Toss the lettuce
 

Ok, all you cooks who think there shouldn't be garnish for a KCBS contest, here's a chance to have your voices heard....

http://www.tossthelettuce.com/

Interesting, I will have to think about that.

I'd like to see how Kevin Bevington "voted" - he's 1/2 of HomeBBQ.com and the reigning Florida BBQ Association team of the year!!

I vote lose it - I don't mind using it but WAY too much attention is paid the lettuce and not enough on the meat. IMHO! If the option really becomes an option nearly everyone will quit using garnish!! It IS pretty but if you lose 1 point because some ******* judge see's a yellow spot on a farking lettuce leaf then it IS NOT worth it!! If lettuce stays then the whole "appearance" score needs to disappear or be weighted so far down it can't destroy a score - focus only on taste and tenderness.

Brooklyn tosses salads.

Pass it on.

Dave, how do you really feel?

I've spent way too much money the last few months to be PC about judging -- I've earned my right to express my opinion! :D

Holy sheet, we agree

At the KCBS judging class, I gave high marks to pulled pork presented in a pile, no lettuce

I thought it looked awesome.

Others voted it down, no lettuce.

Show me the money, I mean meat!

Wait till the bash. I got a special salad for you right here. :twisted:

Here appears to be the source of the website.
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A registry for garnish elimination.

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Posted by Bad Byron on January 21, 2005 at 12:16:03:

For KCBS members who would like to request to the board and rules committee for the abolishment of garnish in KCBS competitions.

A hard copy of the registry will be presented to the board and rules committe in October of this year.
This is simply a request.

Byron Chism
buttrub.com

Toss the Lettuce
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WORKS FOR ME --(what DF said)

TIM

i say trash the rabbit food. Spend way to much time getting purdy leaves and arranging boxes

I read a lot of the forum this morning -- interesting reading. You can tell the posters that really compete from the ones that have been to a contest once!! If the majority rules lettuce will go away next year.

However, the lettuce/garnish does add another variable (as if we need another variable with a whole table of judges!). However, saying you use lettuce/parsley to cover up mistakes or to keep the sauce from pooling or the meat from shifting is just LAME. If it pools it's too much sauce, if you want to keep the meat from shifting then put more in the box, etc.

Heck, I'll continue to play no matter which way it goes. But buying, cleaning, storing, and selecting the perfect leaf when you're many hundreds of miles from home is problematic.

Just my $.02 worth.

I think if garnish is to be part of the game it shouldn't be limited to just lettuce and parsley. Go hog wild with it, use whatever you want, make little lemon pigs to go in the pork boxes. Barring that, TOSS the Lettuce. It should be about the meat.

I think if I understand it correctly, appearance is weighted down in the scoring in the current KCBS scoring system.

David, FYI - I was number 6 to register on the Toss The Lettuce web site.

We had a lite competition is Seattle this weekend, one team used no garnish at all. They finished 3rd overall. If a team works on presentations it works using no garnish. I talked to a head cook a few days before the event, his rib turn-in he was going to use rib tips to fill the box. I reminded him that anything in the box could pick by the judges to eat and that he may want to rethink that.
I was the Rep for the competition and I will say they did a good job on the presentations.

I like the idea as a cook you can choose to use garnish or not, I've seen a lot of turn-ins where the team put so little thought in the use of garnish that they should have not tried.
Jim

Jim, was this a sanctioned contest? If so, I applaud the cook that had the nerve to try it, and the judges who judged it.