The off season....

scooter

Moderator
Sparky, my daughter Taylor will be in that Placerville class to get certified and I'll be with her to take the class again as a refresher course. I missed seeing you at the Sam's event in Sac last year and missed you again at Ribstock. Looks like we'll get to meet at Placerville!

Carter, it's mostly local volunteer backyarders or at least it was at my class. I agree with Matt that the quality is not comp quality but in some ways it is better than some of the Q I've had in the tent. My certification class in 2010 had 50 to 100 people in it. I don't think it's practical to expect a handful of volunteers to put in the intense effort it takes to produce the best BBQ in the world for a large certification class.
To be honest though, from time to time I've had much worse Q in the judges tent than I had in my certification class! lol. I've not judged a lot of comps yet but I'm occasionally surprised at what some teams turn in. There were the raw ribs coated with creosote at the Biggest Baddest in Bakersfield and at Ribstock (Cameron Park) last year I had the worst brisket ever! Completely dry, covered with pepper, bland flavor and cut with the grain so I couldn't pull it apart. There are more stories but you get the point. A lot happens in a comp that can take a pitmaster out of their game and their turnin can reflect that. Bad weather, poor quality meat, equipment failure, cook failure...etc. The smallest mental error can have large ramifications in the final product.
I respect what the cooks do out there more than I can say and give them the benefit of the doubt at every turn in the judges tent. Some day after I've reached Master CBJ I might join their ranks and hope that karma will run its course.

Matt and Thom, thank you.
 
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Thom Emery

New member
The team that cooks the class gets paid a couple of bucks
and has to cook alot of que compared to a normal contest cook
A big CBJ class usually means not so great BBQ
 
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