New Yorker’s take on Memphis barbecue wins

Memphis barbecue won a bit of vindication against pretenders from Texas, Kansas City and Carolina on Aug. 28, even if it was a guy from Queens defending our honor.

Melvin “Boots” Johnson, a Compton, California, native who now lives in New York City, beat out three other contenders Aug. 28 in a four-city competition on The Food Network’s Chopped Grill Masters series.

It came down to Memphis-style barbecue versus Kansas City in the final round after Texas was eliminated following the first round and Carolina after Round 2.

For his winning effort, Johnson took home the $50,000 grand prize.

Aug. 28’s championship round was the culmination of weeks of competition that pitted four challengers from each barbecue region against one another, one region each week, to determine one representative from each for Aug. 28’s championship.

Johnson’s winning recipe in the championship included a Memphisrubbed PLT in the appetizer round, grilled ribeye with charcoal Memphis molasses barbecue sauce and sauteed turnip greens in the entree round, and orange whiskey-soaked grilled cornbread with grilled figs in the dessert round.

While finding some fault with each contestant, judges were generally very complimentary of Johnson’s grill skills.

In the entree round, Judge Chris Santos told Johnson: “Of all the derivatives of barbecue sauce that I’ve gotten in the tournament, this is my favorite by far. It’s the perfect balance of sweet, spice and heat.”

Johnson, executive chef of Queens Bully in the Queens borough of New York City, advanced to represent Memphisstyle barbecue by defeating three challengers on the Aug. 14 episode.

Others competing in that round to represent the city were Ernie Mellor,CQ who operates Hog Wild — Real Memphis Barbecue catering company; Walter Crutchfield,CQ owner of Crutchfield’s Bar-B-Q in North Memphis; and Claire CampbellCQ of Mississippi, a member of Ubon’sCQ BBQ team from Yazoo City.