Which would you prefer?

Let the teams vend their food if they want.

Honestly, I would just like to go to a contest just to compete. But that's just me. I'm sure there's plenty of people on here that would like to vend, etc..

I'm not much for vending; it takes away from concentration especially around the
30 minute turn-in windows. However, if you supply the butt(s), I usually participate
in a crowd favorite with an early turn-in, like an hour before the first real competition
turn-in...

As a cook, I personally like People's Choice if I turn in my product to a central point for blind judging. If you get a large gathering from the public on Friday evening, it could be turned in then if you allow teams to bring pre-prepared product as long as it is warmed on site. Check with your health department prior for their regs.

Some teams may like the idea to vend, others won't.

I really liked the contest you did last year, everything was great. if you wanted to do something better, I would think a people's choice of friday nite would be ok, that's what Jeff does at his contest, smoking on big creek, in fact I believe k.c customs donates the butts to use.

KC_Bobby said:

As a cook, I personally like People's Choice if I turn in my product to a central point for blind judging. If you get a large gathering from the public on Friday evening, it could be turned in then if you allow teams to bring pre-prepared product as long as it is warmed on site. Check with your health department prior for their regs.

Some teams may like the idea to vend, others won't.

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Ditto on the blind judging for People's Choice.

Talk to Kent Romine - he organizes the Great Bend contest. They supply briskets, you just have to cook them. You cook it, give it to them and the public pays to taste, then the contest takes a cut and splits the rest of the proceeds between the cookers who participated. You get a few bucks and a few guys even switched the out the brisket they got for people's choice with one they brought to cook for the contest.

Babyboomerboy said:

Also, do you think the cookers would be interested in staying at their cook sites on Saturday night and enjoying some really good live music at the stadium, rather than just packing up on Saturday afternoon and going home? Thanks again, looking forward to seeing you in July.

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No. One night of sleeping in the truck is enough for me.

I like to have the option of packing up and heading home on Saturday night.

I gave this some thought yesterday, and it occurred to me that what I would prefer may not match up with the majority, but here it is:

I would prefer being given, say, 2 large cuts -Brisket or Butt- by the contest, to cook and deliver at 11 AM Saturday for either a central blind people's choice, or simply a centralized consolidated public tasting.

Reasons:
For US, we go to 'compete' (And those who know us know how loosely I use the term), & not to 'vend'. Anything not related to drinking beer or cooking the competition meats is by definition a distraction. Adding a butt or 2 to the cooker and taking it off at 10:55 am is within the realm of reasonable, and I would be glad to do that for my small share of the total split with other teams and the contest.

Contest supplied meat is one less item to 'worry about' vs bringing extra for buck a bone. (I know some say "Don't bring extra, just sell the normal 'overage'. Well, our overage isn't that big, so a cost benefit analysis says selling that overage may not be worth the trouble.)

Vending or Buck a Bone During turn in times is BAD NEWS. Drives me crazy. Even if you are not participating, if it is generally occuring around you you will get 'drive bys'. We are not staffed for that.

Buck a bone AFTER turn ins is BAD NEWS. Man, the last thing I want to be doing is dishing pulled pork, keeping it warm, etc. After turn in's, we have two goals: Break Down the site, and relax. Can't do either while you are dishing chicken thighs.

We are not set up to meet many HD regulations for food vendors, (of course this depends on the specifics from scenario to scenario). But solid walls, a floor, fauceted water, etc are sometimes required. Not to mention supplying boats and forks, which while not 'expensive', is 'another thing'.

Again, just personal opinion, but if I had the ideal scenario, it would be to cook a few cuts of supplied meat, and hand them over. This to me is the best of both worlds. The contest gets to show off the contestant's BBQ, I get to particpate in that effort with minimal extra work to throw some meat on the already burning cooker, and I don't have to disrupt my competiton timeline.

Just being allowed to vend your food - No interest. For us, vending and competition are two different things. When we vend the crew, trailer, meat, prep... everything is different than the comp configuration.

Participating in a buck a bone - No interest. We make no money selling a rib for a dollar; break-even at best.

Having a peoples choice - This one we will do, IF the meat requirement is one or two butts and the organizer handles serving the public.

Having the comp give you a pork butt to cook and sell for a percentage of the take - Absolutely no interest. This is the worst possible scenario: we have all the work and 90% of the costs of vending but have to give up a portion of the revenue.

Of course that's just my opinion. To give you a context, we are a restaurant cook team, so we mark a pretty clear line between the food business and our hobby of competition cooking.

Babyboomerboy said:

Thank you for the kind words. Last year was our first year so we keep everything pretty simple. This year we want to add a few more things so the cookers have more chances to win some money, the public gets to taste some real good BBQ, and we can involve the sponsors who help pay for the contest. Right now we are leaning towards a People's Choice and a Cooker's Choice for Friday night, and adding a dessert category on Saturday. What do you think about allowing the cookers to bring pre-prepared pulled pork for the People's Choice on Friday night, and a Cook's Choice category that is judged by the sponsors and the sponsors come to the cook site to judge in entry? Also, do you think the cookers would be interested in staying at their cook sites on Saturday night and enjoying some really good live music at the stadium, rather than just packing up on Saturday afternoon and going home? Thanks again, looking forward to seeing you in July.

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A number of the contests that we participate in have entertainment
(bands) Saturday night as well as Friday night. Not all stay Saturday,
but many do. I almost always stay.

For the peoples choice, the only ones that we participate in are blind and
done the day of the competition (with earlier turn-in so as not to interfere
with comp turn-in). If not blind (done on site), we dont participate
because it's 99% the team with the most local appeal (local club of some
kind). If on Friday evening, you've usually missed the BBQ being given
out to Saturday crowd, and it requires that I'm cooking all day Friday
just for this one event. Honestly, it's not worth the cost in extra wood.
If Saturday, I'll just cook it right along with all the other meat that we
have on the smoker.

The others, like $1/bone. Our cost is at or more than that; no interest.

Most of the comps that we do also have ancillary categories on Friday
night and Saturday morning. Friday night has things like Brunswick Stew,
Chili, Gumbo, Anything Butt (usually a game category), desert, Margaritas.
Some do Saturday morning ancillaries, like Bloody Mary's, grits (dishes),
etc. They're fun and fairly easy to do and fairly inexpensive to enter
in to. Judges love them also. You should see the line to judge Bloody
Mary's on Saturday morning.

RE: Peoples Choice: I highly suggest that you provide 2 butts to those
entering. It'll give your crowd enough Q to taste for a while. 1 butt
doesn't cover it. Provide 2 butts and a aluminum pan to put the Q in.
Have teams turn in around 10am, possibly up to 11, but no later. Have
the crowd pay a dollar or two to sample say 4 pulled pork samples without
adding any additional sauce to it (only use the sauces provided by the
team). Then have them judge the best of those four. Mix up which 4
you put on every plate, and viola, you have a peoples choice vote.

I like the people's choice on Friday night. Saturday is too busy with comp cooking.

We would be glad to do peoples choice this year. Pulled pork and chicken wings are pretty easy and fairly cheap.

Babyboomerboy said:

Thank you Shane, we are trying to come up with some more categories for the cookers and getting the public involved. Also this year we are adding a desert category for the cookers. There is no added cost to the cookers, but this is something extra for the judges. The prize money will be the same as the other meat categories so the cookers will have another chance at winning some money. Do you have any suggestions on how we should do the people's choice?

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Is the health department going to get involved? It might depend on how you do things.

Peoples choice is a great way for us (The Rub Co.) to showcase our products so we love it. I would prefer to vend our own food since we cook a good amount of meat for the comp anyway.