annual Banquet.

Earlier in the month was the KCBS Annual Banquet, held in Philadelphia. Sonya and I flew out there to enjoy the sights and foods of the City of Brotherly Love, and also to meet more of the people that are a part of this great organization.

This is also the time they give out awards for Team of the Year. For every contest a team attends, they receive points based on how well they placed in each category and overall. In addition they receive bonus points equal to the number of teams that competed in the contest (capped at 100). For instance, if a team wins first overall in a contest where there is 45 teams, they receive 250 for the first place finish as well as 45 bonus points, for a total of 295 points. 2nd place at the same contest receives 225 points, and so on. Each category: chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket are computed the same way.

At the end of the season they tally up all the points for only your top ten contests. The team with the highest overall score is crowned Team of the Year. This year just happened to be the year our mentor and friend, Rod Gray along with his wife Sheri were given this huge honor. There are over 4000 registered teams in KCBS, so I am sure that you can guess what an achievement it is to be ranked as the best of them.

At the awards ceremony we were surprised to find that they give awards to the top 20 teams in all categories. Before we got there we heard they gave awards to the top 25 overall and to the top 10 in each category. Considering we were 19th in the nation in brisket, we were trhilled to hear our name called at the banquet and walk up to receive our award. I think I had a "perma-smile" for at least twenty minutes after that moment. However, nothing topped being there to see Rod and Sheri receive their award for Team of the Year. They are great people and deserve every ounce of recognition they get. Way to go team Pellet Envy!

Another highlight of the evening was being invited to the Presidential Suite (The room of KCBS President, Mike Lake and his wife Teresa) after the awards banquet and celebrating with everyone there. It was there that we got to meet Carolyn Wells, who is the founder of KCBS. To me, that was an incredible honor. We also got to get our picture taken with the now famous Tuffy Stone of Cool Smoke. He is one of the pitmasters that was chosen to be on the inaugural season of TLC's "BBQ Pitmasters", and for good reason. First and foremost, he is an incredible cook. A classically-trained chef, he received the honor of KCBS Team of the Year in 2007. Second, he has a personality that goes for miles. We had the opportunity to spend some time with him and his wife earlier in the weekend and just had a delightful evening listening to all their stories!

Overall, it was a very memorable weekend. We met tons of people in the organization and had several great experiences. We look forward to the 25th Anniversary Banquet in Kansas City next year!

The second banquet was the Iowa BBQ Society Annual Banquet. Just like KCBS it is here that the Society gives out awards for Iowa Team of the Year. Unlike KCBS, the rankings are calculated differently.

At every KCBS contest the judges give each team's entry a score between 1 and 9 for each of three categories, Appearance, Taste, and Tenderness. The scores are tallied from each judge and aggregated to determine the winner. The overall winner of a contest is the team with the best cumulative score of all four categories.

The Iowa BBQ Society averages a team's best four contest scores from each category and overall. The team with the highest four contest category score wins the category, and the teams with the highest four contest overall score wins Team of the year. Of course only contests within the State of Iowa qualify and the team must be a member of the Iowa BBQ Society to be eligible.

This year we were fortunate enough receive the honor of Iowa Team of the Year. In addition, we were Team of the Year in Chicken, and Reserve Team of the Year in Pork and Brisket. For our award we received a signed certificate from the Governor, and monetary award.

In addition to the honor we received for Team of the Year, we were able to catch up with many of our Iowa BBQ friends for the first time in several months. We were also treated to one of the best banquet spreads I have ever had compliments of Iowa Smokey D's/Absolute Flavors Catering. There was an amazing variety of foods to suit everyone's palate. I found myself going back to the table several times to try different things and get more ham balls. Thanks to Shad Kirton, Darren Warth and company for that amazing meal!

It was a fantastic, albeit short, evening. We look forward to seeing everyone there on the BBQ trail this upcoming season!