Judging in New England

Well Boys and MrsMista,

The BBQ-Brethren were on the move again. Millitant Squatter (Vinny), Smoker (Steve) and me drove up to Abington Massachusetts to judge at the New England BBQ Society's annual Snow Shoe Challenge. The Snow Shoe challenge is a one day grilling contest, much like Grillin' on the Bay, NYC's first sanctioned BBQ contest being held to benefit the St. Mark Sports Associtation on March 25, 2006 in Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn.

Smoker egged me on to take pictures of the turn-in boxes. I checked and we we told it was OK as long as it didn't interfere with the judging. So instead of taking pictures of the boxes, it was easier to take pics of my judging plate.

There were four categories...

Fish


From my left to right - that's Salmon with a BBQ sauce that overwhelmed the fish, Salmon with a nice rub, Chiliean Sea Bass with a boring saffron suace, Swordfish which was my favorite with a nice pepper/tomato salsa and a very good Salmon with some traditional BBQ flavorings..

Sausage...


From my left to right - Some sort of chicken with vegetable combo, a very good pork sausage that was runied by the apple stuffing, a home made pattie with lots of vegetables chicken and pork I think, and a classic italian pork sausage in gravy.

Beef Steak

From my left to right - rib eye maybe with what tasted like canned gravy, fillet migon with BBQ sauce - same sauce that was used on the first salmon entry, Fillet mignon with a tasteless benaise sauce, fillet mignon again with a parsley, lemon pesto which was tasty but overwhelmed the meat, and finally a flank steak that I really liked the flavor of but was really tough.

And finally vegetables...


From my left to right - That's a grilled stuffed portabello mushroom, stuffed with spinach, garlic, bread crumbs and cheese. The mushroom was overly marinated and tasted primarily of vinegar and the stuffing was tasteless. An over smoked stuffed tomato which was stuffed with an unrecognizable corn and bread mix. Stakced grilled white and blue potatoes held together with a rosemary stalk and sauced with a traditional scalloped potato sauce (It took third place). A good grilled sweet potato and red pepper mix. And finally a sweet potato pie tartlet topped with Merigne with chocolate covered cherries, which took first place.

Here's a pic of the turn in box when it got to my end of the table of the sweet potato tartlets...

Now - is this a vegetable or a dessert? If I was running the event, I would have disallowed it on a couple of levels. I didn't think it was a vegetable dish, to me it was a desert. Two, the tarts were not made on site. And three - what was the main ingredient - wheat and flour or sweet potato?

Overall I thought the food was OK, but nothing really stood out as great. I heard the same comment from a lot of the judges. But now I'm wondering to myself if the judges, me included, become super critical when judging. I mean - people took time to come up with these recipes and they must have thought they were outstanding when they decieded to cook them. So are the judges just too tough?


Here's a picture of Dirty Dick's niece and son as they walked the stage for their stacked potato third place vegetable win.




Oh, one more thing, Jeff, we have our share of cooler packing judges in New England too.


And finally a pick of our table captain. Here he is cutting up the fish entries for the judges. The Snow Shoe rules allow presenting fish whole and having the capts cut it up for the judes. I don't remember his name, but he eas dumbfounded when after the second turn in he offered Smoker some new crackers for the next category and Smoker turned him down saying as he tapped his watch "No thanks, I'm done. I've got to get going." I've never seen a jaw drop so far so fast.


Overall a splendid time was had by all.

backyardchef said:

Nice report, Rob. Wish I coulda been there. I guess Smoker was saving room for the beef cheeks.....

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If I had known about The Cookhouse, I really would have left early. It was allot of fun though.

I cannot stress the importance to ANYONE who competes.....You MUST judge some comps to see what works and doesn't work. I guarantee your scores will be better after you have judged a few comps and see firsthand what your food looks like when it gets to the judges table.

So what do you guys think about letting judges take pictures like this?

http://thecookhouse.biz/page/15e2p/Menus/Starters.html

Bunkie Meat Pies $5.95

Rob & Fat Tommy Used To Drive 30 Miles To A Trailer Where These Were Sold In Bunkie, La. Rob's First Food Fantasies Were About These Little Pies Filled With Beef, Pork, Hot Red Pepper & Other Good Stuff. Served With Cookhouse Jelly For Dipping.

Actually, The Cookhouse is in Darian CT. Only about 1.5 hours from here. We are DEFINITELY going back there.

Arlin_MacRae said:

Could it hurt?
Could it HELP? I'm thinking if it's allowed, go for it. It can help the judges and cooks both, as long as the picture-taker remembers which entry is which!

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Remember Arlin - it's still blind judging. Out of all the food I ate, the only two I know of that made it to the winner's circle were the potato stacks and the sweet potato pie tart. And that's only because at award time, the cooks were asked what they made for each category. I don't think I'd be able to identify the winners from 6 rib entries.

That being said, I do think it will help cooks overall. Even if you don't know what won or lost, a cook will get to see what the judges see and how each entry appears on the judges plate. And that's helpful.

IMO taking pics of the turn in boxes as they're presented would had slowed the judging process down considerably, which is why I only took pics of my plate.

look for fat tommy - tell him the 3 judges sent you!