Jack Trip 2010
Intro
I've been cooking barbecue since 2002... at home. I started with the cheapest smoker I could find and was hooked. A few equipment upgrades followed, bigger and bigger each time until 2008 when Jacy (my wonderful, understanding, and fully supportive wife) and I purchased a fully equipped BBQ catering trailer. I mean if I'm going to spend my weekends smokin', I may as well get paid for it, right?Competition 'Que never entered the scene. I knew about BBQ on the Bow - 8 hours away. I had friends that attended but I just couldn't talk myself into dropping $800 to go cook & drink for the weekend. I had nooooooooo idea what I was missing :-(
That year (2008) I got my first taste of competition... and I liked it. Regina's first event was that September and I was fortunate enough to be able to help organize it. We picked up a few ribbons that weekend and we were hooked. There was no escaping it.
So all of a sudden... BBQ'ing at home had a purpose. Every cook had a goal, every time the smoker was fired up it was a trial of some sort. different sauces, injections, even making up three batches of rubs at a time with different types of sugar to compare the resulting bark texture. And I cooked a lot.
Our next contest was Regina again... July 2009. And wouldn't ya know it, we picked up our first Grand Championship. I couldn't believe it! Holy crap, we can hold our own! In my mind, this was the big time. The Western Canadian BBQ Championships. But of course it's not really the big time. It's not the Royal. It's not the Jack. I knew about these events but I had only been a 'competitor' for 9 months. I began to realize that these events posed an entirely new challenge. Summer 2009 brought two more G.C's but none of these three was considered a 'qualifier' for the Jack Daniels event; but I was fortunate enough to earn an American Royal invitation. We attended, it was incredible, we came home. I still had an outstanding challenge - Lynchburg, Tennessee. I wanted it.
That chance came on August 2 this year in Whistler, BC. We had our eyes on the prize but we made a conscious decision to enjoy our weekend in such an amazing place. We had family from 3 provinces on our team including our kids and my mom & dad. We had good friends in close proximity and we weren't going to let the competition get in the way of us enjoying ourselves. That atmosphere must have been perfect because we turned out the best brisket & pork that day that I've ever cooked. I don't think I've topped those flavours since. Our chicken turned out well, our ribs were good, we crossed our fingers and waited for the awards ceremony. Well I don't have to tell you the results, we were floored. We would be receiving an invitation to The Jack.
There was just one problem - we were booked for a prestigious and lucrative catering job - for 600 people... The same weekend we wanted to be in Tennessee. We took that job knowing that we'd have to turn the contest down in the remote chance that we won in Whistler. Well it wasn't quite that simple LOL. With an invitation in hand we struggled for over a week with the decision. We finally decided to call our client and discuss the situation with them. Well they were very understanding and graciously offered to let us off the hook. There was still 2.5 months to go before the event. That was it! We were going to the Jack!
What makes this event so special? A few things... The biggest is perhaps the difficulty of getting an invitation. For US teams, winning a big competition usually isn't enough. They have a limited amount of space down in the Lynchburg hollow, ("holler") so they can't invite every champion. No, winning a big event is just the first step. That gets you in the draw. There is one draw for each state. So Minnesota for example has about 5 'Qualifiers". Those 5 winners, no matter where they're from, each get a 'bung' (you know.. barrel plug) in the draw for Minnesota, and only one of them gets an invitation. Now the top teams, for the most part, end up with an invitation most of the time (when you're winning 4-6 events in a year your chances go up). But there are always a bunch of top ranked teams left out, it's the nature of the draw. This exclusivity lends the event a special touch - every team there knows they have worked hard to be there and that they're part of a special group. There are only about 65 domestic teams and 12-15 international teams. This year only two Canadian teams earned an invitation... so to be one of those teams was pretty cool. Heck, there was four German teams there and they had much further to travel than we did!
It's billed as the World Championships, and who doesn't want to add that title to their resume? This is especially true for those teams that do catering or run a restaurant. Jack Daniel's are great hosts and they treat the teams very well. There's a fun parade through town, and they bus all the teams up to the top of "BBQ Hill" for a huge party on Friday night with a Southern buffet and free Jack cocktails. Thursday night was an awesome catfish & chicken fry for the International teams... not to mention the fried okra, fried pickles, fried jalapeno chips, etc. True Southern Hospitality!
The crowds on Saturday are unlike any I've seen before. This event is a major tourist draw so most of the people are VERY interested in what we're doing while we're turning in our entries. It's like cooking in a fishbowl. We even had to kick a few eager beavers out of our site. Enough... more details than I need to share now.
To finish off the introduction, we have so many people to thank for helping us make this trip happen... Firstly I am lucky to have an INCREDIBLE mother in law (aka mom) and BIL who watch our kids at every opportunity. During our summers this is a LOT. They go way above and beyond and there's no way we can ever adequately thank them but we try... Their help included keeping them for 10 days straight in October, much of which time both of these kidlets were sick... We have some great friends that helped us with our send-off cabaret a few weeks earlier, friends who donated their time and skills to a fantastic evening.
Thanks to our corporate supporters for helping us through the year... Butcher Boy Meats (Park St), JB's sausage Making Supplies, Savour Life magazine, Bushwakker, and Reinhardt Plumbing & Heating for lending us the 8' cargo trailer that hauled all of our gear 30 hours down South... Thanks to my Mom & Dad for tagging along to Whistler so we knew our kids would be taken care of during that crucial turn-in period, and we owe thanks to them for giving up 10 days and the use of the Dakota to take us to Tennesee. Thanks again to Justin & Cheryl, Angie & Dennis for helping us with all the gear in Whistler! Thanks to the new 2010 pit bitches Scott, Matt, and Chris for all the help in BC! As you can tell... we're a small team but we couldn't do it without all this incredible support.
Anyway, I guess that's enough of an intro... much longer than I expected it to be. More reports to follow!
