Latest / BBQ Therapy / Rib Cookoff Association - Dirk Mullins & Jody Harris : The Rib Revolution !!

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Rib Cookoff Association - Dirk Mullins & Jody Harris : The Rib Revolution !! · BBQ Therapy

• 0:00
  We have 30 some grills on our patio and you named all of them.
• 0:05
  But if I'm going to cook ribs, it's going to be a.
• 0:08
  Drum yeah, we cook mainly on drums competition, but we when
• 0:11
  we first started cooking we cooked on pellets so.
• 0:13
  Yeah. OK, chicken thighs or drums.
• 0:18
  Drums. Brisket, flat or point?
• 0:22
  Both but. I love it, especially his
• 0:26
  brisket. Oh my God, he ruined me.
• 0:28
  We cook a good brisket. Burnt ends, overrated or elite?
• 0:35
  I've never been a big burning fan but I've BBQ.
• 0:39
  Ham. Barbecue Ham, BBQ, BBQ, BBQ,
• 0:46
  BBQ. Welcome to the BBQ Therapy
• 0:50
  Podcast. My name is Tavis Bryant of Yago
• 0:53
  Ham BBQ. Have you ever stood around a
• 0:55
  smoker or a grill? Felt the world fade away?
• 0:59
  Now that's BBQ therapy. Welcome to another BBQ therapy
• 1:06
  session. My name is Tavis Bryant of Yago
• 1:09
  Ham Barbecue and today we have two special guests.
• 1:13
  We have Dirk Mullins and Jody Harris of the Rib Cook Off
• 1:16
  Association. They are the founding members of
• 1:19
  the Rib Cook Off Association. On this episode, we're talking
• 1:23
  to two people who exactly know what it takes to bring the heat
• 1:27
  not only on the pit, but behind the scenes.
• 1:30
  Dirk Mullins and Jody Harris of the Rib Cook Offs Association
• 1:34
  have turns local cook offs into can't miss events where backyard
• 1:38
  warriors and seasoned pitmaster go head to head for BBQ bragging
• 1:42
  rights. They build a community rooted in
• 1:44
  competition, camaraderie, and killer ribs.
• 1:48
  Whether you're a seasoned team or a first time griller, these
• 1:51
  guys are the reason for your favorite real cook off, Run
• 1:55
  smoothly and smoke strong. Let's get into how it all
• 1:58
  started, how it's grown, and why they believe great BBQ brings
• 2:03
  people together. Welcome to the show.
• 2:05
  I got one rule, make yourself at home.
• 2:07
  I have no sponsors so speak freely.
• 2:11
  Have a good time. Thanks for having.
• 2:15
  US. Yes, thank.
• 2:16
  You. Let's get a little back story.
• 2:19
  What brought y'all into? I know y'all have different
• 2:22
  stories, but what kind of brought y'all into the BBQ
• 2:24
  scene? We've been cooking
• 2:28
  professionally for this will be the 13th or 14th year.
• 2:32
  Granted we don't get to cook much now since we started this,
• 2:35
  but Jody and I have done probably close to 250
• 2:40
  professional contest different organizations SCA we've probably
• 2:44
  cooked 100 of those. We've done 180 KCBS.
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  We've cooked CBA. We love all the organizations
• 2:50
  and love to cook. And I one day 2 years before we
• 2:55
  started this, I thought about this and don't even know what
• 2:59
  made me think about it and I bought websites for it not
• 3:01
  having. We were both still working full
• 3:04
  time, Jody still is. But I was in the oil field.
• 3:07
  We never even thought about when we were going to do it, and here
• 3:11
  we are. Yeah, I'm not mad at you.
• 3:16
  I always start off with a thought and so it's it's good
• 3:19
  that you move when you did because somebody probably would
• 3:21
  have took the website. So it was a good movie.
• 3:24
  So what gap in cook offs were y'all trying to feel when y'all
• 3:29
  started this? I think a lot of people really
• 3:32
  wanted to get back to the roots of BBQ again and just have some
• 3:35
  good BBQ out there. That's why we started this
• 3:39
  organization and the Pimp Masters have really embraced it.
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  And right now we're about 2500 members and we're global, we're
• 3:48
  in Europe. They're going to have 12
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  contests this year. I'll be going to New Zealand in
• 3:54
  about 3 weeks to launch over there and they're going to have
• 3:56
  a few contests and then there's another country that's going to
• 4:00
  join and we're going to visit with them about bringing the Rib
• 4:03
  Cook Off association to them. I think that they just see
• 4:07
  grassroots. Everybody's out there having a
• 4:09
  good time. That's my number one rule is to
• 4:11
  have fun. And we're seeing a lot of
• 4:14
  professional cooks saying, you know what, we like this.
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  It's fun again, so. Cooking 1 meat's a whole lot
• 4:20
  cheaper than cooking for. I know it is right.
• 4:23
  So that's, I think that's that helps a lot of people also.
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  So yeah, and winning us when y'all first started, what were
• 4:31
  the big biggest challenges to getting it and started?
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  Oh man, we were. Jody's got a business
• 4:38
  background, so she was good and all that aspect, but we didn't
• 4:41
  even know where to start. If it would have been up to me,
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  I would have probably had four contests the first year.
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  I would have still been cooking. Not Jody.
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  I got to cook for a contest and we had 40 contests.
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  It was opposite of what I would have done.
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  You know what, I I think when we made the announcement, I already
• 5:01
  started building out the website.
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  We launched within 30 days. Within that first week we had
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  over 400 cooks and just friends and supporters sign up.
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  So it was growth and it was really managing that growth and
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  having to build out the scoring system.
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  I built that out all by myself. So it's just really if you
• 5:25
  didn't have the background in BBQ competition BBQ, it would be
• 5:30
  hard for someone to get started because what's on the backside a
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  lot of people don't see a lot of the time and the effort and the
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  growth and managing that and even putting the capital into it
• 5:44
  to manage that growth. I knew it was going to happen.
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  I just didn't know what's going to happen that quick.
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  I had a five year plan and we've accelerated that quite quickly.
• 5:54
  Oh wow that's good to hear cuz you launched in what, 2023 all
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  the way to hosting a $34,000 world championship in Oklahoma?
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  How did y'all reach that level so quickly?
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  What did y'all do to engage the people and keep it I guess
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  enticing for people to come over to your association?
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  I think what helped a lot is we know everybody in the BBQ world,
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  we've cooked long enough and there's not too many people out
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  there we don't know. So they were all a lot of big
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  help, sponsors that want to come on board, friends that want to
• 6:30
  help. We the calls were crazy.
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  I know people have heard this story 100 times, but we were on
• 6:36
  the way to an SCA contest in December OF232323 Yeah.
• 6:42
  And that just spot of the moment I turned and looked at Jody and
• 6:47
  I said let's do the rib deal. We had not even talked about it
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  or nothing. So anyway, we pulled the
• 6:52
  trigger. She wrote up a little press
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  release and I had 248 messages on my phone.
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  The next morning I had to turn the volume off my phone so we
• 7:01
  could sleep. People asked me if I got hacked.
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  They some people if this is real, I want to be a sponsor.
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  Hey, is it just people asking quit calling me I need to know
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  about this. What are the rules?
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  What it was just it was it went crazy and we had no plan at all.
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  Absolutely no plan. It was in a motel room or hotel
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  room spur of the moment. Did something occur that make
• 7:22
  you say, OK, I'm tired of this, we got to start our own or you
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  just I want to do something different.
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  I just, I was playing on my iPad and she was on her sitting at
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  the desk in the hotel room and she was sitting, it's like 530.
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  We just got back from eating and she was on her computer doing
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  work or whatever. And I, well, I just turned and
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  looked at her and I said, let's do the rib deal.
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  And it went from there. That's a There was no thought,
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  but I don't even know what made me think of it, but we did it.
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  He had the website, like you said, for a while.
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  It's just that day surprised both of us, but we took it and
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  we ran with. It thanks for all.
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  I remember my GoDaddy might have popped up and said it's renewal
• 8:02
  time or something and I'm like hey listen, do it.
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  Possible. Oh Lord help.
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  Us. Hey y'all doing well?
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  Are you helping y'all a lot? So after all the major events,
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  how do y'all balance the prize purse, the judges, recruiting
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  and the attendance experience to ensure it's competitive and
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  inclusive? Yeah, getting that first
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  promoter to have us a contest, we weren't sure what was going
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  to happen and how quick that was going to happen.
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  We launched our website in mid January and I believe mid
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  February into February we had our first contest.
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  So once everyone went to that contest and experienced how it
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  was going to be ran, I think a lot of people bought in at that
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  time. Then we had another contest in
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  Texas, actually Texas and the one right over the border in
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  Oklahoma. And it just become a snowball
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  effect. And the reason why is because
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  Dirk and I are cooks. We know what cooks want and they
• 9:10
  want to be seen and we want them to be seen and we promote our
• 9:14
  cooks, we promote our sponsors. I tell them in every cooks
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  meeting number one rule is to have fun.
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  And I have heard so many people stay how fun it is.
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  You talked about the prize money.
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  Our promoters are required to go out and get their prize money,
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  but we've had promoters ask us, hey, we've never done this, how
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  do you do this Dirk? And I've got a simplified little
• 9:40
  plan that we work with them and we tell them who to target and
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  what to ask for and that's been very beneficial.
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  The World Championship, a lot of it was self funded, but that's
• 9:52
  OK. You know what, we know that the
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  people that came had a great time.
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  We fed over 1000 people on Saturday night at our event.
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  We had 120 people cooking pit masters plus their family, plus
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  we had almost 100 judges and some of their families came.
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  So it was almost 1000 people that attended our award
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  ceremony. So it's really just having a
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  passion and not wanting this BBQ sport that we love so much to go
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  away. But it's thinking about it
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  differently. It's thinking about it from a
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  cook standpoint instead of from just somebody that might have
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  cooked a few contests or that like the concept of a
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  competition contest. It's really having that cooks
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  perspective and putting that in play.
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  Yeah, that's definitely putting yourself in their shoes because
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  y'all been there. You know what they expect and
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  what they're looking for and what bothers them and what they
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  like. That's definitely a good aspect
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  to do it because if you never did it before, you're just
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  guessing and you're pretty much just looking out for yourselves
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  versus people. And the more you make them
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  comfortable, the more people going to come, the more people
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  going to brag on you. Hey, guess what they did for us?
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  It grows, which are doing. So I definitely applaud that.
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  So how do y'all go about recruiting the judges?
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  Y'all have class? No, you do not have to be
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  certified to judge one of our contest.
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  We will tell the promoter to while they're out getting their
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  sponsorship money. That is a tool that they can use
• 11:39
  to get judges to come. So if somebody donates to the
• 11:43
  prize money, then that entity can have people come and judge
• 11:48
  or they'll put it out to the community to come and judge.
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  We give them about a 10 minute little spill about an hour
• 11:55
  before turn insurance and everybody loves it.
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  We've had certified judges from just about every organization
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  judge our contest and they like it because it's getting back to
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  the good BBQ there. There's not all this criterion
• 12:13
  that's been said that hey, if this meat doesn't meat just this
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  little hole here and here you're trying to put a square peg in,
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  it just doesn't work. So we took all of that out.
• 12:23
  We brought back the fun even for the judges and we have people
• 12:28
  calling us all the time, hey, we want to judge, what do we need
• 12:30
  to do? And we tell them, contact the
• 12:32
  promoter because the promoter might have sponsors that need to
• 12:36
  judge. So just contact the promoter if
• 12:38
  he has availability. We'd love to see you.
• 12:41
  Yeah, I like that because it gives different people a chance
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  to judge the contest and not the same people over and over again,
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  but it gives people a different experience that never tried that
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  the actually to see what world class real estate and any
• 12:57
  ancillary that y'all do. So I definitely like that.
• 12:59
  So it's a good thing that y'all did because some of them get I'm
• 13:04
  not going to bash judging, but some of them are a little stuck
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  in their ways and some out to prove something and did not fair
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  all the time. So it's definitely welcoming to
• 13:16
  see that you got fresh people coming in each time to judge and
• 13:23
  be fair across the board when it comes to your contest, which
• 13:27
  also brings more people in participating and exactly your
• 13:33
  members include backyard people as well as seasoned teams.
• 13:37
  What strategy to build community while maintaining high
• 13:40
  competitive standards each other?
• 13:43
  You know what? It just happens natural.
• 13:46
  I think anybody in this community, whether you're a
• 13:50
  backyard cook or if you're a seasoned cook, it's all part of
• 13:55
  community because you're out there doing what you like and
• 13:58
  people want to help people. And so you'll always see pit
• 14:02
  masters taking a new cook under the wing.
• 14:05
  We even gave out an award last year for our points champion
• 14:09
  Bobby Oliver. Last year you could hardly find
• 14:12
  him at his pit and he was running for points.
• 14:15
  But if there was a new cook, he was over there helping the new
• 14:18
  cook. So I think it's just the the
• 14:22
  cooks that are cooking for us, the pit masters that are cooking
• 14:25
  for us. They just have a different
• 14:27
  standard. They really want to help and
• 14:30
  they want to give back and it shows.
• 14:33
  Yeah, and that's good. And that's pretty much the
• 14:35
  reason why a lot of us do it just to get together with other
• 14:39
  pit masters and just fellowship. It's competition, but it's also
• 14:43
  just getting around, hanging and just doing what you love.
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  And that's why I did call this therapy because it you get out
• 14:50
  there and you forget about all your problems and all your
• 14:53
  worries and you just relaxing and just taking time away from
• 14:57
  the world. That's definitely good.
• 15:01
  So right now y'all have categories, rib, wings, pork
• 15:05
  steak. Do y'all plan to add any more
• 15:08
  categories or? The ribs is standard, of course.
• 15:14
  Wings, we're tracking points as an ancillary pork steak.
• 15:18
  We just did that at World. We'll probably do it again this
• 15:20
  year. We let the promoter pick
• 15:22
  whatever ancillaries they want to do.
• 15:24
  Right now, wings is the only thing we're tracking points in.
• 15:27
  Next year. We definitely have plans to add
• 15:28
  some additional stuff and we'll have an announcement on that
• 15:31
  later. It'll it'll be something else.
• 15:33
  We'll track points in as an ancillary.
• 15:35
  But right now we're just doing ribs and wings and we let the
• 15:38
  promoters pick. We've done tacos, anything,
• 15:41
  berries, peanut, you name it. They come up with some wild
• 15:44
  stuff. So it's fun.
• 15:46
  But the only thing we're actually tracking points in
• 15:48
  right now, it's ribs and wings, so.
• 15:50
  And. A lot of the a lot of the
• 15:53
  promoters are bringing on kids cue because it is a family
• 15:57
  event. People's out there with their
• 15:58
  kids and so they want to give them something to do as well.
• 16:03
  Yeah, that's definitely good because it get them started
• 16:06
  early and by the time they hit teenagers, the young adults,
• 16:11
  they are pros by early age and plus it's fun.
• 16:15
  You give them something to do to learn a skill and be ahead of
• 16:19
  the curve. I saw that y'all have in your
• 16:22
  contest rib a rib because y'all explain the difference.
• 16:26
  Is it like wet, dry or it's it's?
• 16:30
  Actually just a double contest and you can do.
• 16:34
  We let the promoters pick. A lot of them will do.
• 16:36
  Rib A might be baby back ribs, Rib B will be spare ribs.
• 16:40
  Wisconsin does do. They've started to deal with
• 16:43
  their a few of their contests. They are doing a wet and a dry,
• 16:47
  so that's cool. But it's basically just two
• 16:50
  contests. But the promoter picks what ribs
• 16:53
  they want to cook if they want to do both spares.
• 16:56
  Our baby backs, we like them to do 1 of each and they like it
• 16:59
  too because it throws the cooks off.
• 17:00
  There's so many when we started the baby back deal, getting
• 17:03
  promoters to do that, it's amazing how many cooks are like,
• 17:06
  I've never cooked baby back ribs in my life, so it's a challenge.
• 17:11
  So it's fun, but that's the only difference really.
• 17:14
  It's just a double contest. So OK, OK, that's cool.
• 17:18
  So how many of us did y'all have last year?
• 17:22
  44040 or 41 this year, we're already pushing 80.
• 17:27
  We had 40 by the end scheduled by the end of January.
• 17:30
  I think we're close to 90, yeah. And we that's.
• 17:33
  Not counting Europe and all that's just.
• 17:36
  Yes, Europe's going to have 12 this year and I think New
• 17:39
  Zealand's going to have 5. Oh wow.
• 17:42
  We have quite a few that aren't on our calendar yet, and we've
• 17:45
  turned down a bunch too. Oh wow.
• 17:47
  That's a good thing, yeah. When y'all judge the categories,
• 17:52
  what are y'all judging based on? If y'all judging wings?
• 17:55
  And how did the point system work as far as the cooks?
• 18:00
  The The ribs are judged on appearance, taste and
• 18:03
  tenderness. The judges take They're not
• 18:07
  judged in the box. There's no garnish.
• 18:09
  So they pull the rib out, put it on a paper plate, and that's how
• 18:13
  they judge it. Appearance, tastes, and
• 18:15
  tenderness. They eat with their hands and
• 18:18
  there really is no criteria. If it's good BBQ, you score it
• 18:21
  good and then if it if you don't like it, you score it
• 18:24
  accordingly. And our appearance scores go up
• 18:27
  to 9, our taste scores go to 9.5, from 6 to 9.5, and our
• 18:34
  tenderness goes from 6 to 9.8. So it it keeps the ties broken.
• 18:40
  So far we have not had a perfect score.
• 18:42
  We've come within a tenth and one score 2/10 out of last year
• 18:46
  and this year. But nobody's hit a perfect score
• 18:49
  yet. But it's going to happen because
• 18:51
  they're pushing it. But a perfect score would be 141
• 18:54
  five. But that's how we do that.
• 18:56
  And wings are the same way because it's a meat category.
• 18:59
  Then we have a creative scorecard that if somebody does
• 19:03
  tacos or they want to do wings, anything goes.
• 19:06
  No rules, just do whatever you want.
• 19:09
  Then we have a different scorecard and are the numbers
• 19:12
  the same? I can't even remember.
• 19:13
  Numbers are the same it but it goes appearance, creativity and
• 19:19
  taste. Yeah, it's different, different
• 19:21
  criteria on it, but so. And when y'all have like I saw
• 19:26
  the leaderboard and each cook had points, how do y'all give
• 19:30
  points out for Is it you? First off, for us to track your
• 19:35
  points and be eligible for the World Championship, you have to
• 19:38
  be a member of the Rib Cook Off Association.
• 19:40
  You do not have to be a member to cook our events, but if you
• 19:43
  want your points tracked and be eligible for the world, you have
• 19:45
  to be a member. If you win the contest and you
• 19:48
  remember, you get an automatic invite.
• 19:51
  If not, you get your name on a chip.
• 19:53
  If you cook 10 contest year, your name's 10 in the draw 10
• 19:56
  times whatever. Our point system if you win the
• 20:00
  contest is 11 points for first. Then it's 9 per second, there's
• 20:04
  No 10 because we give a bonus point for the winner and then it
• 20:07
  goes 8765 all the way down to 10th place gets 1 and that's
• 20:12
  only a points are awarded or 1st through 10th and that's it.
• 20:15
  So. OK.
• 20:16
  OK. And now since y'all in Europe,
• 20:19
  what have you learned about continental differences in real
• 20:23
  cooking like there versus here? Is it the same or is it?
• 20:28
  It's a different cut of meat. Even though it's pork, it still
• 20:31
  looks different than what we see here.
• 20:34
  Some of them were a little more skinnier.
• 20:36
  The ribs are flavor profile. They cook a lot of the flavor
• 20:41
  profiles that we see here and it's a challenge.
• 20:44
  BBQ still new enough over there that they're still learning, but
• 20:47
  they're catching up pretty quickly.
• 20:49
  And another thing is what works in the United States doesn't
• 20:54
  always work in Europe. And so our leaders over there
• 20:59
  have that flexibility because not everybody has a truck that
• 21:04
  they can put or a car and a trailer that they can put their
• 21:08
  grills in. They have a program with a BBQ
• 21:14
  cook store over there and they maybe have 12 or 15 different
• 21:19
  setups of grills and they will haul them around in vans and
• 21:24
  somebody can rent those out for the day for $15.00.
• 21:28
  So we went and see that over here in the US, but it works
• 21:31
  very well over in Europe. And I think that has been a big
• 21:35
  plus to Europe and why they've been so successful.
• 21:40
  There's a lot of good cooks over.
• 21:41
  There there is. Because a lot of them we've
• 21:44
  known because they'll come to the American role or and they
• 21:47
  do. There's a lot of good cooks over
• 21:48
  there. There is.
• 21:50
  Yeah, I mean, I went over there when I was in Italy on my
• 21:53
  honeymoon. There's a lot of small cars and
• 21:55
  you rarely see trucks. So I definitely understand how
• 21:59
  it's hard to maneuver around there because streets are narrow
• 22:02
  and so and the weight that's on those grills, it's a lot to
• 22:08
  maneuver. Any plans to further expand
• 22:11
  overseas? Europe, Asia, Australia.
• 22:15
  So we're in Europe. We've been contacted by a couple
• 22:20
  of people from, oh gosh, I went blank, north of England,
• 22:25
  Ireland, Ireland, it's been a long day, Ireland.
• 22:30
  And so they're interested. They really like the philosophy
• 22:34
  of doing a rib cook off at one of their pubs 'cause that's a
• 22:38
  big deal over there. So Ireland has contacted us,
• 22:42
  Italy, they're interested, but they would be under the European
• 22:46
  umbrella. New Zealand, Australia's
• 22:50
  contacted us, there's been some Asia contacts but nothing is
• 22:56
  really transpired from that. OK OK.
• 23:00
  And are you looking to explore and expand down South, the
• 23:04
  coast, East Coast? Have y'all done anything on the
• 23:07
  West Coast or? Anywhere a promoter will step up
• 23:10
  and call us, we're willing to have a contest.
• 23:12
  We we don't. We ordinarily don't reach out to
• 23:16
  people. We let them reach out to us
• 23:17
  unless somebody calls and says, hey, I've talked to someone, can
• 23:21
  you call him? He wants to talk to you.
• 23:22
  We definitely follow up on that. But we really, we have so many
• 23:27
  contests and stuff right now. It's hard to reach out to other
• 23:31
  people looking for more because Rep wise we can barely keep up
• 23:35
  with what we got at the moment. So and.
• 23:38
  We're constantly training reps. Our goal is to have about two
• 23:43
  reps per state that can go out and Rep these contests and we
• 23:48
  are always making our systems more user friendly for the reps
• 23:54
  to work. And so I would say by Year 5, we
• 23:59
  will have one, if not 2 reps in almost every state.
• 24:04
  OK, OK. And for those that are looking
• 24:07
  to start cook off, what do they need to do and how would they
• 24:11
  need to get started to get in contact with y'all?
• 24:16
  They can call me and I will walk them through it.
• 24:20
  I get about 10 calls a day like that and I can tell you exactly
• 24:24
  what to do and how to do it, how to raise the money for the best
• 24:27
  approach because, and I didn't learn that on my own.
• 24:30
  We've had promoters that are very successful.
• 24:32
  A good friend of ours in Texas, Justin W is he's, he is great.
• 24:36
  He's one of, he's a great promoter and he's really good.
• 24:40
  He's told us how he does it and we pass that on to other
• 24:42
  promoters and it seems to work. They're welcome to call me.
• 24:46
  Anytime and Dirk's number is on the website.
• 24:53
  I definitely need more people in the South to definitely set up
• 24:56
  some because the excellent idea is easy.
• 24:59
  You don't have to be there day, days and days.
• 25:02
  You can be in and out. And you can roll in and get out
• 25:07
  the same day. That's right.
• 25:08
  That's, that's, that's how we set it up.
• 25:11
  And the way we do it too is we do not require meat inspection.
• 25:15
  Now if the promoter wants to have meat inspection, that's
• 25:18
  fine. We get that.
• 25:19
  We, I don't think we've had anybody require it so far, but
• 25:23
  we're good with that. We understand some cities or
• 25:25
  something might want to, but you can pre trim your meat just like
• 25:29
  you can KCBS or whatever. But once you're on site, whether
• 25:32
  that's Wednesday or Thursday or Friday, you can do anything you
• 25:35
  want. We don't care.
• 25:37
  So unless the promoter says otherwise, we're by our rules.
• 25:41
  We're good with it so. And that's what people want to
• 25:43
  hear because it's more easier that way and people are totally
• 25:49
  laid back. If I got a child, it's easier
• 25:52
  for me to go cook in one day and come back home versus having to
• 25:56
  be there 3-3 days and trying to figure out what I'm doing as
• 26:01
  well as worried about. Home is definitely at the best
• 26:03
  option for a lot of people. Where do y'all see yourselves in
• 26:07
  the next five years? My goal is to have 100,000
• 26:14
  members. That's where we see ourselves.
• 26:17
  We're going to bring on additional categories.
• 26:22
  I could say it's maybe two to three a year that we'd like to
• 26:25
  have. They'll be ancillary.
• 26:27
  Some will be tracking points, some could be branded a little
• 26:31
  bit differently and maybe in a couple more countries as well.
• 26:37
  Yeah. I see myself being insane by
• 26:39
  then if we keep doing like we're going.
• 26:42
  Yeah, you'll be fine. You're going to be successful.
• 26:44
  I don't know. Teetering on the edge right now.
• 26:48
  She got your back, she got your back.
• 26:50
  You're not in and alone. So that's that's one of the
• 26:53
  important thing. We have our in our house, we're
• 26:56
  in Jodie's office right now. Mine is a bedroom next door.
• 27:00
  We have 4 bedroom house, two of our offices and we're just
• 27:03
  yelling at each other all the time.
• 27:04
  I cannot believe you did this. We could be on a beach
• 27:07
  somewhere, but no, we're doing that so.
• 27:12
  It's good though, it's good to have somebody push you because
• 27:15
  my wife is the same way. Because I would have been still
• 27:17
  dragging my foot about this podcast because if you know me,
• 27:20
  I'm not the probably the person that would do something like
• 27:22
  this, but I wanted to do this to help people.
• 27:24
  So she was like, what are you waiting for?
• 27:27
  So then I drug her up to Mrs. and May and I had saw Jodie at
• 27:31
  Justice and May she didn't. I was at the Willingham tent,
• 27:35
  they let them come inside there and I saw her out.
• 27:37
  There, that was right down from us, wasn't.
• 27:39
  It. I saw her over there.
• 27:42
  It took me the longest to spot y'all because they had y'all way
• 27:44
  off in the kit. But yeah, my wife after we went
• 27:49
  to Memphis and May and lot met a lot of people.
• 27:51
  I I feel that OK, it's time now because we've met a lot of
• 27:55
  people, made a lot of connections and stuff like that.
• 27:58
  I just came back home and just jumped into it.
• 28:00
  So it's definitely good to have somebody that's pushing you and
• 28:04
  giving you word or advice. Definitely.
• 28:06
  I appreciate what my wife is doing, so I know you appreciate
• 28:09
  what she's. Doing, I'm just telling you
• 28:12
  right now, she'll be all good until you start cooking and it's
• 28:16
  going to go South real quick. So just remember, you were
• 28:19
  warned. I'm just saying.
• 28:24
  She want to come out there and help me cook, but I know I'm a
• 28:27
  little, I'll be like put that back where I had it.
• 28:32
  Telling you, Jody and I've had some, it's all just competition,
• 28:36
  but sometimes when we're cooking in the trailer, it gets a little
• 28:38
  ugly. But it's all it's nothing
• 28:40
  personal. It's just we're both really
• 28:42
  competitive. So it's.
• 28:44
  It gets that way sometimes, so. And I saw that we're just the
• 28:47
  sheep BBQ. Can you explain that?
• 28:51
  She's BBQ, yeah. That's my BBQ.
• 28:53
  That's her BBQ team. Oh, that's your team, OK.
• 28:57
  So when I'm in New Zealand, I'm actually cooking the NCBA, which
• 29:02
  is equivalent to the KCBS over here.
• 29:05
  It's four meats and then I'm cooking a steak cook off and
• 29:10
  then the next day is our rib cook off association contest.
• 29:15
  OK, OK. And I definitely because I'm
• 29:18
  looking at the list, but it's hard to tell the team name, but
• 29:21
  if y'all have anybody in y'all association would like to come
• 29:25
  on and promote the association as well as promote themselves
• 29:30
  like Bobby Oliver. He's up there all the time to
• 29:35
  Luke Short. Bobby would be a good one, you
• 29:38
  have a guy that would be perfect for you too that had never
• 29:41
  cooked the competition in his life till one of his friends
• 29:45
  that had only done a couple got him last year going.
• 29:48
  Richard and he is like hooked and just into it and he would
• 29:54
  probably be a fun one to interview to like how he got
• 29:56
  started and he'd be a real good one and Bobby would be
• 30:00
  fantastic. Bobby's.
• 30:02
  Bobby's a great promoter. It's funny how many guys that
• 30:07
  just met each other once we started the rib cook off that
• 30:11
  are all good friends now and some of them travel together
• 30:13
  when they can. Even points leaders, if it's
• 30:16
  convenient for them to travel together, they do.
• 30:19
  They split expenses. They and these guys didn't even
• 30:21
  know each other a year and a half ago, become good friends
• 30:25
  and they talk all the time and share tips.
• 30:28
  And that's like you said, that's the BBQ world.
• 30:31
  It's not just our organization. They're all like that.
• 30:33
  It's really cool. Definitely, I'd love to hear
• 30:36
  from people that you don't get to hear from too often.
• 30:39
  And everybody got good stories. Everybody can learn something
• 30:42
  from somebody's story. Whether you lose, whether you're
• 30:45
  losing or you're winning, you still can help somebody out by
• 30:49
  getting tips, what not to do or what to do.
• 30:51
  So it's definitely always help in hearing somebody else and
• 30:56
  because you might be going through the same thing and their
• 31:00
  tip can help you get over the hump.
• 31:04
  So I definitely happy about that.
• 31:06
  So I'm an advocate for that because a lot of people just see
• 31:09
  people struggling and just sit there and watch them knowing
• 31:13
  that they have the tip to get them over the hump.
• 31:16
  So that's exactly right. Exactly.
• 31:19
  We have a lot of BBQ friends and I've got a couple that we talk
• 31:22
  every day and it's, hey, what did we do?
• 31:24
  Or I'm struggling in this. What?
• 31:26
  Maybe try this or go back to what you were doing.
• 31:29
  Yeah, when you got friends like that, you can cut your learning
• 31:32
  curve a lot. Exactly.
• 31:34
  And I'm an advocate for that. I'm going to switch over real
• 31:37
  quick and we're going to play a quick little game before I get
• 31:39
  you out of here. Just rapid fire questions y'all
• 31:42
  can answer. All right?
• 31:44
  Sweet or spicy ribs? Sweet and spicy for me.
• 31:50
  Spicy. I like a little kick.
• 31:52
  All right, sauce or no sauce? I'm a sauce guy.
• 31:56
  Sauce. All right, wrapping foil or
• 31:58
  butcher paper. Foil all.
• 32:02
  Right pellet, offset, drum or kettle?
• 32:05
  Cooked on all of them. Love them all.
• 32:07
  We have 30 some grills on our patio and you named all of them.
• 32:12
  But if I'm going to cook ribs, it's going to be a.
• 32:15
  Drum yeah, we cook mainly on drums competition, but we when
• 32:18
  we first started cooking we cooked on pallets, so.
• 32:20
  Yeah. OK, chicken thighs or drums.
• 32:25
  Drums. Brisket, flat or point?
• 32:29
  Both but. I love it, especially his
• 32:33
  brisket. Oh my God, he ruined me.
• 32:35
  We cook a good brisket. Burnt ends, overrated or leap?
• 32:42
  I've never been a big burning fan but I I can cook some good
• 32:47
  ones but that's just not my. Overrated.
• 32:51
  Favorite type of wood for smoke? Pecan.
• 32:55
  Yeah, Pecan. Glove or bare hands?
• 33:01
  I got a lot of burns but preferably gloves.
• 33:04
  Yeah. Gloves, charcoal, chimney or
• 33:07
  fire starters. We use both depending on what
• 33:11
  we're cooking. Yeah, all right.
• 33:13
  Rib tips. Love them or leave them?
• 33:16
  I'm a leave them on rib tips. Yeah, me too.
• 33:19
  They taste good, too much trouble for me.
• 33:22
  Hi. Marinade break, dry bride
• 33:28
  marinade or dry brine. Marinade or dry brine?
• 33:30
  Probably marinade. Yeah, marinade.
• 33:33
  Yeah, all right. Must have rub on your shelf.
• 33:38
  Do what? Must have rub on your shelf.
• 33:42
  Oh goodness, we have a lot. I do.
• 33:45
  I use a lot of Cosmos stuff. A lot of Blues hog a lot.
• 33:48
  Of Blues Hog, Yeah. Yeah.
• 33:51
  I mean, shelves, don't you? Yeah.
• 33:53
  Shelves. Exactly I'm looking at after.
• 33:58
  The garage. It's seasoning.
• 34:01
  I got about 80 of them right over here.
• 34:04
  Yeah, I hear you. Collection.
• 34:07
  All right, Do you remember the first thing you ever grilled?
• 34:10
  Probably for me it was probably chicken leg thigh quarters
• 34:14
  because that's the one thing I could afford.
• 34:17
  You can get a dump truckload of them for $5.00.
• 34:20
  So that's what I cooked and brisket when I first started
• 34:26
  cooking Brit. This is not competition.
• 34:28
  I cooked a lot of brisket and I think that's how I got good at
• 34:30
  brisket. But brisket was $0.39 a pound in
• 34:33
  those days. I'm old.
• 34:36
  Yeah. So I cooked a lot of brisket
• 34:38
  too. Didn't really know how but I was
• 34:41
  self-taught basically. Hamburgers.
• 34:45
  Yeah, nice, easy, quick and simple everything.
• 34:49
  I think I tried spare reels my first time, but everything I
• 34:53
  cooked back then was tasting like lighter fluid and I just.
• 34:58
  Hey, I could remember the days when people bowled ribs,
• 35:01
  including me, and then you grilled them because that's what
• 35:03
  people did. And I'm like nowadays about
• 35:05
  makes me want to throw up thinking about that.
• 35:08
  I guess you learn like everybody else.
• 35:11
  Yeah, yeah, definitely. That came a long way.
• 35:13
  But I'm proud of myself. That's why I'm waiting for y'all
• 35:17
  to come to town so y'all have a competition.
• 35:20
  I'm ready. Awesome it.
• 35:23
  Made fun. Hopefully we'll get one soon in
• 35:25
  your area. All right, Dirk and Jody, your
• 35:28
  therapy session is over. Y'all have anything to promote
• 35:31
  or shout outs? I know y'all have a competition
• 35:34
  this weekend and y'all can promote promote right now.
• 35:39
  We do. We're going to Ryan, Oklahoma.
• 35:41
  We're actually going to be in Tennessee for a wedding this
• 35:44
  weekend. And then we fly out after the
• 35:46
  reception to Dallas in a hotel for four hours.
• 35:49
  And then we get up and drive to Ryan, Oklahoma, which is
• 35:52
  southern Oklahoma, for a competition.
• 35:54
  And I think we're going to have about 50 teams and it is a
• 35:58
  double rib contest. Wings, kids.
• 36:00
  It's going to be a fun time. Fireworks that we had it last
• 36:04
  year and a friend of ours runs it and it's the limp brisket I
• 36:07
  think they call it. That's the name of their BBQ
• 36:09
  team and it's a great event, so. You're not staying.
• 36:14
  I don't know heard that. Before OK, that is my that's the
• 36:26
  way that BBQ ninja says that Lebris good.
• 36:30
  Maybe more like. That yeah, that's what we're
• 36:32
  doing this weekend and then we're booked.
• 36:34
  It's crazy. Jody and I are splitting up
• 36:36
  every weekend, going our different ways.
• 36:39
  We have other reps going. The average weekend will be four
• 36:43
  or five contests and we don't let them close to each other.
• 36:46
  So it's crazy, that's for sure. Definitely, I wish y'all the
• 36:50
  best of luck and make sure y'all get plenty of sleep.
• 36:55
  Ain't going to happen this weekend, but we really
• 36:58
  appreciate it. And hey, we'll send you a, we'll
• 37:00
  get you hooked up with Bobby and Richard.
• 37:04
  And I think both of those would be the opposite end of the
• 37:06
  spectrum and they would be great interviews.
• 37:08
  Definitely anybody that want to come on, just give them my
• 37:11
  information to just schedule whenever they don't and once I
• 37:15
  see their name, we're good to go.
• 37:17
  But I wish y'all the best of luck and I'm going to join
• 37:20
  myself even though y'all ain't in this area but I definitely
• 37:23
  going to join so I could be prepared and definitely support
• 37:28
  y'all and what y'all doing because I definitely I want that
• 37:31
  rib hat that I saw on your. Website too we definitely
• 37:36
  appreciate. We do thank.
• 37:39
  You so much. Thank you and appreciate y'all
• 37:42
  coming on and giving y'all time and hopefully people will
• 37:45
  definitely hear this and take an interest in what y'all doing and
• 37:49
  join in on the fun is coming and help y'all spread all over the
• 37:53
  world. I definitely, hey, I'm
• 37:55
  supporting that and on that. Thanks very much.
• 37:59
  No problem, we'll see y'all next episode.
• 38:03
  Thank you for joining us on another episode of the BBQ
• 38:05
  Therapy Podcast. My name is Tavis Bryant.
• 38:09
  Please tune in to YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and any
• 38:14
  streaming platform near you. Please pay the secretary on your
• 38:17
  way out and we'll see you next episode.
• 38:20
  Y'all go.