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By Donna Fong

Once a year, the Kansas City BBQ Society invites its members to gather and celebrate the hard
work of their staff, the competition cooks, judges, representatives and sponsors. In 2012, the
banquet was held in San Diego, giving California members the luxury of experiencing a national
event at home. The banquet returned to Kansas City this year and so did a number of California
teams, who were honored.

A $48 cab ride will get you from the International airport to the Sheraton Hotel in downtown
Kansas City where the event is held. The hotel has been newly remodeled and has the feel of a
much smaller boutique hotel even though there are 730 rooms. When we arrived, there was a host
to greet us as we waited to be registered. The reception area had a very small footprint, and
was modern and intimate. As we waited, we were surrounded by guests in full length ball gowns
and tuxedos. A formal known as the Snow Ball was also being held on the second floor. We felt
a bit out of place amongst all of the glitz and glamour. The hotel staff recognized us as
barbecue people and pushed us up to the third floor where the banquet was being held.

On Friday, was the second annual Scavenger Hunt in the Hotel Lobby. Afterwards, Mike &
Christine Peters gave a 5 year review of the Great American BBQ Tour. And then the night ended
with a KCBS Annual Meeting and Board Meeting.

On Saturday was an Organizer’s roundtable, followed by a Representative meeting and then the
always exciting contest raffle, where members buy tickets for a chance for free entry to a KCBS
contest. The chaos really begins when members trade free entries for money or other contest
entries should the entry they got not be local. Troy Black gave a brief talk about this year’s
Sam's club National BBQ Tour and then there was a Lifetime members reception followed by
cocktails.

The fully plated banquet dinner began promptly at 6:45pm which ran concurrently with speeches
from KCBS president Candy Sue Weaver, representatives from Sam’s and the board members. Candy
gave a great speech that was both welcoming and humble. She congratulated those of us who won.
Though she was not among the recipients that evening, Candy thanked us for giving her the
opportunity to serve as KCBS President, which she considered her greatest honor. Mike Peters
was our host for the evening and had the difficult task of holding the attention of 500+
members while he announced the winners of each category.

The full sit down dinner had pre-assigned seating. I had the pleasure of sitting with two of
California’s finest, KCBS representatives and California Hall of Famers, Kathleen and Kelly
McIntosh from San Diego. It was nice to enjoy a long evening with the two of them and not have
to worry about anything related to cooking. Sitting at a table diagonal from us was Sterling
Ball and Dave Malone.

Our dinner consisted of a salad, chicken breast, steak, green beans, potatoes, a dinner roll
and iced tea. There was also a slice of cake to finish off our palate. As we ate, the top 25
Teams in each meat category and overall are called to receive an acrylic block celebrating the
year long achievement. The KCBS awards banquet is unlike the Oscars in that everyone present
already knows who has won. Even so, it can be hard to connect a team name with faces,
particularly if you live as far west as we do here in California. California teams don’t have
the advantage of a dense population of contests each year. Many teams travel long distances up
and down the great state and often into Arizona and Nevada to accumulate enough points to be
considered a top 25 team. Though only the top 10 contests are used for total points, most
teams have to compete in at least twice as many contests to be a contender. The teams that
were gathered here in Kansas City have fought very hard yearlong to earn these top honors.

This year’s honors went to four teams from home. California’s 2012 Team of the Year, Matt
Dalton of Left Coast Q from Banning, CA was 21st overall with 3 GC, 4 RGC and placed 1st in a
category 8 times (3 times in chicken and 2 times in pork and 3 times in brisket). Harry Soo
of Slap Yo' Daddy from Diamond Bar, CA with a 20th overall & 1st in chicken overall has won 4
GC, 1 RGC, and placed 1st in a category 6 times (4 times in chicken and 2 in ribs). Dave
Malone of All Sauced Up from Valencia, CA with a 4th in chicken overall and 20th in ribs
overall has won 4 GC, 1 RGC and placed 1st in a category 9 times (6 times in chicken, 2 times
in ribs and 1 time in brisket). Sterling Ball of Big Poppa Smokers from Coachella, CA with a
23rd overall in ribs has won 1 GC (the big one at the Royal), 2 RGC and placed 1st in a
category 8 times (2 times in ribs, 2 times in pork and 4 times in brisket).

The California BBQ Association would like to congratulate all of its BBQ teams for a great 2012
competitive year. May 2013 be filled with as much success, fun and adventure as it did last
year. Safe travels and good cooking!
 

   
   
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