Latest / BBQ Therapy / #51 Brandon and Michelle O'Guin- Ain't it the Life BBQ | Memphis in May Masterclass

Transcript

#51 Brandon and Michelle O'Guin- Ain't it the Life BBQ | Memphis in May Masterclass · BBQ Therapy

0:00
Listen, these guys are trying to get you, they're looking at you
0:03
and you go, you get one bite and you got to Remember Me by one
0:06
bite. So I'm going to blow you away
0:09
with it. So whatever I've got to do to
0:11
get as much flavor in that one bite, maybe 3 or 4 bites,
0:15
whatever the judge is going to take, you really got to just
0:18
throw it in their face. And I tell people all the time,
0:21
you, you, you don't want to eat my competition BBQ by the slab.
0:25
You don't. Listen, Learn.
0:27
Get inspired. I'm Tavis Bryant and this is BBQ
0:31
Therapy Like subscribe and follow to help grow the BBQ
0:36
therapy community. Also visit my website at
0:39
www.barbecuetherapypodcast.com Welcome to the BBQ Therapy
0:52
podcast. My name is Tavis Bryant, and
0:55
when people talk about the mountaintop of BBQ, certain
0:58
names always come up. The Jack, The Royal, Houston.
1:02
But when the conversation turns to pork, to tradition, to
1:06
pageantry, to one of the most recognizable championships in
1:09
the world, the name is Memphis. And may for decades, team have
1:13
circled this contest on their calendar.
1:15
Some spend years trying to get there, others spend careers
1:19
trying to win it. But if you never walk these
1:21
grounds, never heard judges come through the tent, never felt the
1:26
pressure of when one bite can define your season, you may not
1:30
fully understand what makes Memphis of May different.
1:33
Today, we're joined by two people who know the event from
1:37
inside out, Brandon and Michelle O Gwen.
1:41
They serve as judging chairs for Memphis of May World
1:44
Championship BBQ Cooking Contest, helping lead one of the
1:48
most respected judging operations in the sport today.
1:52
We're talking history, structure, pressure, growth, and
1:56
why this contest means so much to the BBQ world.
1:59
Welcome to the BBQ Therapy podcast.
2:02
I got one rule, make yourself at home and speak freely.
2:06
Oh don't worry, I got that cover.
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Thanks for having us man. All right, no problem, I'm glad
2:12
y'all can make it on. All right, for someone that just
2:16
fell off the truck, could y'all break it down in the simplest
2:20
terms, What is Memphis and May and the details about it?
2:26
I guess a lot of people would say Memphis and May is the
2:28
granddaddy of them all. We might not be the oldest, we
2:32
might not be the biggest, but we might have started the whole
2:35
thing. I guess that's the way you want
2:36
to look at it. We've been crowning world
2:39
champion since 1977. It is one of the only contests
2:43
in the country where there is live interactions between judges
2:47
and the teams. The most of the other contests
2:50
are blind box only Memphis and May is the show.
2:52
It's kind of like the Major League Baseball reference.
2:56
It's the show you have to put it on.
2:58
And that's kind of what makes it a little bit different.
3:01
Yeah. Definitely.
3:02
And why has this contest held prestige for so long in the BBQ
3:06
world full of competitions? Wow.
3:09
That's honestly, I think it's just the tradition of it.
3:13
It's been going on since the 70s.
3:16
We're usually on the forefront of when you see something new in
3:19
BBQ, when you see a new cooker, when you see a new idea, when
3:23
you see a new flavor profile, it usually comes from Memphis and
3:27
May. It's just evolved that way.
3:29
And then I think when you ask around, like I said, I think it
3:33
all goes back to it's the only contest where you as a team get
3:38
to sell your product to your judges.
3:41
Originally, before they had a little split, you had to win a
3:44
contest to be there. So it was like the Super Bowl.
3:48
So then we take the winners from all the contests around the
3:50
country or the world of these other sanctioned contests.
3:53
And that that was like their Invitational to to battle the
3:56
champion, like a battle of the Champions.
3:58
It's not like that right now anymore, but that's separated
4:00
about a few years back. But that, I think that probably
4:03
is what led to that prestige of wanting to be there and being
4:06
that last. I'm walking the stage.
4:08
The way I see it, it's like a All Star game where you got all
4:11
these teams joining together. To compete against other teams
4:15
that's joined together is cool. Yes, it is.
4:18
Yeah, it's definitely. You do see some really
4:21
interesting teams that get put together to come try to win this
4:24
thing. So where did the atmosphere feel
4:27
like when the grounds are open and the teams rolling in?
4:31
Loading is very interesting and chaotic.
4:34
Yeah, they've never loaded into a BBQ contest.
4:37
The Memphis and May. Is that on steroids?
4:40
Yeah, between the setups and all that stuff, between the.
4:43
Scaffolding for the three story booths and just getting 160
4:48
teams loaded into it's a spot in a timely manner and not bumping
4:53
into each other and just getting everything organized and ready
4:55
to go for show day. Because pretty much they'll
4:57
start loading it on the Saturday and Sunday, which is Mother's
5:00
Day weekend. They got to be show ready by
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Wednesday morning. Yeah, definitely.
5:06
I forgot it is Mother's Day weekend.
5:09
Yeah, yeah, sorry, Mike, at least we're going to have the
5:12
event on Mother's Day. But yeah, we do make them load
5:15
in and. Because it is a lot of equipment
5:19
that comes in, not just their smokers in their coolers, not
5:22
like a regular smaller BBQ contest they're bringing in, I
5:24
think half their house. Yeah, with.
5:26
Them. It definitely feels like it, for
5:28
sure. Just between that, all the chaos
5:31
and everything, once everybody finally gets loaded in, man, it
5:34
is. It's just a big party.
5:36
Everybody, it's a family reunion.
5:38
Everybody's going around seeing their friends they haven't seen
5:40
in a while, all that. It's very, it's pretty much a
5:44
community. You can feel it once we really
5:46
get going, yeah. That's why Wednesday has always
5:48
been my favorite day in the park because other than doing the
5:51
cooks meeting, that's when we can actually go around and visit
5:53
the teams and enjoy ourselves for a few minutes before we get
5:56
busy with the judging process. And what was your first
5:59
experience at Memphis and May? What year?
6:01
And did y'all were y'all judging then or did y'all just?
6:03
Went Oh no. My first volunteer experience
6:06
with Memphis and May was probably in 2007 and I signed up
6:11
to be what they call an ambassador.
6:13
That is the people that are ambassadors are signed several
6:16
teams, like 5 or 6 teams and their job is to be the liaison
6:19
for the team needs anything like to call in for ice or if they're
6:22
having an electrical issue, they get their ambassador to call
6:25
into the headquarters to get that resolved for them.
6:27
So I did that for several years and then there is a need in the
6:31
judging area a few years later and I switched to the judging
6:33
committee at that point and worked in there and worked my
6:36
way up and then Brandon jumped in on 2013.
6:39
Yeah, I actually started working for him in 2013.
6:42
But listen, I'm a lifelong Memphians.
6:44
My first BBQ fest was like I probably rolled up in a
6:47
stroller. It's just the way that guys my
6:50
dad competed with the first couple of years he was on a
6:53
team. Not the first year, but like the
6:55
second and third year he was on a team.
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And then over the years, you just go.
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When I was in high school, I used to go try to party and
7:01
sneak into the tents, all the fun stuff.
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But then I started actually work for them seasonally in 2013.
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And then that's how we met. And then she said, hey, why
7:10
don't you stick around and volunteer with us?
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And then next thing I know, I'm on the microphone running the
7:14
judging. It didn't take long, though.
7:19
Yeah. Try to impress her.
7:24
Let's switch to the competition format.
7:27
For someone used to turn in competition boxes, what do they
7:31
misunderstand about Memphis and May?
7:34
Our first rule is with our pork categories, there's nothing but
7:37
meat in the box. Some organizations like KCBS,
7:41
you got to build that pug and green, which all of us hate with
7:44
a passion, building those things.
7:46
And then you've got other organizations where they do foil
7:48
in the bottom of box, that sort of thing.
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Our box, the only thing that's in the box is meat.
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So that that's one of the first things that's a little
7:55
different. And then like I said, it all
7:57
goes back to we have our blind component and then we have our
8:01
on site component that runs concurrently and that's where
8:03
your scores come from. OK.
8:06
And with that do I do the taste, tendonite and appearance?
8:09
Appearance. It's appearance, taste.
8:12
Texture. He got his tender appearance,
8:15
ties, tenderness and overall impression.
8:17
Yeah, I'm about to get a scorecard out.
8:19
Man, it's been a long year and it's not even started yet.
8:24
And then for the on site they had on two more criterion which
8:27
is area and personal appearance and presentation.
8:30
And this is one of the few contests where hospitality,
8:33
organization, communication and execution all matter.
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Why is it so important to be balanced in all those as far as
8:41
when it comes to the judging? It is a fine choreographed event
8:47
there because your blind box gets submitted and then at the
8:51
end of the turn in window, your first judge is standing at your
8:54
booth, so there's no real downtime.
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You have to have a team behind you who can help you.
9:00
If you're the head cook, get everything together, have the
9:04
whole area set and ready to roll.
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Then you have to jump in there and build the blind box and then
9:08
come out of that and get cleaned up and then be ready to present
9:12
to a judge. You have to show them the meat
9:13
on the grill. You have to then sit, explain
9:16
about your cookers and all that stuff.
9:17
Then you have to sit them down and actually feed them.
9:20
Tell them your story as I call it.
9:22
It's it's your one chance to give them the best BS you can
9:25
give them. And you only got 10 to 15
9:28
minutes Max to do it. OK.
9:30
And I heard you on Michelle, on Heath Rouse and you were talking
9:35
about, I guess somebody asking knees above the knees.
9:38
What did you mean about that? So usually it's notorious during
9:44
the spring and they're having a contest this weekend in South
9:47
Haven. It always rains.
9:49
And so when rain hits dirt, what is that called?
9:52
Yes, mud. So.
9:54
Usually the teams will be asking if we've had some decent, some
9:57
nice weather, what kind of judging are we doing?
9:59
Are they going to judge us from the way our floor looks?
10:01
Because if it's got mud tracks on it because it's been muddy or
10:04
whatever. And that's what they're always
10:05
as. Is it knees up?
10:06
There's one year down when we're on the river and it rained so
10:09
bad. We did.
10:09
We said we didn't neck up judging.
10:11
Yeah, we said if you're if the guy that's talking to you
10:14
doesn't have barbecue on his face, they get a 10.
10:20
It's really bad now. We've been at Tiger Lane the
10:23
last few years. It's not.
10:24
Quite as well. Concrete so it's a little bit
10:26
better, but all that goes back to like I said they we do score
10:30
your area and personal appearances one and then your
10:34
presentation is another criteria.
10:37
So it's all the items that are in your control within your
10:40
booth. Yeah, that's what I always say.
10:43
Beer cans, cigarette butts and you're drunk off all those
10:46
things need to be picked up when it's time for the judge to be
10:48
presented to because like I said you got to make sure
10:51
everything's ready to go people, you have to make sure the judges
10:54
want to eat there, right. It's not it's not about how much
10:57
money team spins or anything like that, but you don't want
11:00
somebody rolling up to you wouldn't need it a restaurant
11:02
with crap on the table and sauce everywhere.
11:05
You it's not a feeling. So we do got to make sure that
11:08
it's. Sanitary.
11:09
It's sanitary, all that good stuff.
11:11
And then I said, so that all that needs up and all that's
11:14
just related to if it's been nasty, how dirty the place is,
11:18
if we're being nice, we give you a break on your floor, that kind
11:20
of thing. Yeah, it was.
11:22
I went in 2023 and that was at the park.
11:25
It's nice to look at the water, but it was muddy that year and
11:29
it was horrible. But it was bad.
11:31
Yeah, that was one of the worst years that we ever had
11:34
logistically. That's the year where you didn't
11:36
neck up. Yeah, yeah, I think it was the
11:38
neck up here. Yeah, it was bad.
11:40
That was in the park was new that year and they and all that
11:44
stuff hadn't even fully set in good like the side hadn't it
11:48
here. Great.
11:49
So yeah, it was a total mess that year and it was always like
11:53
that in Timely Park, even when it was just a big wide open
11:56
field if it. I mean, it was always bad too,
11:59
because it was a couple weeks after the music festival that
12:01
Memphis and May have put on. So it would get destroyed from
12:04
100,000 people partying and listening to concerts for three
12:08
days and then the teams roll into like just a dirt field
12:12
essentially. Some years it was bad.
12:14
We make the best of it though. It's that's all part of the
12:16
adventure. And the teams that compete here
12:19
year after year, they know how to adapt to it.
12:21
They know what's coming. Yeah, I like how they had where
12:23
they have it and how they have it set up now because down there
12:27
by the water, it was like a big jigsaw puzzle.
12:30
So you don't know if you've seen everybody, haven't seen
12:32
everybody, but it's. Like a two mile walk for me,
12:35
Jim. Yeah, yeah.
12:37
Our judges are very appreciative.
12:38
They actually are walking less now than they did previously
12:42
because they had to walk all over that park because our RIMS
12:45
team, they would run all the way sometimes from the middle of the
12:48
park to the North End of the park and that's almost a half a
12:52
mile. That's a long walk for somebody
12:54
to come eat your BBQ. What category tends to expose
12:57
mistakes to fastest that y'all think ribs shoulder a whole
13:01
hole? I think ribs.
13:03
Yeah, I'd say ribs. Ribs are the ones that of course
13:06
they're. Less forgiving.
13:07
They're less forgiving. There's not much legal way me
13:10
when I cook shoulders, you know, I they're done 5 or 6 hours
13:13
before the judges show up. Sometimes they're sitting in a
13:16
box. We're waiting to just go back to
13:18
be fed to the judge. So I got a lot of lead way
13:21
there. Ribs.
13:22
There ain't much forgiveness on those.
13:24
Yeah. I mean, for example, on park
13:25
evacuations for weather, Yeah, the rib teams hate it when it
13:28
happens to their category because they're like my ribs.
13:31
They sat too long, they held too long.
13:32
Now they're mush or a whole hog or a shoulder.
13:36
It's just happy just sitting there.
13:37
Because I think it gets better actually sometimes the longer
13:40
you leave it. Yeah, and that was last year,
13:43
wasn't it, where the weather, they closed it down.
13:48
We we, yeah, we did. We we had one weather evacuation
13:52
last year too on Friday night. They.
13:55
Yeah, everything got shut down and we've had those events here
13:58
after we had awards they one year they we had to hurry up and
14:02
speed through awards to get everybody out there.
14:04
And then we legit that 60 mile an hour straight line winds come
14:08
through. We were we've got stuck in the
14:10
trailer. We can even get out poles.
14:13
Like. Impaled tent poles are flying
14:15
by, dishes and shit flying everywhere and you just go, oh
14:18
man, they're like, I'm having my Dorothy Wizard of Oz moment in
14:22
here. We called up the compound and
14:25
said listen, we're in this trailer, so if something comes
14:28
through here, y'all remember we're in here.
14:31
The first thing I thought of, we said let's talk about y'all and
14:39
judging chairs. What does your responsibility
14:41
actually include from a leadership standpoint?
14:43
We break it up into we kind of split a lot of it right down the
14:47
middle. She's the computer technical
14:50
person who does the she overseas, the king of the scores
14:55
that we have, the accountants, the administrative side.
14:57
And then I'm the one who enforces all the rules and who
15:01
deals with the judges and cooks. I'm the ringmaster of the circus
15:06
in the judging tent. Pretty much just the way I look
15:09
at it because it's just hurting people around in circles and
15:12
there's 6 or 700 people to to hurt and move around on a daily
15:15
basis It's. 300 judges plus their friend or we're
15:19
responsible for making sure they're in the right places at
15:22
the right times and then the competitors as well as was
15:25
making sure they have a clear line to turn their entries in
15:27
and we get those entries turning in a very timely manner coded
15:30
and put on the table within the. So that's not sitting that long
15:33
in a timely manner. So we're averaging on shoot on
15:35
Thursday alone because that's our biggest category day.
15:38
We're averaging 100 entries per category and we have. 6.
15:44
Categories 7. Categories that 8 plus the kids.
15:47
So. So you figure you got 100
15:50
entries coming in every hour, you got to get them in there and
15:53
process in less than 15 minutes, get them to the judges, have
15:55
them judge it within 20, and get the scorecards into the trailer
15:58
and get them keyed before awards.
16:00
So we're averaging about 1500 scorecards a day being keyed by
16:04
two people. Wow and do y'all do the
16:07
comparative or y'all do one at a time as far?
16:10
As yeah, we're comparative judging.
16:12
So the way that works is that when you get assigned your stuff
16:17
for the year you sign up or whatever you're going to sign up
16:19
for, we know who you're going against when your entries are
16:23
turned in. It would be a table number and a
16:25
place. Number and a place number on
16:27
that table. And you're technically going
16:30
only against those guys. Of course you're going against
16:32
everybody else, but. They're comparing you against.
16:34
They're comparing you against those and the judges are
16:37
supposed to pick their winner off of that table.
16:39
So they pick their favorite off of the 6th entries in front of
16:42
them. And then when they go out on
16:44
site, they judge three teams each and they pick their
16:49
favorite there. And that's all the judges want,
16:51
a 10. And that's what they that's what
16:53
they're looking for. Memphis in May.
16:54
They want that 10. And how do you recruit, train,
16:57
assign and maintain consistency of moving judges?
17:00
Because I know there's it's hard because I judge for GBA and down
17:05
here in Georgia and I know some of them just come to eat, some
17:08
of them come take it serious, some of them out to prove a
17:11
point. Yes, yeah, there's, there's,
17:14
there's many different types of judges.
17:17
I will say this one thing that I do.
17:19
First off, we have a judge class every year.
17:21
Yeah, of course. We have our judge class every
17:23
year where we train judges. We have one of our BBQ teams
17:26
come in and present to them, answer questions so they can see
17:30
what it is. We explained to them what the
17:33
BBQ teams are actually going through to put that in front of
17:37
them. And since we're cooks, that's
17:40
one of my main things that I harp on to our judges is that,
17:45
listen, these guys put their heart and soul and sweat and
17:48
money into this. They deserve to be judged
17:51
fairly. They deserve your full
17:54
attention. They deserve this.
17:56
Then there is no ifs, ands or buts about it.
17:58
When you're behind our curtain, sitting at our judging tables,
18:01
your phone is not in your hand whatsoever.
18:04
You are or you are on task. You're looking at what you're
18:07
supposed to be doing and then I think some of it we do just get
18:10
the fall back on. Everybody knows it's the world
18:12
championship so they really want to be there.
18:15
The judges want to be there. We don't have to recruit very
18:18
hard. No, we actually, we filled up at
18:20
the beginning of March. So we had to put people on a
18:22
wait list. Yeah.
18:22
We have. We've been on a wait list for
18:24
judges the past few years. Are we trying to make sure that
18:26
our judges get at least a couple opportunities a day?
18:29
Is that a way if they're happy, there's so no one gets to short
18:32
end of the stick? We do our best with that.
18:34
Our computer assigns all of our every assignment that we have.
18:38
So that's one thing about our program.
18:40
There's no favoritism. There's no favoritism.
18:42
It doesn't matter who you are and the computer assigns it and
18:45
we don't manipulate it at all. So all that's the only kind of
18:49
manipulation we do is it says that this judge is supposed to
18:52
judge you to that day. If that judge doesn't show up
18:55
that morning, we have to replace that judge.
18:58
So that is one of the biggest headaches that we do is deal
19:00
with our no show rate because life happens we.
19:03
Even had Judge die like a week before.
19:04
Yeah, we did. We've had all kinds of things.
19:07
We've had judges get in car accidents on the way.
19:09
We've had it's graduation season, somebody didn't realize
19:12
when their kid was graduating or their niece or nephew.
19:15
We understand these things, but we have to adjust for it.
19:17
So that is one of the tricky things is when everything's
19:19
assigned ahead of time, you have to go in and fill those holes
19:23
essentially is what you're doing.
19:24
So that that's part of what the circus that you might see if
19:28
you're in our area go on the weekend, that's might be some of
19:31
what. But we do.
19:32
Our main thing is to make sure that our judges are engaged and
19:36
are asking questions when they're on site.
19:38
They're participative with the teams and we try to make sure
19:42
that they don't. We try to eliminate the Super
19:45
judge as much as we can as what we call them.
19:48
And we do so on our judges do go on site, there's a judge
19:52
feedback card that the judge gives to the teams and we
19:55
strongly encourage the teams to fill those cards up because we
19:58
personally read everyone of them.
19:59
I do read everyone. Of them, if we have an issue
20:01
where they felt they weren't treated fairly by that judge, we
20:05
do investigate it and then we need to retrain or recoach the
20:08
judge again or put them on probation or whatever.
20:09
We do also, like you have one year where a team felt they
20:13
weren't judged properly on site and we actually sent a
20:15
replacement judge out to make sure he felt he was judged
20:18
fairly. We, I think we finally built the
20:19
rapport with the teams that they know with me and Brandon being
20:23
in the position that we are, that they feel heard.
20:25
So they know if they do say, hey, raise my hand, hey, I think
20:28
this team's cheating or hey, I don't like this judge because of
20:30
this reason they're not doing it correctly that they know we'll
20:32
address it at a minimum. Or if we think that there's
20:36
nothing really wrong, we'll explain to them why, and that's
20:38
helped a lot. That's excellent that y'all do
20:40
that. It makes it seem fair and
20:44
somebody's that proud to prove a point or something they won't
20:47
affect. That's, that's one thing that I
20:49
say during our cooks meetings, I tell every team, every head cook
20:53
that comes in there as if you do not feel that you were judged
20:56
fairly, especially on site, let me know immediately, immediately
21:01
and I will come address it. And you can ask several teams.
21:04
I've done that. I, like I said, I've went and
21:06
replaced judges. We've had to do all kinds of
21:09
things like that. The main thing is that we want
21:11
to make sure that when a team comes to our contest, they know
21:14
that it is fair, that if they put what they put out is what
21:19
got judged and it got judged fairly.
21:21
And that's really all our mission is to make sure that at
21:24
the end of the day, you if you lose, you didn't put out your
21:27
best product, you're OK with that.
21:29
You at least you had a fair shake at it.
21:31
And they also know they can call us after they get their results,
21:33
their scores, their details. If they don't understand how to
21:36
read it, we'll talk them through it.
21:37
And if sometimes they just landed on the table of death
21:39
where you got several good teams all on the same table beating
21:41
each other up, and that happens a lot, too.
21:44
And once they understand that, Oh yeah, that wasn't on the
21:46
table with the rookie down that road down here thinking gonna
21:49
beat his butt, the rookie might have landed on a really good
21:51
table with people that weren't that great on, and that's why
21:53
they might have done well. So that's where that, compared
21:55
to judging, definitely shuffles the field a little bit.
21:58
Oh yeah, definitely. And let me understand, as far as
22:02
when you're judging, y'all do the blind box, y'all do the on
22:06
site. So after that is there another
22:08
round after that or y'all just go for notice?
22:11
Yeah. So after we get to your initial
22:14
run in of your three on site judges in your blind box.
22:18
They combined together. They combined together and their
22:20
percentage and their waiting and all that stuff, and then we spit
22:23
out a tally. Then we take the top three teams
22:26
in each division. They go into our finals round
22:29
and only those nine teams are eligible to win the grand
22:33
championship. So pretty much everything from
22:36
4th through whatever is determined at that point.
22:39
But our top 3 is not you can go in 3rd and come out first.
22:43
You can go in 2nd and come out first.
22:45
You can you can go in first and come out third.
22:48
I've done all in these contests around here.
22:52
I know GBA is probably the same way.
22:54
If y'all have finals, it's the same concept.
22:56
Each scores are wiped and those nine teams are the ones who get
22:59
to fight it out. And then in our patio, we've got
23:01
three teams for patio. Those are the only three that
23:04
can win the title. Yeah.
23:05
And So what that happens in finals, they have the same 4
23:08
judges go judge all nine of those teams.
23:10
So those people eat a lot that day.
23:12
So. So they're being judged by the
23:13
same four people. Yeah, and those are those 4
23:16
judges. Don't judge anyone else that day
23:19
at all. We're trying to save room in
23:20
that stomach. We want them hungry and happy
23:23
and ready to judge. Because you think about it, for
23:25
the whole hog, they have to eat portion of the ham, the shoulder
23:29
and the loin. And if you're on site, they're
23:30
definitely gonna give you some bacon if they want your bonus
23:32
points. So that's four pieces of meat
23:34
there, plus your ribs and your shoulder.
23:36
So that's seven pieces of meat in a, in a between an hours of
23:40
what, 2 and 5:30? Yeah, 3 hour window.
23:42
It is a lot of eating, a very short window.
23:46
We try to mix it up every year and try to get a couple of male
23:50
and a couple of female judges for our finals judges.
23:53
The hardest thing for me to do is to find a female judge that
23:57
they go. I can't eat that much, Brandon.
23:59
There's no way. Oh, you know, I get turned down
24:02
that I get turned down by more women every year doing that.
24:04
They're like, no, Brandon, there's absolutely no way I can
24:06
eat that much meat. And there's men that do it too.
24:11
I've men that men judges that they're like, man, I can't do
24:13
finals. So there's just I can't.
24:14
There you are. I can do patio finals.
24:16
I can judge three ribs. That's cool.
24:18
But I cannot judge that much me as a judge.
24:21
I don't think I could judge finals in Memphis and may
24:23
either. Man, to be honest with you, that
24:25
is a lot of eating. Let me ask you, what is the most
24:29
stressful part of y'all role during the event?
24:33
Keeping the contest on time. Yeah, the clock never stops
24:37
ticking the entire time. As we say, the show stops for no
24:41
one or nothing, so once it kicks off, it gets going.
24:46
The side of the time crunch. I'd say our biggest thing is if
24:49
there is issues that arise, you never know what they're going to
24:52
be. It's never the same thing.
24:55
Should we had but bomb like jello Bomb scare?
24:58
We had we we had a suspicious package get found at the gate
25:02
one year. It was a backpack full of jello.
25:04
Shots. They evacuated.
25:05
They evacuated. Well, we've had all kinds of
25:07
things. You name it, we've had it happen
25:10
at Memphis in May. Anytime you put thousands of
25:13
people in a very small area and feel it with barbecue and
25:16
alcohol, If things are going to happen, you just.
25:19
It's the unexpected that always gets you in the end.
25:22
Like when you see your friends and guys you've known for years
25:26
walk the stage and they're crying and it makes it all worth
25:31
it in the end. Oh.
25:31
Yeah, definitely my favorite thing to do is if it's somebody
25:34
we know handing them their finals time.
25:36
Yeah, Yeah, I do enjoy that. We don't.
25:38
We sometimes it's the ambassadors that usually do
25:41
that. And every once in a while
25:42
they're one of our our good friends because like I said, we,
25:45
I tell people all the time, Memphis and Maine is the only
25:47
contest that we don't cook. We can't.
25:50
We've been, we run the judging for this, but it's the only one.
25:52
We don't cook. We cook all over the country
25:54
just like everybody else. We're out chasing BBQ glory and
25:58
parking lots all over the country just like everybody
26:00
else. It's definitely a different
26:01
animal though. So what's new or expanded for
26:05
2026 this year? We got some good things.
26:08
We got all kinds of new things this year.
26:10
Open. Fire, open fire.
26:12
That's the biggest one. That's the one that you're
26:14
seeing the most promotion on social media about the new side.
26:17
So we've got a the first Memphis in May open fire championship.
26:21
Alfagoni and Mike Starr are actually putting that on.
26:24
They got. Kids Division.
26:25
They've got an invitation only kids division in the open fire
26:29
thing that they've started up this year.
26:32
There's six kids competing and one of them is ours.
26:34
Yeah, our kid, that's the only thing.
26:35
He competed in Memphis. Because I have nothing to do
26:38
with it. Because.
26:38
We have nothing to do with it. And then we we didn't add it
26:41
this year. We had it last year.
26:42
We actually have a Memphis and May junior division.
26:45
Yeah, that's and we have 30 kid competitors between the ages of
26:49
nine and 17 competing in four categories.
26:52
So it's pork chops, steak, chicken legs, and dessert over 2
26:55
days. Oh, wow.
26:57
And then we've also, the past couple years, we've instituted
27:00
several new things on the judging side.
27:03
Last year we instituted what we call the hawk Patrol, which is
27:07
where we send a person into the booth to watch you pull your
27:10
meat off of your hog to make sure that the meat's coming off
27:12
of a hawk. He.
27:13
Didn't cook any extra. And he didn't cook any extra
27:15
parts, but we've been hearing for years, and I'm sure you hear
27:18
it in GBA. This guy's cooking another loin,
27:21
or he's doing this, or he's doing that.
27:23
So we decided as an organization it was time to to listen to the
27:27
team somewhat, and then we made a way to where we could have an
27:30
observer come in. Last year we did it for Hog.
27:33
This year we've expanded it to shoulder.
27:35
So they're making sure that those mighty muscles are still
27:38
attached to those shoulders, because we cook whole shoulders.
27:40
Make sure they didn't bring collars.
27:41
Or make sure they didn't bring in a collar or a butt or
27:44
something different, because you're not allowed to cook
27:46
those. The only acceptable entry at
27:48
Memphis in May is the whole shoulder only and then a whole
27:52
hog. We still don't know if the rib
27:53
guys are cheating. I guess that's somebody else to
27:55
do it for you, somebody else's booth and stuff.
27:59
So we don't know if we're going to expand it into that.
28:02
But honestly, I think it's made a big difference because this is
28:05
the first year we've ever had more hogs than we do shoulders.
28:09
They didn't know that we were expanding it into shoulders this
28:12
year. We had told them last year that
28:14
if it went well, we probably were, but they knew that it was
28:16
going to stick around and HOG, so we had more teams sign up for
28:19
HOG this year than we've ever had before.
28:21
Because they're feeling more confident.
28:22
They know it's going to be fair. They know it's straight up.
28:25
You've got guys, you've got people who've cooked different
28:28
categories for years that switched.
28:30
There's world champions jumping around and switching categories,
28:34
things like that. I think that's made a real big
28:36
difference. And then we've also part of our
28:38
judge training program as we've got our shadow judging program.
28:42
We've been running to where your on site judge is followed by a
28:46
new judge. That a way it takes that newness
28:49
off for when you go on site there's you won't have a judge.
28:52
That's their first time they've actually seen it.
28:54
We make them do that the whole first year they have to go out.
28:58
They get to do a couple of on site visits.
29:00
Usually they get to judge blind. So they're learning that, but we
29:03
encourage that. We encourage them to just see it
29:06
and listen and that a way we have the best judges we can get.
29:09
We want our judges educated. We want them not nervous because
29:13
the interaction with the teams is crucial.
29:15
And if your judge is nervous and can't speak and can't ask you
29:18
questions, that doesn't really help the teams.
29:21
That puts the team on edge. So we want great judges who are
29:24
who've seen this before. We don't want someone who's come
29:26
fresh out of judging school to go look at Myron Mixon's hog.
29:30
We've heard enough about that. Love Myron.
29:32
But they're not wrong. Those guys weren't wrong.
29:35
A lot of those new people were intimidated and then they would
29:37
come to me and they got Brandon. I don't know what to do to go
29:40
with BBQ, man. You eat it, You go over there
29:43
and you eat it. You let them tell you their
29:44
story and you let them tell you. You let them tell them it's your
29:47
first time. I would tell the judges that all
29:49
the time. Tell them you're brand new teams
29:52
love brand new judges because they go, hey, I'm the first.
29:54
That's one that gets to put a flavor in your mouth that you're
29:56
going to remember BBQ by because your first bite of competition
30:00
BBQ is. This is not the same thing that
30:04
you've been used to if you've never played in this world
30:07
before. Exactly.
30:08
That is another animal than anything you can get at any
30:10
restaurant. There's great restaurant BBQ,
30:13
but that's not what we do. Exactly.
30:16
I tell people, everybody swear on Bucky's, but I'm like, y'all,
30:20
you had no real brisket. Hey, look, there's nothing wrong
30:23
with them sandwiches. When they're on the right,
30:25
they're great. Hey, look, Randy, Polly and
30:28
them, they know what they're doing.
30:30
They make great. It's good brisket for feeding
30:32
all the people. The sandwich is great, but it
30:35
ain't what you're getting in a competition, man.
30:38
They don't serve chopped brisket in competitions where I go.
30:41
And it has some of the best briskets.
30:43
I was like y'all don't know what y'all talking about?
30:45
No. Look, you have to explain to
30:47
people too. One of the biggest things that I
30:49
teach our new judges is listen, these guys are trying to get
30:52
you. They're looking at you and you
30:53
go, you get one bite. You got to Remember Me by one
30:57
bite, so I'm going to blow you away with it.
31:00
So whatever I've got to do to get as much flavor in that one
31:03
bite, maybe 3 or 4 bites, whatever the judge is going to
31:07
take, you really got to just throw it in their face.
31:10
And I tell people all the time you, you don't want to eat my
31:14
competition BBQ by the slab. You don't.
31:18
The sugar overload would hit you real quick.
31:23
Diabetes. Exactly.
31:27
You won it the most. Maybe 2, but yeah.
31:30
That's it. And same thing with our
31:31
ancillary contest. They're getting one to two bites
31:34
of this stuff, man. People are trying to cram
31:36
everything they can into one bite because it really is a one
31:39
bite challenge. You got to blow their mind,
31:42
especially on our blind boxes. That's all you get.
31:44
You know, that's the only chance you get to impress the judges.
31:47
That's why I like members to make because of this difference
31:49
that you can actually pull the meat out in front of them and
31:52
show them and drip the juices and all the fun stuff all the
31:54
teams do. They used to shake your ribs at
31:57
a judge and all the fun stuff. Look, it's done.
31:59
Look, it's done. See all that stuff?
32:02
Other than that, man, it's put that much flavor into one square
32:06
inch of meat as you possibly can.
32:09
And pray the judge gets it. Exactly.
32:13
All right. And final question for this part
32:16
of the interview, if you had to add, adjust or remove something
32:21
from Memphis and May, what would it be?
32:25
Wow, that's tough A. Better volunteer coordinator.
32:28
Well, we need a new volunteer coordinator.
32:30
We, they, they just recently lost 1.
32:33
So if you're looking to be a new volunteer coordinator, I'm sure
32:35
after the festival this year they'll be looking for someone.
32:37
So if you know how to recruit volunteers, we'd love to get you
32:40
into Memphis in May. Now, honestly, I think I
32:44
wouldn't take anything away from it because when you take things
32:47
away, you take away from the tradition.
32:50
Keeping the traditions alive is what's very important.
32:53
We've been adding to it for the last several years.
32:57
MIPS in May's new CEO, Mack Weaver.
33:00
He is a native Memphian. He's a lifelonger.
33:03
He. Loves BBQ.
33:04
He loves BBQ. It means as much to him as it
33:07
does to us. It's a Memphis pride thing and
33:10
it's not the world championship around here.
33:12
It's called BBQ Fest. If you're from Memphis, that's
33:14
just that's BBQ Fest. That's it.
33:16
It's what it's always been and keeping those traditions alive
33:20
is very important. They've started the lighting as
33:22
a grill where we honor the guys that have passed on through the
33:25
year and that sort of stuff. And this year we've got the
33:29
Clydesdales coming in to do an opening parade from Budweiser.
33:35
We are working on adding to more like fan experiences, BBQ Alley.
33:38
So people always say if I go to it's BBQ Fest, I can't eat any
33:41
BBQ. Yeah, you can.
33:42
You just can't get it from the teams because the health
33:44
department, unless they know you.
33:45
But there is a BBQ Alley where you can buy an extra little
33:48
ticket and you can go in there and eat all the BBQ samples you
33:50
want. Yeah.
33:51
And the new open fire thing this year, it's an eating experience
33:54
you can pay, you get to as part of your admission to that area
33:56
is you get to eat over there. And they do large meats and the
34:00
Africans give a chicken, frogs and.
34:02
You got to tell me. I went to smoke slam last year
34:04
also when they did that and. Yeah, yeah.
34:09
Outfits on the show, man, all kinds of stuff.
34:12
And that's all great. I think if we could really add
34:14
anything, I'd like to see us add more music and entertainment,
34:18
things to draw in the public a little bit more to make them get
34:20
more of that festival feel probably.
34:23
If you haven't seen it, come check out Piggy Idol.
34:25
That's always entertaining. Oh wow, Yeah, oh, wow.
34:32
It's skits, and it's usually men dressed in really interesting
34:35
outfits, usually like a pig. Yeah, if you just, if you're in,
34:41
if you're ever there, just come see that.
34:42
It's on Thursday if you're in park at Memphis, MA.
34:44
Anybody listening to this podcast?
34:46
If you're in park in Memphis, MA, you've never been there, go
34:49
check out Piggy Idol on on Thursday evening.
34:51
I think it's at 6:00 or 7:00. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely
34:54
worth the watch. So is our sauce wrestling?
34:56
Oh yes, and they're looking for volunteers for that.
34:59
Not just to wrestle in it, but to help be like the they want.
35:02
They're actually looking for oversized men to carry.
35:04
Like ring girls, but ring men. Yeah, but this year I'll be
35:08
there. I'm going to try to get there
35:09
Thursday evening probably and be there Thursday, Friday, Saturday
35:14
and bring my family with me. But like I was telling her, I
35:16
got an opportunity to from Smoking Brothers to bring my
35:21
podcast to the kids queue and interview some of the kids as
35:24
well as some of the teams that come through there.
35:26
So I told her, you got to tell me twice, I'll be there.
35:30
That's great, man. Ryan does such a great job.
35:33
We're so thankful for them to come out and do what they've
35:35
done for our juniors. Those guys are providing them
35:37
with their grill of choice. They can either get a Gateway
35:40
Drum or a Smoking Brothers pellet grill to use.
35:43
For the junior division. For the junior division.
35:45
So, yeah, we can't think Ryan and them guys are not, man.
35:47
They've been doing a great job the last couple years really
35:49
making sure this juniors contest takes off and like I said,
35:52
bringing attention to it. Guys like you coming in, man,
35:55
that that's really what it's all about.
35:57
We really want to make sure that these kids get to shine and they
36:00
do. And they, man, they're competing
36:01
for big money. I think we're paying out.
36:06
Yeah. Yeah.
36:07
Carly cleaned up last year. That girl is an amazing cook and
36:10
she, she did a real good last year.
36:12
And she, I don't remember how I think she won.
36:15
Don't quote me. A couple.
36:17
Three 4000 bucks maybe. I don't know, a lot of money for
36:20
a kid in high school. It's a great thing, man.
36:22
Yeah, definitely. All right, and that's the end of
36:25
Part 1. We're going to switch to Part 2,
36:27
which is about y'all. All right, in Part 1 we talked
36:31
about one of the biggest names of BBQ today.
36:33
We talked about the people behind the title because no one
36:37
becomes trusted leaders in this space by accident.
36:40
Behind every championship, every business, every event role,
36:44
there's a story built on long night.
36:46
Set back sacrifices, staying committed when no one's
36:49
watching. Today it's about Brandon and
36:52
Michelle, Gwen, the competitors, the entrepreneurs, the parents
36:56
and the people. All right, let's kick it off
36:59
now. It was crazy when you reached
37:01
out to me, I was like, she said Memphis, a man.
37:04
She didn't say nothing about all this other stuff that she didn't
37:06
do. But I'm glad I'm a researcher.
37:09
So I was like. I don't like talking about most.
37:13
Of them, she'd be a modest. I looked it up.
37:15
I was like, she didn't mention all this.
37:18
Did you just Google my name? Because my son does that.
37:21
He Googles his own name, he said.
37:22
Mom, I'm on Page 1. Yeah, that, that's how our kid
37:26
talks crap to the kids in school.
37:27
He looks up and says you can Google me.
37:32
I do. He don't mind talking about
37:34
himself. Yeah, he don't.
37:35
I wonder where he got that from. Yeah, I listen to every podcast
37:38
you've been on. I try to find a article or
37:41
website or anything. I was on your website and
37:44
anything that I can find to get information to questions.
37:47
That's what I I don't do like some of the other podcasts just
37:52
say, OK, what's been going on. So I want to get information and
37:56
make y'all look good and shine on the stuff that y'all achieve.
38:00
All right, let's take it back to OK, how did y'all come across?
38:04
I know Brandon said that his family did it before, but how
38:08
did y'all come across competition?
38:10
And what made y'all get out there and start your own thing?
38:12
I, when I started volunteering, I had a friend, I just moved to
38:16
the little local city that I'm at now and I met some people and
38:19
hey, you want to come help volunteer with me at Memphis and
38:21
Maine? That was that year in 2007 that
38:23
I did. And there's another smaller
38:25
contest that person talked me into to help him volunteer with.
38:27
And then after a couple years, I realized it's a lot more fun to
38:30
cook on the team and do all the work.
38:32
I joined a little small teams and friends of mine that were
38:35
all local in the area that were cooking.
38:36
And I started out washing dishes, taking out trash for the
38:39
team like most people do that that were already knowing how to
38:41
cook it. And then moved up throughout the
38:43
years on that team. And when they first decided to
38:45
expand from ribs to adding butts because we were in the backyard
38:48
division at the time, they taught taught me how to trim a
38:50
butt and actually got a call that year.
38:52
I was actually excited for my first time, but it's just just
38:56
hanging out. It's like hanging out in your
38:57
backyard, cooking food, but in someone else's yard and just
39:00
hanging out with people. I'm a social person and I like
39:03
to hang out with people all the time, so that just kind of made
39:04
it easier for me. OK, OK.
39:07
When we met at Memphis in May and headed off and we started
39:10
dating and she's like, hey, I do this with this team and hope you
39:14
like my hobby. And I was like, what's your
39:16
hobby? She's like, we go out and cook
39:17
and drink beer and I'm like, shit, I'm really good at both of
39:19
those things. And then we go to the first
39:22
contest. It was Dyersburg.
39:25
We don't. Have been dating for three or
39:26
four weeks. Yeah, we hadn't been dating very
39:27
long. We get there and they're like,
39:29
hey, we entered this Bloody Mary, we forgot all this shit.
39:32
Can you do it? And I was like, yeah, give me a
39:35
minute, man. I'll run to Kroger.
39:36
I'll come up with something. I got a call and then we grand
39:41
it the whole contest and at that point I was like this is easy,
39:44
this is great, we need to just keep doing this is awesome and
39:48
you get hooked on that feeling. I like we were partying.
39:50
It was so much fun and then we didn't grand again for several
39:54
years. The teams that the team that we
39:59
were on, they decided they were going to retire and not cook no
40:01
more. And they?
40:03
We jumped on another team and then that team did the same
40:04
thing to us. We finally said why are we not
40:06
cooking under our own name? We work for the smaller contest
40:09
like the burger contest and the popper contest.
40:11
Little small ones Taco. Crimes, they would say.
40:13
We would go cook anything that was y'all would enter a salt and
40:15
pepper contest because Memphis is like it's like any other
40:19
Southern Food City. We we've got a festival for
40:22
everything. We had a Taco fest, we had a
40:24
burger fest, we had a breakfast festival.
40:29
We went and entered every one of those things and we did pretty
40:32
good with them. We we made with the best Memphis
40:35
burger fest. We won that thing some.
40:38
We won the extreme. Burger.
40:39
One extreme burger so many times that when we called the guy and
40:42
said we needed a load in pass to load in our burger, he goes
40:47
after this year this thing is done.
40:51
We replicated the Peabody fountain.
40:53
Yeah, it has a Weber grill with a big burger on it.
40:56
We did the entire lobby. We made a fountain out of a
40:59
kiddie pool with a 22 inch Weber grill.
41:03
And then we made the what? The kiddie pool had the ducks
41:06
from the Peabody in it. We had them floating around the
41:08
Moat and then we had like fans blowing all this fake fire up
41:14
out of the grill. And then we had cake decorator
41:17
make us a fondant Peabody duck with a holding a tray up and we
41:21
had a 5 LB burger put up on that thing.
41:25
Then we had an artist paint an entire backdrop of the lobby and
41:31
guys, you guys, no, we're done. We're done.
41:33
My. Favorite one we did.
41:35
We did a big Marcus all burger bobblehead.
41:38
Wow, that one was fun, too. Yeah, yeah, we had a lot of fun
41:41
with that. So we would do those contests
41:43
and then we won. We did the popper festival, or
41:46
it was a jalapeno popper contest at a brewery, and we did those
41:49
for several years. The breakfast festival, we won
41:52
that one year. So we just would go cook
41:54
anything. And then that's how we got into
41:57
this as ain't it the life as we were just outliving the life, as
42:02
we call it. Just chilling and having fun and
42:04
cooking and trying to put something in front of people new
42:08
every week and just having a good time with.
42:10
It and who came up with the name?
42:13
Yeah, and the life started. It's just me and Brandon.
42:15
The name came from all the adventures that we've been able
42:18
to encounter because of BBQ. I got flown to Sydney,
42:21
Australia, I think it was 2017. 2017. 2017 because they were
42:26
wanting to get a BBQ sanctioning body going on down there so they
42:28
can start doing sanctioning contests and.
42:30
Like a Memphis style sanctioning body so.
42:32
They wanted me to go down there and train them on how to do it
42:35
because they they don't mean bring up and running judging.
42:37
So they sent me down there for that.
42:39
That was a whirlwind trip. Only there for five days.
42:41
The jet lag was great, but that's where part of where the
42:45
name comes. We are huge Foo Fighters fans
42:47
and we were just kind of like listening to music in the
42:49
kitchen and the song came on. I'm like, hold up.
42:51
That's perfect actually. And then it got even more ironic
42:54
that I got to teach Dave Girl how to judge BBQ that Memphis in
42:58
May. I went and he was in a friend of
43:00
ours town. I went down and introduced
43:02
myself and said, hey, you want to come judge?
43:04
He comes down and he hung out in the back of the judging tent and
43:07
all that good stuff and I sell them all this stuff.
43:10
It was really cool, man. And I get to meet Bo Jackson.
43:12
I got to teach him how to judge BBQ too.
43:16
Ain't it the life and what we've done through Memphis in May.
43:19
It's definitely its own animal. Hell, I went to Korea last year
43:22
and cooked at a Korean BBQ festival with half a million
43:26
people at it from Memphis in May.
43:28
So South Korea was our honored country last year and they we
43:32
had a partnership with their festival over there.
43:35
They flew me and my sous chef from World Food over there and
43:39
we fed and we did a couple thousand samples over a couple
43:42
days. It was a great experience, man.
43:46
That's ain't it, the life. All right, your site describes
43:50
the team as a family of friends chasing excellence every time
43:53
the fire is lit. How intentional was culture in
43:57
the in building the team? As we like minded people, we're
44:03
a very small team. That's because culture is
44:05
important. We want to make sure that
44:06
everybody's going to get along and there's not going to be
44:08
strong personalities that stepping on toes.
44:11
Let's pull that back. We are all very strong
44:13
personalities. If you were in the BBQ game,
44:16
most likely you were a big personality.
44:18
It's going to work together. We just know how to work
44:20
together. So we've got a crew that we've
44:22
found over the years of all I said, it's just guys that
44:26
started out as friends and then we most of the guys that are on
44:29
the team and people that cook with us, we used to compete
44:31
against each other. And we've like our main guy
44:34
Eddie that cooks with us. He's he's been, we competed
44:38
against each other for years. And then we started cooking
44:40
steaks together and, and we said, hey, man, why don't you
44:44
come cook with me this week? And next thing was, yeah, we're
44:47
having fun with this. He stuck around.
44:49
And then we've got other guys that we bring in for other
44:51
events and we have. Some transients.
44:54
That's kind of why we just say it's a family of friends.
44:56
We kind of have Yep and flow, but it's all everybody that
44:59
cooks with us has that winners mentality.
45:03
They want to put that the best bite out in front of the judge
45:07
every time because that's the mission.
45:09
We know the mission. When we leave the house, we we
45:12
don't pull out of the driveway just to not go Willy nilly.
45:16
Don't go waste of money. Yeah, if only go blow money,
45:18
man. I'll go to the bar down the
45:19
street. I can do that just fine.
45:21
I don't need to go sit in the parking lot and blow thousands
45:24
to do that. Exactly, so when y'all compete,
45:28
what roles do each of y'all play as far as cooking wise and.
45:33
Right now I like the natural flow of things.
45:36
Is you're the butt cook, Eddie's the rib cut.
45:39
Yeah. I keep you guys on time.
45:41
Well, everybody's got their own job and it depends on what we're
45:44
doing is like I said, we don't just do BBQ.
45:46
We're doing live fire events. We're doing this, that or the
45:49
other. We still mix it up.
45:50
If we still go do all kinds of crazy events.
45:53
Everybody's got their strength. When we go to World Food, we're
45:56
very, we have very defined roles.
45:57
Everybody does certain things. So on our BBQ team, everybody
46:00
knows every role. We're all pretty capable of
46:04
doing anything like we found over the years, like things work
46:09
better when certain people do certain things, these sakes.
46:12
So we stick to that. We have the same plan, We don't
46:15
change our plan and we cook the same way every time.
46:18
When we go cook, that's we developed that plan as a team
46:21
and we stick with it and it works for us.
46:23
Yeah, so 2021, the World Wing title.
46:28
What wing did you win with? That was our first go at that
46:33
too. That was our we did a Polynesian
46:35
wing, so it wasn't anything really crazy, man.
46:38
I'll shout out Chick-fil-A dude, that policy we'll.
46:44
Take sponsored on. Yeah, if they will.
46:46
Take the. I'll probably cost too much on
46:50
your podcast to get a Chick-fil-A sponsorship shout
46:53
out to my people and charge it down there.
46:54
But no, we did. We took that Polynesian sauce
46:57
like they did, and we made a play on it and we turned in a
46:59
really good wing that year and we got really lucky.
47:03
That is a very tough event. Memphians like to say Memphis is
47:07
the wing capital of the world. I tend to agree.
47:09
There's a lot of really good wing joints in this town and a
47:12
lot of people do a lot of different stuff.
47:14
And that was one thing that we set out to do at Wing Fest.
47:17
We just finished. We did it last weekend, actually
47:20
was our fifth year doing it. We were in the wing chase.
47:22
The there were five teams in the end that had a shot at winning
47:25
the big money. We did not.
47:27
Some of our other friends did, but man, it was tough and we did
47:30
a new wing every year. We did a Polynesian wing one
47:33
year. A Lotte wing.
47:34
We did an A Lotte kind of style St. corn wing one year we did a
47:39
Thai peanut butter and Jelly wing.
47:41
We done. This year we did an al pastor.
47:43
I did an AL pastor wing this year coming soon to a contest
47:47
near you. Y'all better look out and that
47:49
one was dangerous. That one was dangerous.
47:51
Good man. Wow.
47:54
But wings is our thing, man, I said.
47:56
We love wings, and yeah, that was a big one.
47:58
A local Memphis rapper handed us the trophy and it was one of the
48:02
highlights of our Memphian Dom right there.
48:04
All right, and how did it feel to win the 2024 World Food
48:08
Championship Live Fire title and what did it mean to you?
48:13
That meant a lot. I cried.
48:15
We all cried way too much. That we're you always say when
48:21
you're having challenging years, something good's coming.
48:23
And I think that was just the highlight at the end of the year
48:26
through a tough, personal, challenging year.
48:28
That was also our most successful year cooking in
48:30
general. We.
48:31
Yeah, we had a lot of wins that year.
48:33
We our first green championship at Murphy's.
48:36
Bar praise the Lord. We got that one.
48:38
But yeah, winning World Food especially, and what it took for
48:41
us to get there, because in the preliminary round at World Food,
48:44
I'm 5 feet from the turning table and the wind caught one of
48:46
my turning plates and knocked it off into the floor. 34 seconds
48:50
before the turn ends closing and I had my sous chef running as
48:53
fast as he could. You'll get a second plate and
48:55
I'm biggest power squad ever waiting for him to get back.
48:58
As soon as you sit it down they take it and he made it back with
49:01
two seconds to spare so we can get judged.
49:04
And we ended up getting in on about to do a master judge where
49:08
they picked 2 teams they felt should have get in there on
49:10
merit versus their scores. And I was very grateful that
49:13
Alfredoni and Sonny Moody had selected me and I don't know
49:16
whoever the other person was, to move on to the final round for
49:18
us to be afforded. That opportunity, the English
49:21
guy who he was doing some really interesting stuff that.
49:23
Year too, yeah. But yeah, we.
49:24
So what we did is we, I didn't even have a plan.
49:27
I didn't think what we're going to do if we made the final round
49:29
on that dish. And actually I think I might
49:30
have. And just that we're doing it
49:31
anyway. But we turned in the dish from
49:33
23 that got the perfect score. We just turned it in again.
49:37
With little tweaks and we listened to what they told us
49:40
from the year before and we really nailed that every
49:43
component down super tight. That was a rolled rib eye cap
49:47
with a chimichurri and a Serb sea scallop with white lime
49:50
mushroom cream sauce, all done over live fire.
49:54
Wow, wow. All right, let's talk about
49:59
family. Let's talk about family and
50:03
balance and legacy. All right, y'all raising 3 kids
50:05
while running the business and competing.
50:08
How does how do y'all balance that?
50:11
Just basically. It's easier now because the
50:13
older 2 are grown and don't live here no more.
50:16
When we first got started they were still here but our oldest
50:19
ones in the military. He's in Hawaii in the Air Force,
50:22
our middle one. She's actually starting to bite
50:25
the bug a little bit on the competition side.
50:27
She's just got out of the Navy, but she lives here locally, so
50:29
she's going to start competing in some ancillary divisions and
50:31
some of the smaller contests we do.
50:33
But she's actually going to help us run the junior division at
50:35
Memphis, MA, oversee the judging process over there for us.
50:39
You will. Meet her for.
50:40
Sure. She's been a part of this pretty
50:42
much her whole life because I've been doing contests since as
50:44
long as I've been. And then Miles, he's our
50:46
youngest, He's 11 and he competes and he's up there at
50:49
that level 2. He competed at World Food Junior
50:51
the last two years. Him and little gringo team.
50:54
Ray Barker, they're A-Team together and he's learning.
50:57
Cameras were all on him the other year because he's could
50:59
barely see over the prep cart. He's and they're trying to make
51:01
grits and very cleaning and stuff.
51:03
He won't eat any of his food. He cooks, but he will make it.
51:08
But he's going to make a very lady happy when he gets older,
51:10
I'll tell you that with all this crooked he does.
51:12
And a couple weeks ago he kicked our ass in Nashville at the MB
51:15
BQA live fire of that. We were competing with another
51:18
team and he had the kids Q team. He was a member of that with
51:22
Brooklyn Mooney and Cooper, Polly and Clayton.
51:25
Mike Johnson's kid bricks. They're they are the national
51:29
pork live fire champions. The kids are.
51:32
They just 10 to. 10 to 15. 10 to 16.
51:35
Something like that, Yeah. So those kids can cook.
51:38
Miles is growing up in it. He's been around it his whole
51:41
life, but he used to getting carted around to places.
51:45
Hey, where are we going this weekend?
51:46
Yeah, he's got me the points where I let him run freely at
51:48
Memphis and May now, because I know everybody knows who he is.
51:52
Don't rat him out. He's acting up.
51:53
Yeah, that's one thing we don't usually worry about at those
51:56
events is that everybody knows Miles.
51:57
I'd always tell him, dude, you can't get away with anything.
52:00
Everybody know who you are, They will tell me.
52:02
Trust me. Yeah, I've seen it.
52:06
I just the tailgate round so I know I've seen him.
52:09
Yeah, that was his burger. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
52:12
That was one of his dishes. That's his.
52:13
Dishes that burger dish. He actually won second place at
52:16
the American Royal one year with that burger.
52:18
Yeah, the burger was good, and the Mac and cheese was good too.
52:23
I tell you, man, them kids can cook.
52:25
Oh yeah. I enjoyed that when he asked me
52:28
that I want to do his tailgating round, I was like let's go.
52:33
It was excellent. When the people say the name of
52:37
Gwen in BBQ circles years from now, what do you hope it stands
52:41
for? That's deep, man.
52:47
Honestly to me, I think if people, if we can teach anyone
52:51
anything, if we can establish anything of value going forward
52:55
with all the programs that we put in at Memphis and may things
53:00
like that. To me that leaving behind a
53:02
legacy like that would be more important than any personal
53:05
victories that we ever have. Think that would mean more to me
53:09
honestly. Just from things that I observe
53:11
that people would they, I think what they admire about us is
53:13
they know they always can come to us.
53:15
They need something if you're competing against us.
53:17
If they've forgotten something, they know we probably got it and
53:19
we'll let them use it. And then also as far as
53:20
integrity as far as the contest goes, they know that it we ain't
53:23
going to let it not be right. We're going to make it right and
53:26
we're also transparent. They know that we're
53:28
transparent. So as long as we can keep that
53:30
going for us if. You don't want my opinion.
53:33
Don't ask that question. You will get it.
53:36
And I pull no punches. I hope people are some people at
53:40
Memphis in May, they might say that guy's an asshole sometimes.
53:43
I am. I'm direct.
53:44
I'm very direct and I'm OK with that because at Memphis in May,
53:49
I got a mission, man. It is to crown a world champion
53:53
by when awards are supposed to happen on Saturday night.
53:57
As long as that happens, man, I'm we can deal with your
53:59
feelings later after we've all had a chance to rehydrate and
54:05
rest. Definitely.
54:07
All right. And that's all the questions I'm
54:09
a give you all. I got 2 quick games I'm going to
54:11
get you out of here. First game I'm going to play
54:13
with Michelle just called the BBQ Therapy Smoke showdown.
54:17
College basketball. They have a tournament bracket
54:19
so I did 16 meets. You cook on the grill.
54:21
I'm going to get you each match up and just tell me which one
54:24
you prefer to eat and just tell me which one.
54:26
We'll go and see which one is the winner.
54:28
First matchup brisket versus hot dog.
54:33
Brisket. Kind of long or no?
54:36
You didn't say chili dog, you said chili dog would take it
54:40
longer. Smoked chicken versus pork chop.
54:45
Smoked chicken. OK.
54:48
And pork ribs versus lamb. Pork ribs don't eat lamb.
54:52
I'll cook it, but I won't eat it.
54:54
All right, steak versus pork belly, and that's any steak.
54:59
Pork belly. OK, beef Rios versus BBQ shrimp.
55:04
Well, the way we do our pork belly.
55:06
Sorry, what would you say? Beef Rios versus BBQ shrimp.
55:11
Beef ribs. OK, hamburger versus smoked
55:15
Bologna. Smoked Bologna.
55:19
Get smoked Bologna. All right, sausage versus smoked
55:23
ham. Sausage all.
55:27
Right smoked Turkey versus burnt ends.
55:30
Burnt ends. OK.
55:32
Next round, brisket versus chicken.
55:35
Chicken. All right, pork ribs versus pork
55:40
belly. Pork belly.
55:43
OK, beef ribs versus smoked Bologna.
55:47
Beef ribs. OK.
55:49
And sausage versus burnings. Sausage all.
55:55
Right final four, chicken versus pork belly.
56:00
Pork belly. All right.
56:02
I love a good pork belly. And beef ribs versus sausage.
56:08
Oh, things make the last one hard beef ribs.
56:10
It's where this is going. Yeah, really good.
56:15
All right, in the final. Paper scissors for this one.
56:17
Pork belly versus beef ribs in the final.
56:20
I'm going to go with pork belly because I know what our pork
56:22
belly tastes like pork. Belly, all right?
56:26
Pork belly is the winner on that one.
56:29
All right, Brandon, I got a BBQ edition of Would you Rather.
56:34
All right, Would you rather only cook with charcoal for the rest
56:38
of your life or only cook with wood?
56:40
Oh wow, that's tough. Charcoal.
56:46
All right, would you rather cook on a stick burner or a pellet
56:50
grill for the rest of your life? Stick burner.
56:53
All right, would you rather have unlimited free rubs or unlimited
56:57
free sauces? Rubs OK.
57:03
Would you rather have a pit that never runs out of fuel or a
57:06
cooler that never runs out of your favorite drink?
57:09
Which is the magic cooler? The magic cooler, man.
57:15
Come on, you sell these both by the way.
57:18
He's already got a limited. Charcoal Would you rather have
57:22
a? Would you rather cook with a
57:23
$200 offset forever or a $10,000 trailer rig that you can only
57:29
use once? Give me that cheap offset man,
57:33
I'm good with. That all right?
57:36
Would you rather eat cold leftover brisket or a freshly
57:39
grilled hot dog? Cold brisket.
57:43
That's a delicacy. It's.
57:45
Called breakfast. All right, but would you rather
57:51
win a grand championship once? Either the Jack, Memphis and
57:54
May, the Royal or Houston Rodeo, or place top ten in every
57:58
contest for life. Oh wow.
58:04
Oh wow, that's tough. Wow.
58:07
You win those once our top 10 every contest, man.
58:13
Consistency is pretty good. Maybe top 10 would be good, but
58:16
I I'd like to win one of the granddaddy's man, I got to win
58:19
one of the big ones eventually. That's.
58:21
So not all contests pay the 10. Yeah, yeah.
58:26
Because that's that They say once you're a world champion,
58:28
they can't take that away from you.
58:30
Yeah. Because you may be in the
58:31
Twilight Zone to be #10 every contest.
58:34
That would be my luck. That would be my luck.
58:37
We had a streak for a while. We would be like if they called
58:40
the 4th, we were 5th. If they called the 5th, we were
58:43
6th. All right, would you rather BBQ
58:46
outside in the rain or in 100° heat?
58:50
In the rain. In the rain, would you rather
58:54
give up pork or give up beef? Oh.
58:58
Shit. Eating, eating, eating or.
59:01
Good eating because I can't get a lot.
59:02
Baking. Eating.
59:03
No, that's right, I ain't giving up bacon for nobody.
59:08
No, no, that's the one. Like we have things and we draw
59:11
the line. That's it.
59:12
My wife don't eat beef for pork, but I was like, hey, more power
59:15
to you because you're young with that one, all right?
59:21
And would you rather give up BBQ for a year or give up sports for
59:26
a year? And that's if you ain't getting
59:28
money from it, competing for fun or give up sports for a year.
59:35
I'd probably give up sports for a year, to be honest with you.
59:40
Yeah, I enjoy it, but I think I would miss competing when we
59:43
don't get to compete as much because other things get in the
59:47
way. Man, you get that itch after a
59:49
while. You're like, I don't want to go
59:50
cook. Definitely.
59:53
All right, y'all therapy session is over, if y'all got any thing
59:57
y'all need to promote or any shout outs, y'all can do that at
59:59
this time. See, we made a good time.
1:00:01
I made a good one. Hour shout outs as always
1:00:08
Memphis and my man I like I said, if you've never been, come
1:00:12
join us. We'd love to have you.
1:00:14
It's it showcases our city. It showcases the best of
1:00:17
Memphis. This year's honored country is
1:00:18
Ireland, and he just happens. To be Irish, I just, yeah, it's
1:00:21
the year of my people. I'm good with this.
1:00:25
And then at the first year I was chair, Memphis was our honored
1:00:28
country. I was like, this is this was
1:00:30
perfect. Other than that, man, we could
1:00:33
shout out all of our sponsors, but we we shout them out enough.
1:00:37
Thank thanks to everybody who allows us to do what we do and
1:00:40
our kid for putting up with it. We also run a contest at
1:00:44
Arlington, TN in October, so we it's a blind prelim on site
1:00:50
finals. Whole hog, pulled pork and ribs
1:00:53
applications are open. If anybody wants to come out to
1:00:55
Arlington, TN. It will be a subjective format.
1:00:58
SEA sanctioned, they're going to do the whole thing.
1:01:01
Plus we're doing 8 ancillaries on Friday night.
1:01:04
The kids Q. State contest.
1:01:06
And then state contest and then on Saturday, in addition to the
1:01:10
port, we're also doing another steak on Saturday.
1:01:15
And my new favorite category that we created Anything Jello.
1:01:20
So we want to see the wildness. Creativity, the.
1:01:23
Creativity. So if you do something crazy
1:01:25
with cello, come to Arlington, TN the first weekend October.
1:01:28
We'd love that. October 2nd and 3rd.
1:01:31
All right, I definitely appreciate y'all for coming on
1:01:33
and giving the information about Memphis and may as well as
1:01:36
yourselves and just giving people more insight and because
1:01:40
a lot of that stuff, they probably a lot of people don't
1:01:42
know, they just come walking around look.
1:01:45
At well, you wouldn't know half of the little minutiae and all
1:01:48
the fine details. It just walking around.
1:01:50
It just looks like a crazy party if you don't know anything.
1:01:53
And then on Saturday, it's everybody's so nose to the
1:01:57
grind. It's not the same event that it
1:01:59
is on Thursday and Friday. Exactly.
1:02:03
Exactly. Oh yeah, Thursday and Friday
1:02:05
nights are insane. It's just so many people.
1:02:07
That's definitely not the night you bring your small children,
1:02:09
no. Definitely, definitely not.
1:02:12
But yeah. So you're going to be there
1:02:14
interviewing the juniors, you said.
1:02:15
Listen, if there's anything we can do to help you and make your
1:02:18
podcast come off better during the event, let us know.
1:02:21
We'll be happy to help. We can help recruit you people
1:02:24
or all the fun stuff, man. I think it's great what you're
1:02:27
doing and helping promote the kids.
1:02:28
Anything we can do to help, let us know.
1:02:30
No problem and one day I'm going to see if y'all can get y'all
1:02:33
son to come on here. I never had no kids.
1:02:35
I want to hear his point of view and stuff like that, so one day
1:02:37
we can hook that up and probably come on and give him an episode.
1:02:44
There you go, there you go. He loves to talk.
1:02:47
No, I know that I appreciate y'all and thank y'all for coming
1:02:50
on. I built something onto my
1:02:52
podcast that every BBQ brand should be a part of.
1:02:55
It's called the BBQ Therapy Smoke Showdown bracket 16 meats
1:02:59
you cook on the grill go head to head and every guest picks their
1:03:03
winner. It's one of the most engaging
1:03:05
parts of the show. Every guest plays and every
1:03:09
listener loves it because No2 brackets are the same.
1:03:12
Now I'm opening it up for a presenting sponsor, meaning your
1:03:16
brand becomes part of the segment.
1:03:18
Every single show. This isn't just an ad.
1:03:21
This becomes part of the show. And if you're interested, reach
1:03:25
out to Tavis Bryant at barbecuetherapypodcast@gmail.com.
1:03:30
Thank you. Thank you for joining us for
1:03:32
another therapy session. And remember, like, follow and
1:03:36
subscribe to help the BBQ Therapy community and also visit
1:03:40
our website at www.barbecuetherapypodcast.com.