I’m in Modesto, California this week for The Meet: Blues, Brews and Barbecue. It’s one of the biggest barbecue contests west of the Mississippi held in conjunction with a national caliber track meet. I’m sharing a stage with Ray “Dr. BBQ” Lampe and Brent Walton, one of the best competition BBQ cooks in the country who also lives in this area. We’re teaching a BBQ 101 class in front of 3000 or so people this Saturday, and my segment is about grilled pizzas.

As part of the buildup, we taped a couple of preview spots for Sacramento’s News10 morning show, Sacramento & Co. You can see me on today’s video clip here . Yesterday’s clip with Ray and Brent is here. Part of my mission was to pitch this class and get people interested in coming to learn how to grill a pizza.

How did that pizza look on the grill? Bet you didn’t realize it wasn’t baked. I was asked to have a pizza made before the spot because I only had about 60 seconds for my bit. That’s not enough time to bake pizza live for the camera. If making a cold pizza look delicious weren’t hard enough, we also didn’t have that grill fired up, either. We didn’t want spend all morning firing up the charcoal and waiting for the grill to cool down after the taping. So what to do? I put the flame spreader tip on my propane torch and “baked” the pesto and chicken sausage pizza. How’d I do?

We’re back from a marathon three day barbecue contest at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival. This massive country music event drew more than 120,000 festival attendees over three days, and the barbecue contest was a sideshow meant to fill some of time when the big name bands weren’t playing. We cooked pulled pork, chicken wings, smoked sausage chubs called “fatties,” spam candy. The competitors fed thousands of people , and they in turn voted for their favorite teams.

People’s Choice voting is a relatively new feature for BBQ contests in California that started last fall. I say humbly as a point of fact that my team has won the People’s Choice vote at every contest since.

In keeping with that string of victories, Four Q walked away with two People’s Choice awards for this Saturday’s and Sunday’s contests. With my teammate Neil on the mic talking up the crowd, his stepfather in law Glen and my pal Janette working the crowd, the other teams didn’t stand a chance, no matter how good their food was.

Of the four cooks on our team, Neil is the only one that caters. If you’re in the Long Beach area and want to buy what thousands other people have deemed the best of the best, head on over to Bigmista’s BBQ.

Want to see more photos from the event? Head on over to my Flickr archive.

I head off tomorrow to compete in a BBQ contest at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival. That’s Southern California’s biggest country musicpalooza featuring country music’s megastars. Makes me wish I appreciate country music a little more than I do. My team’s one of forty something competing for $30,000 in prize money.

We’re not in it for the music. We’re gold digging. Wish us luck!

There’s also a People’s Choice award at this contest, where the general public can vote for their favorite team. My team, Four Q BBQ, has a solid track record of winning People’s Choice in past contests that featured them, so we have high expectations of doing well in this category.

Here’s a bizarre little tidbit: The US State Department is sending a video crew to tape my team for a documentary for the america.gov website. Exactly why they picked us is a bit of a mystery, but they’re featuring us as a bunch of regular American folks doing typical American stuff: cooking barbecue, at a contest, drinking beers, country music blasting in the background. Doesn’t get more American than that. More details on this project when they’re available.

Hello from the Fancy Food Show, the trade show for the gourmet foods industry! The annual West coast show has moved from San Francisco to San Diego this year, well within driving range for this So Cal reporter. Here’s a few colorful photos from the first day of the convention.

The alchemists at Sweetfields turn organic flowers into edible candy creations made to adorn wedding cakes, pastries, and even drinks! These are coated with edible 24 karat gold dust. Their bright colors and luminescence are even more vivid in person.

Sweetfields even makes waterproof candied flowers that float in water!

Tsar Nicoulai Caviar produces fine caviar from American farm raised fish. Their sample bowl contains caviar from white sturgeon, salmon, whitefish, and trout. The orange jars of trout caviar in the foreground are designed by Chef Roland Passot. They burst in the mouth with subtle flavors of vanilla bean, kaffir lime, and brandy (from left to right).