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Barbecue is serious business. Just ask Dave and Peg Rogers.
Representatives of the Kansas City Barbecue Society, they are overseeing the Smokin’ Hot BBQ and Fireworks state championship event to ensure that KCBS rules and regulations are scrupulously followed.
Money is one factor. Mrs. Rogers said that teams usually spend at least $200 to participate in a contest, including entry fees and the cost of purchasing meat for the competition. Each cook must prepare chicken, ribs, pork and brisket, and has to supply his or her own meat.
Those who win contests can get back those expenses, and maybe a lot more.
“I understand that the total prize package for this contest is $4,000, with a $1,000 grand champion prize, $500 reserve prize, $400 People’s Choice award and category prizes,” Rogers said. “Some contests have prizes up to $10,000, and some of those associated with NASCAR have up to $100,000 in prizes. KCSB has now teamed up with Sam’s, so I expect we’ll be seeing more big money contests.”
“Cooks also earn points at contests, leading up to Team of the Year and getting invited to participate in the bigger contests,” Mrs. Rogers added.
The couple, who reside in the Kansas City area, do have other things in their lives besides barbecue.
She is an insurance adjuster, and he has been a product engineer. They have grown children, and enjoy water gardening.
“But just about every weekend from March to October, we’re either serving as reps, helping other people run contests or so on,” Mrs. Rogers said. “We’ll be doing 11 contests this season, and are heading for one in Yates Center next week.”
They started off as contest judges.
“We were judges forever, at least 20 years or so,” she said. “We went through one of the first certified judging courses. Then we did the master’s program, which means we had to judge 30 contests in five years, take a test and cook with a team.”
Then they decided they wanted to be KCBS representatives.
“That was basically on-the-job training,” Mrs. Rogers said. “We had to shadow reps at contests four or five times and take a test.”
Representatives help organize contests, and the couple worked closely with Christy Vulgamore, Celebrate Girard! Committee chairman, in helping to set up this event.
As cooking teams arrived Friday, they visited with each individually, then conducted a meeting for them.
“We’ve got a CD we play at the meeting, but we’re also happy to take it around and let the cooks listen to it,” Rogers said. “We don’t want any problems where people could get disqualified because they didn’t know the rules.”
Those rules cover everything from strict standards of hygiene in food handling to not playing their radios or CD players too loud during quiet times.
Also, fires must be of wood, wood pellets or charcoal, but gas and electric heat sources will not be permitted for cooking or holding.
Some cooks seek advice about how to make a good impression on judges.
Barbecue is serious business. Just ask Dave and Peg Rogers.
Representatives of the Kansas City Barbecue Society, they are overseeing the Smokin’ Hot BBQ and Fireworks state championship event to ensure that KCBS rules and regulations are scrupulously followed.
Money is one factor. Mrs. Rogers said that teams usually spend at least $200 to participate in a contest, including entry fees and the cost of purchasing meat for the competition. Each cook must prepare chicken, ribs, pork and brisket, and has to supply his or her own meat.
Those who win contests can get back those expenses, and maybe a lot more.
“I understand that the total prize package for this contest is $4,000, with a $1,000 grand champion prize, $500 reserve prize, $400 People’s Choice award and category prizes,” Rogers said. “Some contests have prizes up to $10,000, and some of those associated with NASCAR have up to $100,000 in prizes. KCSB has now teamed up with Sam’s, so I expect we’ll be seeing more big money contests.”
“Cooks also earn points at contests, leading up to Team of the Year and getting invited to participate in the bigger contests,” Mrs. Rogers added.
The couple, who reside in the Kansas City area, do have other things in their lives besides barbecue.
She is an insurance adjuster, and he has been a product engineer. They have grown children, and enjoy water gardening.
“But just about every weekend from March to October, we’re either serving as reps, helping other people run contests or so on,” Mrs. Rogers said. “We’ll be doing 11 contests this season, and are heading for one in Yates Center next week.”
They started off as contest judges.
“We were judges forever, at least 20 years or so,” she said. “We went through one of the first certified judging courses. Then we did the master’s program, which means we had to judge 30 contests in five years, take a test and cook with a team.”
Then they decided they wanted to be KCBS representatives.
“That was basically on-the-job training,” Mrs. Rogers said. “We had to shadow reps at contests four or five times and take a test.”
Representatives help organize contests, and the couple worked closely with Christy Vulgamore, Celebrate Girard! Committee chairman, in helping to set up this event.
As cooking teams arrived Friday, they visited with each individually, then conducted a meeting for them.
“We’ve got a CD we play at the meeting, but we’re also happy to take it around and let the cooks listen to it,” Rogers said. “We don’t want any problems where people could get disqualified because they didn’t know the rules.”
Those rules cover everything from strict standards of hygiene in food handling to not playing their radios or CD players too loud during quiet times.
Also, fires must be of wood, wood pellets or charcoal, but gas and electric heat sources will not be permitted for cooking or holding.
Some cooks seek advice about how to make a good impression on judges.
“We can’t cook for them,” Mrs. Rogers said.
Judges do have their individual preferences, and there’s no way of knowing what they are. But her husband did share some tips.
“I can’t tell you not to cook hot and spicy,” Rogers told one cook. “I can say that, when you’re cooking for competition, it’s probably best to do it right down the middle, not real hot, not really sweet.”
One of the hardest things to handle, he said, is timing. “Different meats cook at different rates, and the cook has to figure out how to have the right meat ready to turn in at the right time,” Rogers said.
On Friday he and his wife passed out plastic foam boxes to hold the sample meats for the judges.
“We number the boxes, but then, before they’re given to the judges, we go behind the wall and stick on a conversion label with a number that we’ve assigned to the cooks,” Rogers said.
“This is part of our double-blind judging process.”
The judges’ ratings will be put into a computer and the winners determined. They will be announced at 3:30 p.m. The People’s Choice contest, which is not being conducted by KCSB, will begin at 4 p.m. with the winner announced at 7 p.m.
There are 33 cook teams entered in the Girard contest. “All they had to have entered for the first event was 15, so this is a pretty good turn-out,” Rogers said.
Some of them, his wife said, are experienced teams who are in the running for Team of the Year. “But we’ve also got four new teams here,” she added.
Rules don’t prohibit friendship and a spirit of helpfulness, especially toward newcomers who are just finding their way. That’s an important part of the experience.
“You get to know people when you do this,” Mrs. Rogers said. “We refer to this as the family of barbecue.”
