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ARRIVAL
ON WEDNESDAY 7/3/02
Wednesday
was a fairly busy day at
Imperial B (I.B.) considering it was the day before the first BBQ event,
"The Surf & Turf State Championship" was due to start
Thursday.
Rick Streiff my cooking partner had arrived in Imperial Beach by 07:00
Wednesday morning. He had to pick up the Keith Famie Cooking
vehicle, named MAX, from the dealership where our sponsor GM Mobility had
arranged to have MAX delivered. The dealership was located in
San Diego so there was a bit of logistics and travel that had to be
done. Also, Gene Goycochea had told us that BBQ people and teams were arriving
several days prior to Rick's arrival so there were bodies hanging around
to assist. Rick simply asked the first available body to drop him
off at the dealership where he picked up MAX and drove back to the
Seacoast Hotel parking lot. The dealership had detailed and prepped
the vehicle for us so it was looking very sharp. MAX is a
customized cooking vehicle. It has a built in Wolf 6 burner Stove
that slides out on a large bearing surface, a Flash Oven, a Refrigerator,
2 built in DVD & TV LCD screens built into the side and rear
windows, and a 5000 watt AC Generator built into the engine fan belt system and
compartment. This is quite the vehicle for use in cooking!
I
was arriving later in the day. Frank Dopp, and Wayne Seale, the other team members, were arriving late
the Thursday or Friday so Rick was on his own most of the Wednesday. Having left
Woodland Hills (above Los
Angeles) a bit after noon on Wednesday I did not arrive until about 16:30. There
were a lot of BBQ people, rigs, and hardware on the street and in the
Seacoast parking lot., much more than upon
my normal early arrival. This indicating that we would have a lot of competitors
from all over the states and the world.
Dean, Gina, and Bill from
Lakeside were the next to arrive by 18:30. This allowed them to find
a spot in the RV lot across the street and get situated for the entire
event and get their rig nicely located. We all had a nice relaxing time
in the Seacoast parking lot chit-chatting and meeting Rolf Zubler
and his wife, the President of the world Barbecue Association, and many
other competitors from around the world that were just hanging out.
JUDGING
CLASS FOOD
Upon
arrival we located in the Seacoast parking lot in a temporary spot.
We needed to have MAX on the street for public viewing and the street
would not be closed until the following evening. We partially
unloaded and took two WSM's (Weber Smoky Mountain Smokers) out to cook the Judging Class
food on. I have done
the judging class food cooking for every Surf & Turf since they began 3
years ago. Usually John & Lynn Ross help me with this task as
John teaches the class and Lynn prepares the class trays for the class the next day.
I had Dean, Gina, Rick, and Roland all helping in preparations,
trimming, and placement of meats in the cookers for overnight (they need
15 hours). So, preparations went very fast (many hands make
little work). We had all the meats trimmed, seasoned, and in the
cookers by 21:00 (09:00 p.m.). This can be a slightly beneficial
activity in that it will get you warmed up for the REAL event happening
the next day. Dave Klose and Rick were the
last to go to bed after sitting up and talking till late in the evening.
I
got up early and re-filled the WSM's with fuel and water. Dave Klose
loaned
us a customers new pit to cook the class chicken in as we did not have the real
estate in my WSM's. Got that pit lit, the bird in, and pretty much
turned all the finished meats over to Lynn Ross and Roland Cook to prepare
and tray for the judging class by noon Thursday. Everything turned out great I was
told.
SETTING
UP MAX & COOK-SITE
The
next morning we had to identify on the street a good spot to place MAX for
public perusal. This needed to be a spot where the public and press could
easily see and enjoy the vehicle. We chose to park in the street, along the
curve, directly across from the Seacoast parking lot (a bit to the
south). This put us adjacent to the RV lot Gene had available and
let us have easy access to both my cooking van and Rick's RV. It
took Rick a bit of time to figure out how the various systems on MAX
worked but we finally got everything unload, setup, and functional.
We were now ready to start cooking, but the primary purpose of MAX was the World BBQ Cook-Off where the equipment on
MAX would really be of big assistance. The Surf & Turf Cook-Off starting Thursday was primarily traditional BBQ and required the use of
the trailered BBQ Smoking pit that I brought down from my home in Agua Dulce.
SURF
& TURF
The
Surf & Turf State BBQ Championship contest preparation started about
noon on Thursday. We had to set up the kitchen, setup the BBQ pit,
trim and prep all the meats (brisket, pork, ribs, & chicken), and any
other task that needed to be done prior to putting the meats
on.
The
event really starts with the BBQ dinner provided by the judges for the
cooks the night before awards. They traditionally cook up some
Tritip, BBQ Beans, Garlic bread, and Pasta & Potato salads. For this event
we had Carnie Asada, Beans, Flour Tortillas, and Potato Salad.
Dinner started about 19:00 and went through till 20:00 at which time the
cooks meeting commenced.
After
the cooks meeting we typically put our Butts and Briskets on the WSM's (WSM's
go unattended for up to 8 hours).
This allows us to sleep versus watching an offset BBQ pit throughout the
night. Then early the next morning the Ribs go in the pit, followed by the
Chicken. If there is a 5 category it will usually be turned in at
11:30 and will be a quick cooking item that goes on by 10:00. Today
it was seafood. We turned in Sea Bass provided and prepared by Frank
Dopp. Everything went
well, got everything turned in, and got accustomed to the close contact of
people from the street.
SURF
& TURF AWARDS
CEREMONY
Well
the awards ceremony is certainly what we all are waiting for. It
commences at typically 15:00 (last turn-in is at 13:30 typically).
We (all the teams) are typically all beat. You wonder if this will
be the time you get skunked or win Grand Champion. Anyway, we could
have done better but felt pretty good about our product. We ended up
getting 9th overall out of 29 teams and got 7th in Ribs and 7th in
Pork. So, our other scores could not have been much below 10th
place. All our scores were good except the Brisket. All
in all it was a FUN, EXCITING, and ENJOYABLE event. Can't say it was
not a lot of work, but heck, no pain, no gain!!!
WORLD
BBQ
The
World event started out much more calmly than a typical KCBS event for me
in that there was not a specific type of meat that was required for
turn-in under any specific category. In other words with the BEEF,
PORK, CHICKEN, SEAFOOD, and DESERT categories you could turn in any cut or
type of those specified entries. So, for beef we chose Prime Rib
roast,
bone-out, with a side of Mashed Potatoes with garlic and
horseradish. For Pork we chose Pork
Tenderloin and smoked White Corn. For Seafood we chose Sea Bass, breaded and pan fried, with a
Dashy Sauce. For Desert we chose Apple Pies, miniature, made in a ramekin, topped with
home-made, thick, whipped cream and a lemon zest. HEY, they all turned out
VERY GOOD. In fact we thought we had 1st in Desert, Beef, and
Seafood. Oh well, we did get 6th in Desert,, and 3rd in Booth.
Did not take place any place else. Well, next time.
Anyway,
the preparations for all the above mentioned items was fairly quick and
easy. In other words we did not have any long-haul meats (as in
Brisket or Butt), not even Ribs which require an early morning preparation
Frank, I (Dan), Rick, and Wayne worked together like we had been in
training. Everything went very smooth. When it came to presentations
time Rick's whole family pitched in. Karen, Jessica, and her friend
all helped get the trays ready, do taste judging among our own entries to
see which should go in, and the do the final turn-ins. So, all in all the
World was pretty easy compared to a normal event other than the fact that
the side dishes were mandatory, would be tasted for additional scoring,
and took longer to make.
The
World BBQ contest scoring was so different and intense that it literally
took the promoters until 19:00 to tabulate the scores even though the last
turn-in was at 13:45. We then took that opportunity to disassemble
the entire site, put everything away, get everything cleaned, load all
vehicles, and by 17:00 we were all sitting by our fully loaded vehicles
ready to go home. Actually we were staying that night and were going
to move into the vacated Seacoast Inn parking spaces after the 19:00 World
BBQ Awards Ceremony was complete and some teams left.
WORLD
AWARDS
CEREMONY
The
World Awards presentation was probably the BEST awards ceremony that I
have ever been to. They had more 70 awards to hand out.
Everything from "Best Booths, Most Fun, Best Dressed, and Best
Entertainment" in addition to the normal awards for the individual
food entries from 7th up and the Reserve and Grand Champions. Coyote
Road Kill got 3rd in "Best Booth" and 19th overall. It was one of the most
exciting and emotional Awards Ceremonies that I have ever attended to be
sure. John Ross and Rolf Zubler read the awards for an hour and a
half. It ended at 20:30. Many teams and people had the joy of
going up to get awards and prizes.
HOW
WE DID OVERALL
Overall
BBQbyDan / Coyote Road Kill did the following:
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