How do you feel about giving away samples of BBQ at a comp.

bring 'em on! we only did two competitions but we had fun with the public both times. no one came right up and asked for samples right off. it just kinda came up in conversation and if we had something around extra we were happy to share a little but i explained that for a competition we really dont cook alot of extra stuff and directed them to the concessions. as far as turn ins, i could see alot of folks asking questions being annoying if you were alone but if you got a few extra members of the team they could intercept the public for you.

It's never been an issue for us, but I can say that it would annoy me if it was during turn-in time.

We had a woman come inside our area and take a slice of brisket while we were boxing up our turn in. i dont mind giving samples but that didnt go over to well with us. It doesnt seem to fair to the vendors either. Why buy when you can get it for free.

whole bunch of feelings about this.

Come talk to me about bbq, show interest, be polite, and use good judgement regarding when to come by(do i look busy??, or simply ask)... do it right, you walk away with a full belly and a beer..

come buy demanding food because u paid an admission fee
or
just lurking around looking for handouts,
or
looking for an unguarded tray
or
asking for 'free samples"...

Do any of this, your gonna have an empty plate.

We have had a person come under our tent, pick up a knife and slice a chunk off our fatty which we had out on our team breakfast table.

a lady took ribs from the cutting board that were waiting to be boxed for turn-in.

a man DEMANDED food because he paid 8 bucks to get in.. then got pissed when I gave him sausage9from our lunch, to shut him up). He wanted brisket or pulled pork. whiuch wasnt even in the cookers yet. So he walks away holding it up screaming 8 bucks and all i get is a f**king sausage. He was ejected from the contest site.

i used to put my trays out after turnin and let folks take it... still do if contests allow it and the food is presentable.

At one contest, i watched as A JUDGE came to my site, and started packing her bag with my leftovers. she had a box of baggies.. she would put her hand in a baggie, and grab a handful of meat, pull the baggie over her hand and close it, put it intoa shopping bag, then get another baggie and do the same thing again. I was so shocked all i could do is watch the trainwreck. She looked at me and continued.. no shame at all. i would expect this from the homeless, not a KCBS judge.

Like Phil said, If people are friendly we will feed them. Pecker heads can take a walk:!:

We have a lot more people interested in how our UDS's work than we do wanting free food. I probably talk to 100 people a comp about the drums. People love the idea that they can go home and build their own cooker.:-D

Send them to the vendors. That is what we pay the large entry fees to do, sell food. We also compete and understand the overwhelming amount of people who come up and help themselves and we brush them away. We tell them it is against policy and we will get dq'd for giving away samples. Please do not give out samples where I am vending (troy NY) Daddy needs a new pair of shoes!!

I have no problem with people being polite and asking questions. I also have no problems letting them know we'll be available to chat after 1:30.

Anybody who reaches INTO our space and puts their hands on our turn-in food is going to draw back a bloody stump and a number of expletives. I have never witnessed this kind of behavior at any comp we've gone to in seven states -- is this a regional thing, were these people raised by wolves?

There were some folks at Princeton, WI last year that got a little pushy during turn in time and worked their way between Divemaster's tables and mine, and we had to 'assertively' ask them to leave until after turn ins. We did hand out all of our leftover ribs and chicken, but Pimp and I took home the leftover butts and brisket.

We had a lot of really polite folks on Friday that came and talked with us at length, and were truly interested in what we were doing. Had they returned on Saturday they would have been treated very well by our team.

I'm against it. It hurts the vendors. Also might be some health dept. concerns.

Not for it. Costs a lot of money to do comps. Not there to feed everybody.

People amaze me. The worst is when they use catering as bait to get some food. They will tell you how they have a "wedding" or (my favorite) a "baby shower" coming up. I had one woman come up and tell me that one, I hand her a rib turn around to get her a napkin, turn around, and she is halfway down the row. Now unless you give me a date, and don't appear to be a freeloader, I won't care. But there are too many of those running around. Free food and free t-shirts run the world.

We enjoy sharing our BBQ with the public as long as it doesn't interfere with turn in's and there is no rule at the contest prohibiting it. We generally put all the BBQ that doesn't make the cut for turn in in a large disposable aluminum pan and let them go at it. They appreciate it, we like watching them eat it, and I'm an easy pushover for compliments. It's good for the soul!:-D

BBQchef33 said:

whole bunch of feelings about this.

Come talk to me about bbq, show interest, be polite, and use good judgement regarding when to come by(do i look busy??, or simply ask)... do it right, you walk away with a full belly and a beer..

come buy demanding food because u paid an admission fee
or
just lurking around looking for handouts,
or
looking for an unguarded tray
or
asking for 'free samples"...

Do any of this, your gonna have an empty plate.

Click to expand...

Or a poke in Da EYE

Our first comp, we had someone reach into our pulled pork, grab a handful, and say, 'good brisket'. From then on, we guard our meats better, usually putting a table between us and the front of the site.

We had a guy come up at 3 pm last Saturday, 1.5 hours after turn ins, and ask if we had samples to give out. Everything was either gone or put away by then... he was just cruising for free food.

I've been to other comps where everyone was giving out samples, and I kind of like that, as long as no vendors. This time, though, there were vendors, and, being out of work, I wanted the leftovers.

Never will I there are vendors. Try to do all work inside trailer very since we had someone pull pork out of our turn in once.

I'm glad I do everything in the trailer. If I catch someone going into the trailer, then they may not come out vertical.

Last one was easy, just told folks that chili was vending and we weren't. One before that was almost as easy, I was set up next to Swamprb and just kept putting my leftovers in his vending box! (thanks Brian!) Setting up next to Brian and his UDS's helps too since folks always seem to just want to bother the $hit out of him about the barrels.

Dale P said:

It doesnt seem to fair to the vendors either. Why buy when you can get it for free.

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BINGO Dale, well said !!!

We had a guy walk off with Chix in Madison last year. :icon_pissed

I would prefer them to look but not touch. :wink: