Georgia Mountain Eggfest 2016

egret · May 2016

The 6th annual Georgia Mountain Eggfest (https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaMountainEggfest/) is in the books. What a fantastic event this was! The dealer sold over 100 eggs and we had about 2500 tasters making their appearance to sample all the fantastic dishes you all created. You cooks/chefs that come to the fest are the real heros, the real stars of the show. I can’t thank all of you nearly enough for your great sacrifice and contribution that was instrumental in making this eggfest so successful. A special thanks to the North Georgia Eggers who command the big “tent” in the center of the fest, and who pump out the food in such great quantities. They, also, are the ones who do that massive cook on the morning of the Meet & Greet. This year they turbo-cooked 20 pork butts and 2 whole packers. All of this was long gone before the eggfest ended. They also cooked on fest day, among other things, 12 whole pork loins and 80 pounds of chicken wings that were donated by Milton, PFG. What can I say about J. Barrett Carter and his fantastic crew of cooks/chefs and sous chefs who are in Booth # ! and are on the main firing line when the tasters arrive. The amount of food they prep and cook is obscene. They cooked 14 Boston butts, 40 pounds of chicken wings, scallops, ABT’s, a ton of crawfish, and live main lobsters, the largest of which was 6.5 pounds! They cooked a lot more than this, but, I don’t have the entire recipe list. One other special thanks go out to Pete Benac, who comes every year and brings his 2 large eggs that he uses at the eggfest and then, brings them to the after-party for our use.
Linkie Marais added a lot to the fest as well with her charm, knowledge and sparkling personality.
Thank you from the heart Kim Youngblood,Ginny Wangen Youngblood, Jim Legros, Kay Legros, Beth Williams Mellendorf, Todd Mellendorf, Bogdan Teodorescu, Vicki Knies and Bart, Paul Massey, Pat McDonough, TomandKaren Chamberlain, Jim Anderson, Lynn Joseph,Gene Skillin, Tania Skillin, J. Barrett Carter, Trip McAlhany, Marlene McAlhany, Daniel McAlhaney, Ty Deal, Kurt Halls, Kimberly Carter, Carrie Sagel Burns, Steven Burns, Meghan Hill, Danny Gaines, Heather Satterfield Gaines, Trivia Steve, and Kristi Dabney Ormesher. I'm sure I left some others off the list.........unintentional for certain!
What a show you guys and gals put on this year! Unsurpassed, unparalled, and unbelievable!!
See you next year on May 19th and 20th.........same place, same time...........

bgebrent · May 2016

John, what a great job you did this year, and according to others, best year ever! Glad you're up for it again next year for sure. Truly enjoyed meeting you!
If you can, take a look at this forum thread. Maybe you can help the folks at HH understand. I'll cook again next year if they show up. With my brother @piney.

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1194930/well-my-bge-adventure-is-off-to-a-terrible-start#latest

egret · May 2016

bgebrent said:

John, what a great job you did this year, and according to others, best year ever! Glad you're up for it again next year for sure. Truly enjoyed meeting you!
If you can, take a look at this forum thread. Maybe you can help the folks at HH understand. I'll cook again next year if they show up. With my brother @piney.

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1194930/well-my-bge-adventure-is-off-to-a-terrible-start#latest

Thanks for pointing that out to me. I missed that thread. I'm on it!!

bgebrent · May 2016

egret said:

bgebrent said:

John, what a great job you did this year, and according to others, best year ever! Glad you're up for it again next year for sure. Truly enjoyed meeting you!
If you can, take a look at this forum thread. Maybe you can help the folks at HH understand. I'll cook again next year if they show up. With my brother @piney.

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1194930/well-my-bge-adventure-is-off-to-a-terrible-start#latest

Thanks for pointing that out to me. I missed that thread. I'm on it!!

Thank you sir for the assist!

corb69 · May 2016

Will there be a recipe book published from this eggfest?

NPHuskerFL · May 2016

Quite literally a Star Studded SPECTACULAR Event (AGAIN) & at an Awesome venue. Thanks John.

Holepuncher · May 2016

John, a big thanks to you. By the way , How did you manage that weather?

SmokinTiger81 · May 2016

As always, a special thanks to you John for putting on the "best of the fests", for cooks and tasters. Greg

Lit · May 2016

As great as the fest is I do want to say how disappointed I was in the cooks swag bag. Not only did I spend $150 myself as well as the person I cooked with spending the same I paid $20 for my wife and I to be cooks and we don't even get a 2016 eggfest shirt. My swag bag had a 2014 art festival shirt and of the 6 people we cooked with only 2 had eggfest shirts and they were from previous years. It's a great fest and it's fun to cook at but they sold $50k in tickets and made us pay to cook atleast spend the $10 we pay on a shirt. Pretty sure this was my last time cooking here.

SmokinTiger81 · May 2016

Lit, sorry to hear that--I sort of just view it in comparison to Atlanta--I can cook in Atlanta for free and get a t shirt, but the meet and greet is expensive for so-so food, the parking lot cook space is small and hot, and the crowds aren't as friendly. Or I can go to beautiful georgia mountains, pay the $10 for the meet and greet and beers/soft drinks on Saturday, have a nice cooks space, great crowd, and a chance in cooks drawing for one of 5 mini-maxs and some other prizes (and in past there were more cooks prizes, but I know John asked but did not get as many donated prizes this year). Sure, it would be nice if they threw in an event t shirt for cooks, but that is just not a deal breaker for me in the overall scheme of things.

Lit · May 2016

SmokinTiger81 said:

Lit, sorry to hear that--I sort of just view it in comparison to Atlanta--I can cook in Atlanta for free and get a t shirt, but the meet and greet is expensive for so-so food, the parking lot cook space is small and hot, and the crowds aren't as friendly. Or I can go to beautiful georgia mountains, pay the $10 for the meet and greet and beers/soft drinks on Saturday, have a nice cooks space, great crowd, and a chance in cooks drawing for one of 5 mini-maxs and some other prizes (and in past there were more cooks prizes, but I know John asked but did not get as many donated prizes this year). Sure, it would be nice if they threw in an event t shirt for cooks, but that is just not a deal breaker for me in the overall scheme of things.

That's another thing what you mentioned above. The prizes were cut I half this year. Just kinda wondering where that $50k in tickets goes. I would have been happier if they just didn't do the swag bag why give people a xxxl 2014 arts festival t shirt? I have rags at home. Like I said above the fest is great but i think they need to take care of the cooks that make the fest possible. Eggtoberfest isn't just the shirts you get dizzy pig rubs and I got a cast iron egg bottle opener and all sorts of cool crap and it's free to cook there.

Jupiter Jim · May 2016

Lit said:

As great as the fest is I do want to say how disappointed I was in the cooks swag bag. Not only did I spend $150 myself as well as the person I cooked with spending the same I paid $20 for my wife and I to be cooks and we don't even get a 2016 eggfest shirt. My swag bag had a 2014 art festival shirt and of the 6 people we cooked with only 2 had eggfest shirts and they were from previous years. It's a great fest and it's fun to cook at but they sold $50k in tickets and made us pay to cook atleast spend the $10 we pay on a shirt. Pretty sure this was my last time cooking here.

I agree the swag bag was not much this year, but cooking at any fest cost the cooks money. If you are cooking at any fest for the swag bag well yes ya need to stay home and save the cost of cooking at any fest. The wife and I cook at fest because we just love the ability to show off what we think are some good eats that we cook, hanging out with wonderful friends old and new that share our passion of the Big Green Egg, learning from other great cooks, eating some awesome food, possibly winning a new Egg and we have won a Mini and Mini Max in the last 9 years of cooking at fest. We have attended the all 6 of the GA fest and will be there next year cooking for sure and if they don't have a swag bag we are ok with that too and will be happy with what ever might be in the bag. For the wife and I it's entertainment and all entertainment cost money, this is our entertainment, for us it's worth the money time and energy we put into it. We have been asked many time at fest by tasters if we get paid to cook! our standard answer is no we don't get paid, in fact we bought the food we are cooking and giving away, paid for a hotel room, gas for the car to get to the fest and will be very tired at the end of the day when it's all over. Yes we get some strange looks too. I'm sorry you feel the way you do and also hope you come back next year as I'm sure the tasters were happy that you came and shared your egged food with them.

Jupiter Jim · May 2016

egret said:

The 6th annual Georgia Mountain Eggfest (https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaMountainEggfest/) is in the books. What a fantastic event this was! The dealer sold over 100 eggs and we had about 2500 tasters making their appearance to sample all the fantastic dishes you all created. You cooks/chefs that come to the fest are the real heros, the real stars of the show. I can’t thank all of you nearly enough for your great sacrifice and contribution that was instrumental in making this eggfest so successful. A special thanks to the North Georgia Eggers who command the big “tent” in the center of the fest, and who pump out the food in such great quantities. They, also, are the ones who do that massive cook on the morning of the Meet & Greet. This year they turbo-cooked 20 pork butts and 2 whole packers. All of this was long gone before the eggfest ended. They also cooked on fest day, among other things, 12 whole pork loins and 80 pounds of chicken wings that were donated by Milton, PFG. What can I say about J. Barrett Carter and his fantastic crew of cooks/chefs and sous chefs who are in Booth # ! and are on the main firing line when the tasters arrive. The amount of food they prep and cook is obscene. They cooked 14 Boston butts, 40 pounds of chicken wings, scallops, ABT’s, a ton of crawfish, and live main lobsters, the largest of which was 6.5 pounds! They cooked a lot more than this, but, I don’t have the entire recipe list. One other special thanks go out to Pete Benac, who comes every year and brings his 2 large eggs that he uses at the eggfest and then, brings them to the after-party for our use.
Linkie Marais added a lot to the fest as well with her charm, knowledge and sparkling personality.
Thank you from the heart Kim Youngblood,Ginny Wangen Youngblood, Jim Legros, Kay Legros, Beth Williams Mellendorf, Todd Mellendorf, Bogdan Teodorescu, Vicki Knies and Bart, Paul Massey, Pat McDonough, TomandKaren Chamberlain, Jim Anderson, Lynn Joseph,Gene Skillin, Tania Skillin, J. Barrett Carter, Trip McAlhany, Marlene McAlhany, Daniel McAlhaney, Ty Deal, Kurt Halls, Kimberly Carter, Carrie Sagel Burns, Steven Burns, Meghan Hill, Danny Gaines, Heather Satterfield Gaines, Trivia Steve, and Kristi Dabney Ormesher. I'm sure I left some others off the list.........unintentional for certain!
What a show you guys and gals put on this year! Unsurpassed, unparalled, and unbelievable!!
See you next year on May 19th and 20th.........same place, same time...........

John thank you and the staff of the Fairgrounds for all that you do to put this together for us to enjoy, it's certainly a team effort and Kay and I are proud to be part of the team. See ya next May! Jim & Kay

Lit · May 2016

Jupiter Jim said:

Lit said:

As great as the fest is I do want to say how disappointed I was in the cooks swag bag. Not only did I spend $150 myself as well as the person I cooked with spending the same I paid $20 for my wife and I to be cooks and we don't even get a 2016 eggfest shirt. My swag bag had a 2014 art festival shirt and of the 6 people we cooked with only 2 had eggfest shirts and they were from previous years. It's a great fest and it's fun to cook at but they sold $50k in tickets and made us pay to cook atleast spend the $10 we pay on a shirt. Pretty sure this was my last time cooking here.

I agree the swag bag was not much this year, but cooking at any fest cost the cooks money. If you are cooking at any fest for the swag bag well yes ya need to stay home and save the cost of cooking at any fest. The wife and I cook at fest because we just love the ability to show off what we think are some good eats that we cook, hanging out with wonderful friends old and new that share our passion of the Big Green Egg, learning from other great cooks, eating some awesome food, possibly winning a new Egg and we have won a Mini and Mini Max in the last 9 years of cooking at fest. We have attended the all 6 of the GA fest and will be there next year cooking for sure and if they don't have a swag bag we are ok with that too and will be happy with what ever might be in the bag. For the wife and I it's entertainment and all entertainment cost money, this is our entertainment, for us it's worth the money time and energy we put into it. We have been asked many time at fest by tasters if we get paid to cook! our standard answer is no we don't get paid, in fact we bought the food we are cooking and giving away, paid for a hotel room, gas for the car to get to the fest and will be very tired at the end of the day when it's all over. Yes we get some strange looks too. I'm sorry you feel the way you do and also hope you come back next year as I'm sure the tasters were happy that you came and shared your egged food with them.

It's not cooking for the swag bag I said I would have been happy with a tshirt with the correct year and event and if it fit that would be great too. Just seems like an area of the event where the ball gets dropped.

THEBuckeye · May 2016

If the Forum can exert pressure to replace a broken dome, get @Lit a damn t-shirt.

Or not.

Focker · May 2016

@BigGreenCraig,
Help a brother out.

Georgia Mountain Eggfest 2016

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