Pitmasters

Buster Dog BBQ

Anyone watching tonight? Johnny gave some great tips.

Hoss

I missed it.Watchin BAMATV!

Avocados

And the grand champion is.....

Buster Dog BBQ

Plowboys BBQ in the invitational and Boondoggle in the open.

Hoss

COOL! CONGRATS to em all! That stuff is a LOTTA work!

crghc98

Saw a nice big dizzy pig sign under a BGE tent

Buster Dog BBQ

How'd you guys do in your contest?

Hoss

Well,2 backed out and the 3rd one got drunk.NOT GOOD! Lookin for a few good cooks! :blink:

WessB

A great show in my opinion..

Avocados

Looked like Chris's trailer and tent but the camera didn't linger long enough to see him under there.

Buster Dog BBQ

I thought tonight's episode was the best yet. Lots of great presentation photos and other nice tips along the way.

Buster Dog BBQ

He was directly across from Tuffy.

WessB

I believe the producers are changing the perceived outlook of the show...either pre-planned or shooting from the hip..the show is becoming more likeable to those who didn't like it initially..I always enjoyed it knowing better than face value..

Angela

Thanks for posting that, maybe I will give it a second chance. I hated it the first time I saw it. So did my husband.

WessB

It's been stated by many in the competition circuit...the "TV" producers pick through the footage to turn it into what they think is good TV..not what BBQ people would consider BBQ reality..

Angela

Yep, which is why I'm not a big fan of reality tv in general. Although I have enjoyed other Food Network bbq competition shows before. This one, it was like they purposely wanted to make people look like egomaniacs. Regardless if it's accurate, it wasn't entertaining to us.

If they changed it though, I'd be willing to at least give it a second look.

WessB

In my limited personal meetings with Myron..he really is a good guy and not what they make him out to be..take it with a grain of salt until you have "personal" experience to base it on...

Clam

I also found the first show and some characters in it to be off putting- never watched it again. I would give it another try if it has changed.

I also don't feel like I missed anything.

Nature Boy

Nice little fringe benefit! Got a little TLC love.
Need to watch again and see if you can see our BGEs.
Cheers!
Chris

Crimsongator

I saw your trailer w/ bge's in the background. I also saw bge's in the foreground (not sure who). I also saw Ken several times with the BBG team.

Boilermaker Ben

I watched last night's shows (a rerun of an earlier episode, and then the new one). Previously, I hadn't seen it, but I had read here on the forum people's complaints about Myron and others' defense of him. One thing I noticed last night is that whenever he's being arrogant and offensive, it's when he's sitting in front of the camera talking. When they show him actually AT the competition, talking with other teams, or just talking to the camera, he seems like a different person.

It's pretty clear that either he's putting on an act for the camera, or he's being coached. I hate how reality shows interview someone one-on-one before or after an event, looking for sound-bytes and then edit them in to make it look like someone is commenting on something that just happened in real time. Reality TV sucks. But despite the editor shennanigans, the real time, at-the-event stuff was interesting.

Boilermaker Ben

I didn't notice your eggs, but at one point, I saw someone's in the background when they were interviewing Trigg. And in the previous re-run earlier in the evening, I thought I saw a pile of bags of BGE lump next to someone's trailer.

My wife was laughing at me when I kept pointing them out. "Hey, I buy my spices from that guy!" "There's an egg over Trigg's left shoulder."

One thing that made me happy was her interested "hmmm..." when the judges commented that rib meat is not SUPPOSED to fall off the bone. My last batch (unfoiled) was darned near perfect, in my untrained opinion, but I could tell she thought it wasn't as good as previous (foiled) batches that were mushier.

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

i haven't been able to see the show. i did see some clips on their web site, one about the infamous stolen idea for using muffin tins to cook the chicken.

aside from the whole "myron as bad guy" storyline, found myself instead fixated on the "why in hell would anyone use a muffin tin?" concept. haha

now, i know that comps are a totally different thing than when you cook in your own back yard, but it has always struck me that the competitions seem so far from what they probably started out as ("i can cook better than you") that they are close to becoming a cartoon.

remember, i have never cooked at one or even been to one, so i know nuthin. and i certainly can see the appeal of hanging out and cooking with your buddies. i'm trying to preface this so know one sees it as bashing. i am really asking "what is it that keeps these going? i am interested in what others find interesting". like walking into a room of taxidermy. i ain't gonna start learning taxidermy and competing, but i find it always good to talk to someone about what they find interesting. passionate folks are always interesting, no matter their passion.

i just am trying to find out why folks are passionate about cooking in competitions. they never show that.

i have always noted a weird disconnect in some stories about competitions when folks have talked about it here.

like myron making prissy perfect chicken by forming it in a muffin tin. forget that he's mad the guy "stole" his idea. that's not the story. the story is: why would he do that in the first place? i know they judge on appearance, and you want things "perfect" and to look the same piece to piece. but really? a muffin tin?

i have read posts where some new guy is taken to school about arranging the green lettuce stuff. ok. i can understand makin it look nice, but at some point it seems the food is a minor part in the whole thing. i can honestly imagine two guys in bl;ack shirts, cowboy hats, and giant trucks and arms getting into a fight in the parking lot because one dude tried to add parsley and "DAMN THAT'S JUST NOT COOL, MAN!"

i'm pretty sure the idea is to have a neutral background (garnish) on which the food sits, so the judges judge only the food. the problem is, suddenly the garnish gains actual importance by overly specifying the manner in which it shouldn't be important

it has been stated many times that "you cook for the judges, not what you'd cook for yourself or to serve other", or something similar. for example, that judges tend to like (or don't like?) sweet sauce, so you should use sweet sauce. is that true? are there guys who win giant trophies who really don't cook what THEY like, but that cook what wins? that's not really what happens is it?

i know it sounds like a rant. no, i'm really seriously just asking, as a skinny yankee on the outside, admitting he has no experience in it, why would such great pains be taken to produce stuff that seems to be getting further and further away from "reality"?

you know how they have dog shows, and that every dog is nothing more than a weird genetic aberration that has been taken to an extreme? they judge the dogs testicles for symmetry, whether the tongue hangs straight, all that sort of stuff that really doesn't enter it to it when you say i like dogs, man, i think i'll get a dog". hahaha

all i could think of when i saw myron cooking in a muffin tin was "yeah, they all look round and equal and 'perfect' by some definition... but step back and ask what the frigging point is?" if i showed up at a family cookout and said "well, i wanted these to all look perfect so i cooked them in a muffin tin, and if i see anyone else cooking in a muffin tin and making THEIR chicken round (round? really? round chicken?) i will be awful upset". they say bobby flay is "particular"....

it's like selective breeding of added rules and techniques and judging criteria every year has gradually steered the thing from "cooking ribs that i think are better than yours" to "let's all cook ribs and try to make the trained judges (who we will later complain about) pick our food as the winner based on criteria that don't normally enter into it when we actually cook and eat this ourselves"

"I would have won grand champion, but my garnish got DQ'd"

that's the part i find fascinating.

i know i'll get bashed for it. but i'm not saying it's a bad thing to enter the comps. i'm just saying some of itis confusing to me. i can't be the only one thinking, "forget myron (or is it byron?!?!) being mad about the dude swiping the muffin tin idea. i don't get why myron is admired for thinking of cooking chicken in a muffin tin and arranging and garnishing it just 'so' "

let me say, too, i'm only commenting on the "weird" stuff that sticks out. i know there are guys that chug along and compete and just do their thing (Hello Dizzy Pig) and still win big.

so the question is, from a nerdy skinny yankee, are the comps more like the foolishness they show, with quibbling and bickering and otherwise macho tuff guys throwing hissy fits about garnish? or are they more like nature boy hanging out cooking some ribs he's proud of and hoping some other folks like them and if not, so be it? (that's conjecture too, NB might be uptight but i don' think so).

this is meant in earnest. not bashing. i'm just asking if what we "see" is what it really "is". because sometimes they make these people look foolish. it all can't be that foolish.

Car Wash Mike

I am getting a team together, what to help. LOL It is more like NB, at the least the ones I have been to.

Mike

Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker

man. i have seen arguments on this forum, and seen a little in other forums. i can;t imagine what it must be like in the fer-real competition forums.

hahaha

the thing that sticks out for me was the back and forth on here once about garnish and parsley. and two guys who otherwise seemed cool and manly and tough and all were bickering about how if you used parsley it was an unfair advantage and man, you just don't pull that kinda stuff on a friend.
hahahaha

WokOnMedium

I have that same issue at my house. I try to apply what I've learned and my family tells me,"These are good, but not as good as your last ones."

Well heck, I guess I gotta play to the audience I got! If they want fall off the bone, that's what they'll get. Eventhough I know they heard that statement last night...but didn't acknowledge it.

WessB

To much there to reply to at once...I also have never cooked competitions....but I have been told by more than one that does...it is not the way I would cook it in my backyard for family or friends...and YES they do make a big deal out of the garnish...I'm talking to the extent of proper alignment of the parsley....I would have to agree with the statement of why be proud of it if aint the way you would want to eat it...course then again...$10K could make a lot of people do things differently...It really is more about beating others that are considered "greats" in competition cooking....

Boilermaker Ben

Yeah, play to the audience, but only to a certain extent.

I refuse to try to make fried chicken nuggets more like McDonalds simply because my niece only eats McD's chicken nuggets...after all, there's right, there's wrong, and then there are crimes against humanity.

fishlessman

you might cook differenty if they are basing it on just a taste where as in your back yard they are actually eating a pile of it, just speculation. have enough coffee today :laugh:

mad max beyond eggdome

jeff,

what these shows are really fixated on is the competition part of things. ...what they aren't showing is the comraderie that exists at the comps .. .like last night they were really trying to make out this big rivalry between myron and chris lilly. .. yeah, sure they like to one up each other, but at the end of the day, the two of them are really best friends!! only 95% of american doesn't know that ....and tuffy is the biggest 'softy' on the circuit ...he goes around and wishes everyone 'good luck' before first turn in at every comp. ...

i think bbq competitors can basically fall into 3 basic groups. ..

1. the restaurant/caterer grouping . ..these guys compete basically to advertise their businesses. . ..the more trophies you have, the better to advertise/build your business. ...lets face it, there are tons of bbq restaurant businesses out there . . .for those who don't have a clue but are looking for a place to go eat, when you are driving down the street and see "joe's" bbq and they are advertising 'XXX championships won'. .those folks are thinking "hey, must be pretty good, lets eat there, or lets use that caterer for our next party" ..

2. then there are the folks that make some product to sell, like nature boy and the dizzy pig rubs, and again, competing is a way to enhance and sell his products ....and the ability to say "hey, my products win championships, so they must be god" is again a way to help his business ...

3. then there are simply the backyard guys that want to go out and have some fun and maybe win some money ....i certainly fall into that category. ...we got into this on a lark, and its been a lot of fun, and yes, you can be a little guy, and still go up against the myron mixons of the world and on any given saturday, beat them in a category, or even for a grand championship. ...and thats the real fun of it ....hell, as free range bbq, the six or seven of us that have made up the team have a basement full of trophies and we've gone up against all those guys you see on tv. . .even sydney and i, on our own have taken a first in brisket and a second in ribs so its not rocket science, its just the ability to cook up good food and leave the rest up to the judges ...


and for all his pompousness, myron will sit there on a friday night and share a beer with you and have a good time. . .hanging out with a bunch of these folks on a friday night after the meats are prepped and before they go on the cookers is about as good as it gets ....thats what i'm really there for....the rest is all just icing on the cake ...

Jeffersonian

If you look at it from the point of view of cooking for yourself or for a passel of buddies in the back yard, that makes sense. But I think the KCBS looks at their competitions as ones where entrants cook to more of a restaurant standard, where presentation is just as important as taste and texture.

I'm not a KCBS judge, so I don't know if they weight presentation equally with other parameters...does anyone out there know for sure?