Barbeque Cookoff
Third Annual Shanghai Barbecue Cook-off Rules and Registration
Saturday, May 11th (rain date Saturday, May 18) 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
1. Registration is free for teams entering the cook-off so that you can focus your resources on procuring meats, spices, booth decorations, etc
2. If you don’t have equipment, don’t worry as Sunline Grills is sponsoring an open cooking station, where you can cook on grills/smokers provided by Sunline
3. Each team can have up to four free passes for team members, additional crew will need to pay the gate entry fee of 100 rmb
4. Teams can enter the grounds as early as Friday evening or on Saturday morning; prepping, cooking, etc., can start at anytime on the day or the days before the event
5. Our longtime sponsor, Crown Relocations, will once again play an important role in managing the logistics to get team grill equipment to the site and back; a logistics request form will be sent to respective registered team captains
6. Charcoal, wood, or gas, or combination, is permitted
7. Crown will not move gas canisters so teams will be responsible for getting this to the site on the day of the event; we also will have a “gas guy” on hand with canisters for rent
8. Competition categories and turn-in times: Sausage (11 a.m.); Chicken (Noon), Pork Rib (1 p.m.); Beef (2:00); Chopped/Pulled Meats (3:00 p.m.); Mystery Meat (3:45 p.m.)
9. Teams can enter as many categories as they like
10. Awards will be given to the top three in each category, plus a Grandmaster’s Award will be given to the team that scores the most points over any FOUR categories…taking any given team’s highest four scores
11. Best in Show award will be given to the team with the best theme/decorations
12. At turn in, teams must put six distinguishable small portions into the official turn in container for the six judges; a head cook/captains meeting will take place on site on the morning of the event
13. Sauce may be applied directly to the sample, but not puddle in the container
14. Toothpicks, foil, skewers and other foreign materials will not be allowed in the containers
15. Teams are responsible for bringing their own utensils and support items, such as bowls, coolers, towels, brushes, etc
16. If you wish to bring some refreshments, please feel free to do so but in quantities for team consumption only; if it is deemed the team has brought in excess then it will be confiscated and given back after the event; we will be selling beverages at discounted prices to help cover costs of the event so we appreciate your support in this area
17. Please cook in quantities you are comfortable with for feeding close friends, other team members, and some of the general public; the main focus should be on the competition
18. Teams are not allowed to sale product on the day
19. It is up to each team to maintain hygiene and a clean work area, and keep meats at 140 F or above after it has been cooked
20. If inclement weather looks probably, we will call the event off with five days notice to teams and the public
Directions
Barbeque Cookoff Results
2013: Results of the Third Annual Shanghai Barbecue Cook-off:
Best Sausage: Boozerz, Bubba's, Riggin's Ribs
Best Chicken: Dylan Smith, Boozerz, ICONX Meat Heads
Best Ribs: McDuffy's, Riggin's Ribs, Yasmine's Steakhouse
Best Beef: Riggin's Ribs, Dylan Smith, Tock's Deli
Best Pulled Pork: Mexico Lindo, Riggin's Ribs, Jalapeño Dave Dehlman
Best Mystery Meat: Riggin's Ribs, KY Bob, Boozerz
Best In Show: Shanghai Lacrosse
Overall Grand Masters: Riggin's Ribs, Boozerz, Bubba's, McDuffy's, Mexico Lindo
_________________________________________________________
2012:
Cooks and Chefs,
From the feedback I got from the 12 judges that were tasting the entries, everyone did a fabulous job. This is reflected in the overall high scores and close competitions in each meat category. Great job everyone. Last year's winning score was 119.1430. That would have been good enough for 7th place this year! Last year's second place team (Tex-Pats) improved their overall score by 6.5 points (without submitting a sausage) and ended up 7th. Based on that, I think everyone should be very proud of the entries that they submitted. See the attached for full scoring (summary below).
Because I was curious (and because some teams asked last year), I asked the judges after the competition what they thought were the strengths of the entries that they scored high and what were the weaknesses of the ones rated low. Here are some "tips" that you might use in the future:
Sausage:
More than one judge that it was strange when teams would "sauce their sausage". Thus, I would recommend focusing on presenting a sausage that can be submitted on its own without sauce.
Chicken:
Judges were very impressed with the chicken submissions. The biggest pitfall was when teams tried to do too much. Well seasoned chicken, cooked just right, served with the skin seemed to win the judges over. Over saucing was also an issue. This is a meat competition, not a sauce competition! Don't drowned your meat!
Ribs:
Judges expected to see 6 actual ribs that they could pick up. Teams that didn't do that were penalized heavily. I would recommend pork ribs in the future. If I recall correctly, they took the top 5-6 spots. Sauce was also an issue here for a few entries. Don't drowned your meat!
Beef:
This is by far the toughest to judge. How can one compare perfectly cooked brisket, an excellent beef short-rib, filet mignon and all of the other entries that were submitted? The judges loved the entries, but had a hard time scoring given the variety. I am not sure I can offer much advice here.
Pulled Meats:
If you didn't do a pulled pork, then you were probably at a disadvantage. If your meat was swimming in sauce, then you probably got low scores as well. I think the top 4 all smoked a pork entry. I think that is the key to performing well in this category.
Here are some intersting observations:
- The Shed (32.0000) actually had a higher average score than the winner, Zapatas (31.9534). What would have happened if they submitted more entries?
- Boozer's BBQ (32.2667 average) and Zapatas (32.5334) were neck and neck going into the pulled meat category. Except, Zapatas got to drop their low score, and Boozers had to take all 4 of their entries. What would have happened if Boozers BBQ submitted 5 entries?
- Except for the sausage category, the winner this year scored higher than the winner last year.
The average score for each category was as follows (perfect score is 36):
- Sausage = 28.7
- Chicken = 30.1
- Ribs = 29.3
- Beef = 29.8
- Pulled Meats = 28.7
Here were the top 3 in each category:
Sausage:
| Bubbas All Stars | 30.9715 |
| Boozers BBQ | 29.6000 |
| 3 Meats & a Lady | 29.4858 |
Chicken:
| Boozers BBQ | 34.5143 |
| Zapatas Suzhou | 32.0572 |
| Bubbas All Stars | 32.0571 |
Rib:
| Pistolera | 34.8572 |
| Jim Sailor | 34.3429 |
| Mexicolindo David | 34.1143 |
Beef:
| Kent | 33.8857 |
| The Shed | 33.6572 |
| Boozers BBQ | 32.6858 |
Pulled Meats:
| Zapatas Suzhou | 33.4286 |
| Mexicolindo David | 32.3428 |
| TexPats | 31.4857 |
Overall Top 10:
| Zapatas Suzhou | 131.0287 |
| Bubbas All Stars | 125.4287 |
| Mexicolindo David | 124.1713 |
| Jim Sailor | 122.4 |
| Boozers BBQ | 122.34302 |
| Pistolera | 119.48574 |
| TexPats | 119.08556 |
| Bada Bing | 118.74272 |
| Hacienda | 114.34266 |
Attached you will find the official scoring for the event. The spreadsheet works like this:
Submission Sheet Tab = This is where your entries were assigned random numbers to be presented to the judges
Sausage Judging through Pull Meat Judings Tabs = This is where the indivdual scores by judge were recorded.
Sausage Scoring through Pulled Meat Scoring Tabs = These are the indivdual tabs that calculated the winners of each category
Grand Champion Tab = This is the tab that was used to determine the Grand Champion by taking the 4 best scores from each team.
Hopefully everyone had a good time. Hopefully everyone was convinced that the judging was fair as well. I really wish I was on the other side of the smoker and submitting entries instead of reminding people to turn their in.
Good luck in 2013!
Jeff Lang - Head Judge
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Final 2012 Score Sheet | 70.55 KB |