Well the first cook off results

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schultzy

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Jun 5, 2007
105
10
East Galesburg, IL
Well the weather cleared up and stopped raining. I learned a lot by watching everyone else setting up and what I need to do next time, but we managed. I set up right between the two teams that get first or second in all the cookoffs around here. There are both great groups of guys. Everything went great with cooking, our temps were staying right where I wanted them throughout the day. There were only 7 teams total. When we served the judges and the people started buying their ribs the teams next to me had lines 20 people deep with no one in my line, Oh well, no worries. Eventually they started funneling in and I started to hear some reviews and I was pleased. We then the judging came down and they started by announcing the 7th place team first and Ive never been so nervous, please dont let me be last, not me, then 6th, not me then 5 and 4th, not me, cool now Im in the money, 3rd place goes to the guy who won last year, 2nd place NOT ME. Thats right first time out the smoke gods were smiling at me 1 ST PLACE and $500, but believe me the money was secondary. Thanks for all the help in here and I cant wait until the next one.
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Yeah, Galesburg Illinois, the railroad, BNSF, is huge in Galesburg. They are getting ready to open some national museum there also.
 
Schultzy,

That is an outstanding 1st showing. Your description of waiting for the announcement of the judges is right on the money. I experienced that same roller coaster ride the first time I entered a Dutch Oven cook-off and came away with 2nd place (out of 18 teams) and $300 worth of prizes.

Sounds like you and your team gave Team SMF excellent exposure. Well done!!
 
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!! Super job on your first time out. That's the way to set the bar high. Will definitely need you to give us a detailed play by play of all the tension and suspense of the day.
 
Congratulations Schultzy. Way to go....and your first..WOW
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Got are first one coming up in a couple of weeks and the stomach butterflies are now turning into June bugs
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I'll be doing the same thing you desribed....."please just not last place"..lol
 
Good on ya.

A very important part of the competition is tailoring your food to the tastes of the judges. The crowds may rates your food Number 1, but the judges may have different tastes.

Just watched Throwdown with Booby Flay, and yes, he lost another one. The chef of Hattie's is known for his (sorta) fried chicken. Flay's version seems impressive, with buttermilk marinade, seasoned flour, double dipped coating. Hattie's chicken was simply salt, pepper, (some other seasoning not shown), plain flour dredge.

I've watched a few cook-offs on FoodTV where the winner had simpler recipes. The Steak cook-off show I saw showed the winner simply used salt and pepper seasoning.

Don't worry about no line-ups this year. Next time, they'll line-up at your tent and realize what this missed last time.
 
What was funny was they announced the winner about 3/4 of the way through serving to the public and as soon as they announced us as winning we had a line of people 10-15 deep. All we had left were the tips we were serving at that time, but I bet next time they will pay a little more attention to us. P.S How do I send better pictures
 
If you're uploading pictures directly from your computer, just resize them to about 95Kb. The forum will make thumbnails for you.

Alternately, if you use an image storage website, you can link to the pictures directly, or post links.
 
Shultzy, I merged the two posts, that way, the post of the better pix's won't get lost.

You know next year when you go back your team won't "Rookie Ribsters" anymore. Gotta come up with a catchy new Team name.
 
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