Wed Aug 22, 2012
After successfully fundraising to get The Meatwave on the competition circuit, I took a look at the sea of competitions out there and decided to take a pragmatic approach to the contests we'd enter.
Taking the jump from backyard to comps is an uphill battle—grilling for friends and family doesn't really prepare you much for the challenges of dealing with tight deadlines and cooking to a judge's taste and not your own. So I started small, with the closest contest to home, the one day Grillin' on the Bay in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, which pitted us against 17 teams. Then I upped our game slightly for our second comp, with a true barbecue competition only slightly further away at the NYC BBQ Cookoff in Staten Island, which had 20 teams and required an overnight stay. Then I gave myself a buffer of a few months for recipe development before I took on the big time with the established festival that is the Hudson Valley Ribfest, two hours north of the city in New Paltz.
In its eighth year, this comp attracts a full house of fifty teams (actually scaled down from 70 last year) and attracts some of the best competitors in the New York region and beyond. It's three days and two separate competitions, which I thought would put a nice bookend for our first year of competition.
More and the ribtastic results after the jump >>
Tue Apr 24, 2012
I wonder if other competition teams out there are thinking, "Why the hell did I get myself into this, and why can't I stop?"
This was the arc of my weekend at The Meatwave's first Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) competition, where a combination disorganization, rain, cold, and a poor cook should have been a complete spirit killer, but in the end, all I could think about was the next competition couldn't come soon enough.
Read more after the jump >>
Tue Mar 27, 2012
The is it folks, the day has come that you can now add the words "Award Winning" in front of "Meatwave BBQ." This is a journey nearly nine years in the making, and the road was not without its challenges, but I'm incredibly proud that we've made it and forever grateful for all the people who helped me get here. Ok, enough with generalizations, you wanna know how it all went down—with all of the highs and lows? I'm ready to share all (which I warn, may be a little overshare for some).
Continue on the fantastic journey of the Meatwave BBQ Team >>
Tue Mar 13, 2012
The Meatwave BBQ Team is moving full steam ahead—we have applications in for three contests, built our mobile kitchen, and are hard at work at the perks for our generous funders. This is an exciting new chapter for the Meatwave, and your time to be part of it is coming to a close tomorrow!
While we've technically met our goal, every additional contribution is a great help. We currently have enough to cover two of the three competitions entered, and we're possibly looking at doing one more as well. Your contributions will further help get the Meatwave out on the road and competing, and the more we compete, the better chance we have to win, and thanks to your support, this year's monetary winnings will be donated to local food-based charities like City Harvest.
A lot of hard work has also gone into perfecting the Meatwave barbecue sauce during this process. The response to this sauce from friends and family have been so overwhelming that we'll be looking into starting up a legit business to bottle and sell this sauce to the masses. As with the team start-up, we'll also need funds to help the Meatwave take this next step in what will hopefully be a bigger and meatier future.
You have just 1 day left to join The Meatwave BBQ Competition Team, and also get yourself some sweet Meatwave swag like buttons, tote bags, sauces, prints, books, and even barbecue!
Steak your claim on The Meatwave BBQ Competition Team before it's too late >>
Thu Feb 2, 2012
Thanks to all of my supportive family, friends, and fans, The Meatwave Competition BBQ Team has reached its goal and will hit the BBQ trail this summer. Applications to compete in the Hudson Valley Ribfest and The Battle of the BBQ Brethren are already in the mail and I'm working on putting everything together we need to participate.
The outpouring of support to get to this goal has meant the world to me, and I'm currently hard at work on the buttons, totes, sauces, and more that funders will receive in return for their generous donations.
Of course, The Meatwave is always thinking big and looking above and beyond what I set out to do.
The amount raised was the bare minimum to get us to two competitions, but I'm already planning to try to enter one more contest. Response to my barbecue sauce has also been so overwhelming that research has started to see what it would take to get it bottled and sold in stores. Finally, an idea is brewing to hold a public charitable barbecue event that would mix my love for smoked meats and dedication to non-profits together as one.
As you can see, even though the initial goal was reached, every additional dollar will be a big step to help realizing what will hopefully be a bigger and meatier future for The Meatwave.
I can only do these things with your help, and there's still time to join The Meatwave Team to make it happen.
Join the Meatwave BBQ Team Now >>
