GET FIRED UP
Best barbecuers hope to smoke out competition
Ottawa has been home since 2015 to the smoking hot action of competition barbecue sanctioned by the world-famous Kansas City Barbecue Society.
It’s what public servant and barbecue competitor and judge John Thomson dubs the “true low and slow.”
But when salivating Ottawans would turn up asking about the tantalizing smoke wafting from white tents pitched in a parking lot or field, organizers had to say the event was closed to all but teams of competitors and a cadre of specially-trained judges.
“We have these hungry barbecue people who show up and we have to turn them away,” said Thomson, who’s both pitmaster of the top-ranked Team Eatapedia and the president of the Canadian BBQ Society.
No longer. The Capital BBQ Festival will be open to the public at the Carp Fairgrounds this weekend, offering a front-row seat as 48 teams from as far away as Massachusetts and Minnesota dish up their best smoked chicken, ribs, pork and brisket in a bid to be declared grand champion.
There are also three other competitions aimed at amateurs: kids, backyard grillers and the Meatings Charity Rib Cook-off. The latter, sponsored by the Orléans barbecue joint, will give some lucky eaters a shot at being a barbecue judge for a day in exchange for a $25 donation to the Telus Ride for Dad.
Organizers say people should come hungry — there will be barbecue on offer from local establishments such as Meatings and foodtruck fare. There’s also beer, music, craft vendors and even a battalion of costumed Star Wars characters.
The big action, though, is the world-class barbecue competition, the largest in Canada sanctioned by the KCBS.
Each team produces six servings of the same “big four” meats — chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder and beef brisket — which are packed into anonymous Styrofoam containers for a panel of half a dozen judges who score them out of nine points on each of three criteria: looks, texture and taste.
This year’s festival will also be training three dozen new judges in the mysteries of KCBS-certified barbecue.
It’s all part of a mouth-watering plan to make Ottawa, an easy jaunt from southern Ontario, Quebec and the American border, a regional anchor for competition barbecue, said Thomson, who became besotted with all things barbecue after getting his first backyard pellet smoker a decade ago.
“You could say that barbecue sauce runs in my blood,” he joked.