Guest Post: Q Shanty BBQ & Virtual Comps
My name is Enrico Pasquale with Q Shanty out of Raynham Massachusetts. I want to give you a little inside scoop what is going on in the competition barbecue field right now due to Covid-19. Have you ever heard of something called a virtual barbecue or cooking contest? I didn’t before this past year. These contests are online events that you cook at home and take pictures and video of your food to show the appearance and tenderness.
Then you have to do a one page written description of your cooking process and what we used for ingredients. You have a week to make the dish and send it in and then wait for the judging to happen. I find these competitions a lot harder than regular barbecue competitions. The reason why I find it harder is because the judges can’t my food and you need to wait for the judges results over the week. We normal get the results in about 2 and half hours. For the virtual we are only do one meat; which can hurt you in overall points. At a regular contest we are cooking the four major meats Ribs, Chicken, Brisket, and Pulled Pork. All four of these meats all the scores go to find out the grand champion which helps out so much in the point race to see were we end up at the end of the year.
This year I have competed in 5 virtual contests. Three for world food championship and two for national barbecue league contest. For the world food contest I did a grilled vegan burger for the Ka Pop challenge and we didn’t place at all. Then for the taste of America challenge World Food Championship we finished third in the state of Mass with a smoked cookie and cream puff. These we so good. We can’t count out the other part of the team my mother who finished fourth with a grilled redneck apple pie. Then for The Barbecue League we competed in ribs and turkey. For the ribs we finished 17th out of 136 teams and for the turkey we finished 22nd out 59 teams. I felt really conformable with my dishes and if it was tasted in person I feel I would have been better.
If you are looking for any virtual contest look at worldfoodchampionship.com and thebbqleague.com. These are where I am finding all of mine.