Chef David and Chili Cookoff

Well, it's that time of year again and time to haul out the cozy rich colder weather food! This year once again, I competed in the annual, chili cook-off at school and had loads of fun. Each year parents fire up their favorite chili recipe and lay it all out there to be judged by children and adults alike. I dare say this year had a wider variety of chili versions; Some serious chili makers like myself and Chef Jeff (from the BBQ Fool Competition Team) and some more novelty with fancy adornments and kid's stuff. But all's fair in love and chili and while Chef Jeff and I took 4th and 5th respectively, we had fun and made some great chili.

My recipe for "Chef David's Midnight Chili No. 5" is featured in the recipe section here at BBQ Fool in the "other" category for you to make. Click here for the recipe now!

My chili is also featured on one of my favorite the Food Blogs: Giangi's Kitchen. Giangi is a good friend, a great cook, and a real pro. She has one of the most popular food blogs out there and even if you are not a chili fan, I encourage you to visit her sight. She has many recipes for all occasions and it's a lot of fun too!! Please click my picture to the right and you will be taken to Giangi's Blog link and enjoy! We did!

AZ BBQ Festival May 2012

Well, the 2012 AZ BBQ Festival is in the can and the BBQ Fool Competition bbq team was there in full force with a new smoker, new tents, and a new team member (Robert is moving and could not make it this year). This year's Scottsdale bbq contest was held at the Talking Stick Fields at the Salt River Indian Nation and had its ups and downs. The bbq competition was held more than a month later this year so it was "HOT" and "WINDY". But as far as BBQ Competition goes it was up there. I had to cut X's in the roof of the new tent to keep it from blowing away though. There were 75 teams and a lot of bbq competition. I dare say we performed "middle of the pack" on everything with some disappointments in Chicken and Ribs. BUT, for those of you that know our history we have never been big scorers on brisket, and this year Chef Jeff worked some magic and we increased our brisket scores significantly. By the way, most of the judges were new.

The promoter and the KCBS held a class the day before the event to make sure there were enough judges. So the judging in my opinion was a little green and somewhat questionable. But enough of that. So, while we did not perform tremendously well overall, we did respectable and improved where we needed to. We were not happy about our location this year at all and that impacted our people's choice performance. This year's bbq festival was 2 days: Day one KCBS categories and Day 2 was to be a single rack rib throw-down which we decided not to participate in. Well, because we were not going to stick around another day to cook one rack of ribs, we were relegated to one of the cement parking lot areas (so were many other teams) which was a bit more remote, hard to visit, and WARM!!! We made the best of it. We still had a lot of visitors and a lot of repeats. So our food was loved!! Also, for those that know us, know that we are big in peoples' choice.

BBQ Fool Comp. Team Participates in The Big Green Eggfest Chandler, AZ 2012

In March, the BBQ Fool Competition Team participated in the Eggfest held in Chandler, AZ hosted by BBQ Island. It was a fun barbecue contest and was "anything goes" grilling and barbeque. Way smaller than a bbq festival, it is essentially, designed to show off what you can do on a BGE. The best part of all is that the promoter brings the Eggs in for you. So, while we cook a lot on BGEs we didn't have to haul ours down there. That's a beautiful thing!!

It was a cloudy day and the wind was kicking up a bit so we had to do some tent triage to make sure we didn't have any "Mary Poppins" moments. But the heat had not kicked in yet in AZ so pretty comfortable conditions overall.

The crowd was a fairly steady stream all day but not too heavy which gave us the opportunity to chat with folks about our food. It also gave us the chance to get around and talk to some of the other teams. Below is a picture of the head chef of our neighbor to the north on the midway from "Team Bacon-Slayer". He won some top honors with his Pineapple upside down corm cake. Pretty amazing. Also, he served some chocolate covered bacon!! WOW, delicious!!

When they say "anything goes" they mean it. We served, two kinds of Tacos, some smoked Italian Sausage, Steak, and some special sauces. Of particular note, our "Tequila Hot Sauce" was a huge hit. We had folks visiting our booth with food from elsewhere just to get a drip or two of our Tequila hot sauce. They loved it!!!! That didn't even scratch the surface of what folks were doing on the Eggs though; BBQ Upside down Corn Cakes, Chocolate Covered Bacon and Pies to name a few. The winners won with desert and some more traditional backyard fare, like wings and things. And the grand prize winner was giving away beer as an enticement?? I'm not so sure that's part of the rules but, Whatever. OK, so you want to haul out the big guns. Be ready for us next time. Remember, Competition BBQ is intense. We are no strangers to that. Being that this was our first "Eggfest", we took a more traditional BBQ approach and learned a lot about what the field and the event was all about! Next time, we'll take a more "Backyard" or "Tailgate" approach and blow everyone's mind with what we do on an egg.

We made some friends, ate some great food and had a great time!!! I highly recommend attending one as a spectator or a participant if they come to a town near you! Stop by next year. You ain't seen nothin yet folks!!!

AZ BBQ Festival March 2011

(check out the Photos in the Photo Album page from both prep night and festival)

On March 26th, 2011, the sky cracked open and dropped a BBQ party of monumental portions on the City of Scottsdale. The BBQ Fool Competition BBQ team was right in the middle of it at the AZ BBQ Festival. We have affectionately referred to it as BBQ Fool's "Giant Jenga Tour". A great time was had by all!! For some maybe a little too much fun. Easily the most fun I've ever had with a grill and a crowd!!! The Scottsdale Barbecue Festival was it!! Filled with Barbecue Competition Teams from all over, it was Barbecue Contest News!

Robert, the "Director of Marketing Foolishness" brought with him a giant Jenga game made from cut 2X4 wood planks. The game was an instant hit with the BBQ Teams on prep night and the crowd on BBQ Festival Day the 26th. So much fun, in fact, it caused several teams as well as the BBQ Fools to stay up well beyond the designated 11 pm quiet time into the wee hours of the morning. Partying, getting to know one another, and playing Giant Jenga. It was truly amazing. So amazing that in fact, the head judge told us when it was all over that he almost DQ'd us because we kept many of the teams up. Like who was sleeping anyway?? Paleeeze!!! AND most of the teams including the overall festival winner were up with us all night anyway!!! Apparently, the Scottsdale Barbecue Festival was setting a strict standard.

Robert also brought our technology up to date. He rigged our tent with 2 flat screen TV's that were running slide shows from former events all day and night. AND we had our own PA system for amazing music and "JENGA". We were it!!

This year we did trade-in the "Hotel Escalade" and sported a 21 ft. toy hauler as our home for the 2 days. The sleep deprivation wasn't as much of an issue this year. Once again, though The BBQ Fool competition team did fantastic job and we turned out some beautiful food. Our Ribs were amazing. Brisket and Pork Butt were right there too. We fell down a bit on chicken this year and failed to reach the stardom from last year but that was my fault. I started it too late and we did not have enough time to crisp up the skin (as you know, key in great BBQ Chicken).

There were 40 teams and I dare say no weekend warriors at all. This year, there was a competing bbq festival down in Chandler so the field was smaller and more focused. We scored middle of the pack on most of our food which was disappointing because we all agreed that we turned out some ridiculously good stuff. We did not put as much smoke on the food this year so maybe we were up against some judges that wanted smoke instead of great meat with some smoke on it. Who knows? Generally a crapshoot on these things and very subjective. The guests' pleasure spoke loud and clear though!!! They chowed!!! We cooked a lot more this year to dish out for "peoples choice" and the food literally flew off the table. The ribs were gone in about 8 minutes. At one point, I just couldn't cut them any faster and I was using an electric knife.

Thanks again go out to my chef team-mates; Jeff and Dan for their amazing dedication and BBQ Talent. And AGAIN a special thanks to Robert, the "Director of Marketing Foolishness". His relentless Jenga mastery and technology control made us a real hit with everyone. Everyone knew BBQ Fool was there. Amazing!!!

And of course thanks to all of our families and friends for coming out to support us. It wouldn't have been the same without you all!!!

The BBQ Fool Competition BBQ Team takes 6th Place in Chicken at the AZ BBQ Festival April 2010!!!

A great time was had by all at the AZ BBQ Festival on April 9th and 10th in Scottsdale, Arizona. The newly-formed BBQ Fool competition team did fantastic their first time out with competition BBQ with a top ten placement in Chicken and some other impressive results. With 60 competition BBQ teams competing, we had our work cut out for us at this barbecue contest. With the exception of a little sleep deprivation and some stiff backs from sleeping in the "Hotel Escalade" in the parking garage, we had a lot of fun. Thanks go out to my chef team-mates; Jeff and Dan for their amazing dedication and BBQ Talent.

It was a lot of fun and I can assure everyone out there, you will see the team again at this Scottsdale Barbecue Festival!!! And a special thanks to Robert, the "Director of Marketing Foolishness" who flew in special the morning of the 10th to hold our marketing effort together. His relentless marketing resulted in the team running out of food to serve for the people's choice category by 2 pm. Amazing!!! And of course thanks to all of our families and friends for coming out to support us. This was some BBQ Festival and some BBQ Competition AND it wouldn't have been the same without you all!!!

Here are our results for this outing:

6th in Chicken
29th in Ribs
49th in Pork Butt
55th in Brisket

Note: By the way, we scored "0" points for appearance on Pork Butt and Brisket for the use of an unapproved garnish so the results in those categories are still pretty good with a goose-egg for appearance. We still weren't last!!!! I won't make that mistake again!!