IMHO, The Kids q should be off from the main camp(they should have a kids setup in a coordend off area). Even if its just a table an box of ingriedents and a kettle.
A parent should be allowed at the kids camp, Sit down, and STAY DOWN. Work as a consultant, not chef. Same for doing the boxes. This would be easier to take if the judging is adjusted to age groups specific
Also, IMO, The parents shouldnt be manning the grill. Sit down, watch them, make sure they are safe, but do not do the work.
It is possible as shown in
this thread. !
Phil - First let me state that I understand you are assuming that Turn is not on KCBS turn in day. For us middle coasters. 75% of the time turn-ins are on the same day as KCBS - so I am assuming for my comments that this is a Sat. morning turnin :smile:
I disagree about having an "area" for kids que. Several issues. a
1. Logistics - getting your kiddos cooker up to the location, and back (esp. w/hot coals.) is troublesome at best. trying to drag a cooker for 100 yards across gravel or grass is no fun.
2. Having 12-50 parents trying to get grills into/out of area with hot coals sounds like a burn waiting to happen.
3. This area for the kids should be properly shaded and equipped for the lil cooks to do their thing - tables, chairs, room for a small cooler for garnish,etc.
I much prefer the way Laurie, MO does their contest. They send a representative to your site to oversee the kids cooking ( and ensure the parents aren't). Your child can utilize all the tables, etc in their own camp that they are familiar with.
6 of 8 of the contests we have cooked where they had the kids together in an area were unshaded, and the parents had to bring a table, chairs, cooker, coolers for meat and garnish, etc. -- so it is no small feat to get everything together and up to the kids area. The worst part of most "kids areas" is the lack of shade however - typically there is none, so the kids are out in the sun, with grills all around them - so they get blasted with heat from the ground and the sky. We end up taking an EZup in some.
I say do it at the team sites, with a rep who comes to watch the child during the process. That works out GREAT!
On parents manning the grill - I Partially agree here -- My daughters are 4 and 6. Perfectly capable of using long tongs to flip wings, but with arms to short to open/close the grill lid. Kim or I are there always to "follow orders" - an "open the lid/ close it dad", etc. So I man the grill - but don't make any of the decisions. I listen for Kaylin to bark orders at me.
ok.. to me.., all bets are off if Kids Q is the day of KCBS turnin.
Anything i address here in my posts, assumes Kids Q is on a seperate day.
I havent seen one yet the same day of KCBS.. not around here. If my kid wanted to compete for a 1030 turnin, and it was in a different camp.. "sorry charlie, dont burn yourself, and heres the bandaids."
No way I can do that the day of KCBS turnin, someone would be rolling me out on a stretcher.
Most of our contests have a kids Q turn in between 9:30-11:00. It only works if I have Kim there with me to help supervise. No way I could do both without a second set of eyes.
Brent from the Slabs is 15 and in his last year of Kids Q. I have seen him offer to mentor a child in Kids Q. I think this is an OUTSTANDING idea he had and wish it could be on a large scale basis.
In regards to "parent Q", we have been to a couple of contests where a volunteer shows up on site at each kids' family camp to supervise the cooking and see that it is not done by parents. That makes it easier on the parents.
And guys, Jim cooks by himself at many contests I've seen. Some contests around here are notorious for scheduling a Kids Q at times that are not convenient for teams. Blue springs, for example, has Kids Q turn-in at 11:30 am on Saturday, 30 minutes before KCBS Chicken turn-in. If I was cooking by myself, my kid would not get to do Kids Q. As it is, I don't get to see some of them myself but rely on seeing photos afterwards. Dillon, Colorado... I saw none of it. I had to stay at camp to vend. It isn't fair at all to suggest that Jim COULD make time to spend with Kids Q.
I have to agree here. Jeff and I both rely largely on our wives to help with the girls in the Kid's Q's. If it is early morning, I fit it in, if it is later - I can't make it work alone.
Depending on age I think parental involvment should differ.
My daughter was 7 for her first. She created her own spice mix, did the mixing and prep work. I set her grill up. She's too young to be messing with fire. She did the turning of the meats, but i did the temp checks while on the grill. She pulled the meat off and I held the plate. Then from that point on she was on her own.
At an earlier comp the team next to us suffered a kids q casualty. Poor kid charred his leg on his cooker. HUGE burn. Not sure how it happened or if he was supervised or what. But I wouldn't leave my kid alone with a cooker. I'm just funny like that.
As far as the judging goes - I think many of the contests around here have separate tables for the two age groups. I think you do need to keep the "flights" based on age: 5-10, 11-15. One contest usually only has a handful of kids, so they put them all in one group. so a 6 year old is up against a 15 yr old. Kaylin likes cooking it also, just to see if she can hang with the older kids.
I dont think how you do it matters as much as how you position it with the kids. The whole point is to spark their interest in cooking, and engage them. You want a positive, rewarding experience - these are the BBQ'rs of tomorrow. As long as the kids are given a way to have fun, learn about que, and cook with mom/dad as a mentor, structure the judging however you like - they are all winners, as are we when that happens.
