Steak out: in the world of competitive barbecuing, gathering around the grill isn’t just a weekend pastime, it’s a way of life×and cooking up the perfect steak is the ultimate prize
Men’s Fitness, April, 2007 by Matt Trainor
IT’S A COLD, GRAY, RAINY THURSDAY WHEN I ARRIVE at the Jack Daniel’s Whiskey Distillery in Lynchburg, Tenn. It’s the kind of night that screams out for a fireside and a warming shot of brown liquor. And, just as I begin considering where I can get my first swig, I catch a whiff of the smoke trail I’ve been following for miles. It isn’t just any fire, either, but the powerful scent of some 50 charcoal burners and wood smokers being coaxed to life by people who know how to use them better than anyone else on earth. Over the hill, behind the visitors’ center that has just supplied me with a fresh bottle of Jack, the early arrivals for the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue have begun staking their claims and stoking their pits.
I follow my nose over to the gathering area. By the time I arrive, the rain is falling steadily again and the straw-strewn fields are beginning their weekend-long descent into a state that can only be described as “Woodstock muddy.” Only, in this crowd, the longest hair is sprouting from chins, not heads. Big, bearded men in camo are trudging through the muck with all manner of drinking receptacles in their hands, from plastic cups to glass steins to personalized, keg-shaped mugs. Meanwhile, ATVs and souped-up golf carts are rutting up the grassy fields and pebble roadways as overly official looking men in Jack T-shirts and hats try their hardest to organize the pandemonium.
A stream of enormous motor homes is lined up at the entrance to the mud pit, their drivers fighting for space among the dozens of groups that have already found their weekend homesteads. Full bars, complete with wooden counters and stools, are being spread under tents, crisscrossing the zone between one 40-foot mobile unit and the next, each blasting the other with sound and light from the 50-inch plasma-screen TVs hitched to the sides of these mansions on wheels.
The men setting up shop are just about to prepare their Thursday-night dinner and tie one on with their brethren from the barbecue circuit, a unique society of diehard enthusiasts dedicated to good times, great barbecue, and the thrill of the win. Although the teams may not look any different from you and some buddies hanging out on a Saturday afternoon, each group at this powerhouse tournament has tasted that savory-sweet flavor of triumph before. After all, this is the almighty “Jack”–one of the most prestigious events in all of barbecuing–and only champions are invited to participate. To cook on these grounds, you need to have a major cook-off victory under your belt. Without that on your resume, you’re SOL, ’cause this show is for the big boys. And the big boys play the game, rain or shine.
“You would think that a barbecue cook-off would be pretty casual and low-key” says Robert McWright, who’s been competing in cook-offs for almost 20 years. “But these contests bring out some of the most intellectually sharp people I’ve ever known. They’re former CEOs, vice presidents of companies, guys who started their own businesses.”
It makes sense, then, that to have made it this far is an honor these teams don’t take lightly. Of the thousands of barbecue competitions held each year across the United States (barbecue cook-offs are among the fastest-growing competitive sports in the country), only a scant 200 of them carry the endorsement of the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS), the largest and most well-regarded organization in the world. Founded just 10 years ago, the KCBS, a governing body behind the “Jack,” has, in that time, standardized the rules, certified and trained judges to dish out the awards, and found a home for a formerly loose band of grill nuts. “People from all walks of life participate in our cook-offs” says Carolyn Wells, co-founder and executive director of the KCBS. “We have groups of guys, families, multigeneration teams, even kids. Some people enter one cook-off as a lark, and others travel all over the country to participate in as many events as possible.” By pulling together the best of the barbecue world, the KCBS has assembled an umbrella organization for some of the most passionate, quirky, and dedicated competitors on the face of the earth.
And from under that umbrella each year emerge the top 50 teams from around the U.S. and a dozen others from nations around the world, all of whom are deemed worthy of a coveted invitation to this small corner of Tennessee. These are the cream of the cook-off crop: teams that have competed in and won not just any KCBS-sponsored event, but the largest competitions