BBQ_Mayor
is Blowin Smoke!
For the past years of competing, I come into every year with the same recipes and end up needing to relearn a new taste profile for the judges. Anybody else run into this or is just me?
Ray,
I don't think a yearly taste profile change is required.. Good is good year after year.
Judges palets don't change year after year. What changes yearly are judges. At Smokin in the junction I was suprised how many new faces I saw in the judges tent. I think that is your variable. If you are happy with your product stay with it, you will get what your after from contest to contest.
On another note I don't remember if it was you or Jay I talked to after judgng Sun. (I'm still not sure by sight which is which) but after I left I thought all I did was mention the bad side of the days results and I could see you might think I was just a whiner. I'm not, there were much more good (some excellent) entries and I should have focused on that instead of the poor entries. I want to be sure all the cook teams know I'm not a Debbie Downer.
My bad.
Ed
Last year I had a nice talk with Rod Gray after a few very poor contest. He told me until ou have 5 or more bad showings don't change a thing because most likely it's a bad judge.
We kept cooking consistent like we have and it worked.
I talked to a few guys yesterday and they had good scores and one lousy one. Confirming what Ed said, lots of new judges and I think lots of cooks judging. Granted, some of the same teams who always walk did, the scoring was probably a little inconsistent.
I did trade PM's with Brian Sweeney on some of my concerns (not just judging) about the contest and he told me that each table had one local celebrity judge.
I'd fall into that category where I had one judge who didn't seem to be on the same page with the other five judges in 2 of the 4 categories. Hopefully next year they will all be CBJ's. I'm not an organizer, but I would think getting 100% CBJ's in West Des Moines should be easier than in other locations. I hope they do away with celebrity judges at next year's event.
Where do you guys normally expect to finish at a comp? Does one 9th place call normally send you home happy? Or do you usually get multiple calls and come within sniffing distance of GCs and RGCs? I should know - but as I think about it I haven't really done all that many comps with you guys so I can't rely on my memory.
As any team, we expect to finish 1st but to be realistic, we expect to finish in the teens or higher with each call in a 50 team contest. And yes, we typically get at least 1 call per contest.
And why does ANYONE think calling the top ten team names up to the front and then announcing the order is the ideal way to call the winners?
That really takes out ALL of the suspense.
:hand: I don't and didn't want this thread to be a slam agianst any contest or judges. I'm simply asking about taste differences from year to year and if you have noticed any changes. DrBBQ has a good point with new judges vs seasoned judges. Thanks Ray.
For those that want to discuss the comp and scoring with me, please send me a PM.