GRILL MASTER
Harlem Bravest’s chicken is top BBQ bird
STATEN Island got kicked in the loins.
The two-time champs of the Daily News’ “BBQ in the Boros” contest narrowly missed an unprecedented three-peat when their Slow Smoked Stuff Pork Tenderloin lost to a spicy grilled chicken with mango relish made by a Manhattanite. “We’re disappointed, but it’ll make us work a little harder next year,” said Tony Longobardi, half of the “Richmond Count y Pit Bros.,” who dominated the last two events.
Instead, Khalid Baylor, a firefighter from Harlem, walked off with the trophy — a gold pig flanked by a gilded chicken and cow. Judges loved Baylor’s spicysweet “Tropical BBQ Chicken with Mango Relish.”
“This is for the community of Harlem,” said Baylor, who had won a prior Fairway BBQ contest for New York’s Bravest. “I put my best foot forward and nothing but love. Always cook with love.”
The contest, which took place at high noon at the Harlem Fairway supermarket, was not w ithout cont roversy — indeed, it would not be a BBQ battle without a few.
The Staten Island team impressed two judges from the Daily News - food reporter Jeanette Settembre and Deputy Features Editor Gersh Kuntzman — a nd Celebrity Chef Jesse Jones, all of whom gave the loin some tender loving care.
“These guys bring it,” Settembre said. “Other dishes were good, but these guys show how it’s done.”
But Fairway’s two judges — Chef de Cuisine Mitchell London and Cheesemonger Steve Jenkins — respectfully disagreed. .
“Pork tenderloin is so bland,” said Jenkins. “If a chef has really thought about it, it can be good. It wasn’t done in this case.”
Baylor walks off with that trophy, plus a new Weber gas grill, a $1,000 gift card from Fairway and the admiration of an entire city (except Jenkins).
The Staten Islanders, Clarke and the other winners — Erin Evenson from Brooklyn (“Smokey Date and Feta Stuffed Chicken”) and Julio Rodriguez from The Bronx (Spicy Jerk Chicken) — snagged $500 gift cards from Fairway and $100 gift cards from PC Richard.
By winning the Queens t it le, Clarke got sweet revenge over his girlfriend, who had entered her Sticky Parmesan Garlicky Chicken. Like the Portuguese in the World Cup, she didn’t get out of group.
“Brian Clarke has to bottle that BBQ sauce,” said Kuntzman. “I didn’t love his chicken, but that sauce. Man alive.”
Clarke will go home with more than bragging rights.
“If I win she’s got to give me a kiss and tell me she loves me,” said Clarke before the winners were announced.
It was a promise kept.