The competition BBQ season starts early here in the Southwest.  Lake Havasu City is the site of an Arizona state championship contest, on February 26 & 27, 2010.  The organizers are holding a KCBS judging class on the day prior for those who’d like to learn the finer points of eating and scoring the competitors’ hard work.

Some of you have been watching the BBQ Pitmasters show on TLC, and are dying to cook on the contest circuit.  If you want to score well, it helps to know what target to hit, so I’d highly recommend taking this class. There aren’t that many judging classes held in this region, so take it while it’s reasonably close. I got certified several years ago, and judged a few contests in 2009. Being on the other side of the judge’s tent has helped understand what my competition’s food looks and tastes like.

You’ll be taught the rules, how to score, and the pitfalls to watch for when scoring meat. You’ll also eat a whole lot of barbecue, both good and bad. Now you’ll have a framework to describe what good or bad means. Space is limited, so sign up today!

KCBS Certified Judges Class
KCBS Members $35. / Non-Members $80.
Presented by HAVA BBQ
February 25, 2010
Check-In 5:30 PM / Class Starts 6 PM

Place:
BBQ Bill’s Big Easy Bistro
3557 Maricopa Avenue
Lake Havasu City, AZ. 86406

KCBS Rep’s: Merl Whitebook & Gene Goycochea

Applications @ http://www.havabbq.com

It’s like when two people you know would hit it off finally meet. This week, Pulitzer Prize winning food writer Jonathon Gold happened (finally) upon my BBQ contest teammate Neil Strawder’s BBQ stand at the Atwater’s Farmers Market. It’s only been a year since Neil quit his banking career to run BigMista’s BBQ full time, Mr. Gold. <\eyeroll>.

Neil tells me that J Gold stopped by at 1:30pm, long after almost everything was sold out. He scraped together a few leftover pieces of meat and made an impromptu sampler plate. Not the best way to impress L.A.’s most influential food critic, perhaps, but what can you do?

In this week’s Squid Ink blog on the LA Weekly, Gold said,

If Bigmista could scrounge together a lunch this splendid from scrapings and bin-leavings, I can only marvel at the possibilities afforded by the food he actually means to sell.

Hopefully, my two friends can start spending more time together, and get to know each other better. If anyone can appreciate the wonders of real BBQ, it’s these two. Congratulations, Neil, for the well deserved props.

Champion BBQ pitmaster Chris Lilly of Alabama’s Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q team will be golfing at next week’s Bob Hope Classic celebrity tournament in La Quinta, CA. This year’s Hope Classic lineup includes Snake Plisskin, Agent Dale Cooper, Detective Kevin Bernard, and Subliminal Man, to name just a few. Personally, I hope my friend Chris plays circles around Dr. Phil.

Chris dropped me a note to say,

“It’s great to hear from you and I would love for a bunch of my California friends to drop by and see me!! Yes it is true. I will be playing in the BHC and cooking all week as well.
To pull this off I am bringing my right hand man, Ken Hess, to help with the pits during the week. Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q will have pulled pork sandwiches available all week for the public Wednesday-Sunday during the tournament. I will also be doing a short cooking school on Sunday at about 9:00 or 9:30am at Hope Square…samples available. [ed - Hope Square is located between the Nicklaus Private Course and the Palmer Private Course, directly behind the practice facilities at PGA West]“

For those who can’t make it to the Palm Springs area, you can watch the tournament all week on the Golf Channel. Lilly’s legendary pork shoulder just won’t taste as good on the telly.

January 18- 24, 2010 La Quinta, CA
Bob Hope Classic

According to the OC Register, the delayed opening of gourmet grocer Dean & DeLuca has been cancelled permanently.

Nice timing on the annoucement, food Grinches. May Santa leave reindeer turds in your stockings.