Rain can’t snuff out St. Peters’ barbecue competition
Rain forced the cancellation of Sunday’s events at Celebrate St. Peters but didn’t stop some of the nation’s top barbecue teams from competing in Lakeside Que-Topia earlier in the weekend.
Thirty-six teams competed Friday and Saturday for thousands of dollars in prize money during the Kansas City Barbeque Society State Championship event at 370 Lakeside Park. The winner secured a spot in the 32nd Annual World Series of Barbecue Sept. 29-Oct. 2 in Kansas City.
A team named Q Factor won first place in the overall judging. Teams were graded in four categories — chicken, ribs, beef and pork — judged on the basis of best overall score for those categories. Doc Richardson and his team from Q Factor finished first in chicken, sixth in ribs, first in pork and second in beef.
Brian Butts, the contest organizer, said the competition went so well — despite the rain — that he hopes to grow it by 50 percent next year. There are more than 400 barbecue competitions around the country annually.
“Our goal is to show (the competitors) some good hospitality, and (370 Lakeside Park) was a great venue for the event,” Butts said. “I thought it would be a great place to hold this, and the city welcomed me with open arms. We had more success than I could have ever dreamed when I came up with the idea a year ago.”
Q Factor had plenty of stiff competition. Mike Wozniak of Brimfield, Ill., who finished fourth overall, said he competes in about three dozen barbecue events every year. Wozniak and his team QUAU finished first and won $5,000 at last year’s Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue in Lynchburg, Tenn. Like
Lakeside Que-Topia, the Jack Daniels event tests cooks in several categories.
Wozniak said he’s been competitive his whole life and used to race motorcycles before an industrial accident forced him to quit. He said this was about his 30th competition this year, and he is gearing up to defend his world title Oct. 22.
“Nobody’s ever won two years in a row. We’re going to try,” Wozniak said.
Wozniak said being able to pull his trailer and cooking gear onto an RV pad with electric and water service made the competition in St. Peters better for all the teams. He said he knew many of the Lakeside Que-Topia contestants.
St. Charles resident Brian O’Neill has been competing at barbecue events for five years. He doesn’t travel as much as some teams, preferring six or seven events a year. O’Neill’s team, dubbed Big Chief, finished 10th overall. O’Neill’s two best entrees were chicken (seventh) and ribs (eighth).
O’Neill, who works for an insurance company, said he was completely unprepared for his first competition and still hasn’t figured out what the judges like.
“Whenever we think we’ve done really well, we do poorly,” he said. “You could hit a bad table (of judges).”
Sometimes O’Neill will turn in his meat covered just in a dry rub. Sometimes he’ll wet mop it. He said most of the competitors use the same rubs and sauces. His key to succulent ribs is to cook them at 250 degrees for five hours.
“But some people cook high and fast and do real well,” O’Neill said.
Cindy and Dennis Keck traveled from Millstadt, Ill., to enter the Que-Topia. Their team, 4 Smokin Butts Barbecue, used a cooking trailer complete with a flat-screen TV and three “green eggs,” which are the ceramic pots in which the Kecks cook their ribs.
By the time he turned in his last dish to the judges Saturday afternoon, Dennis Keck had been cooking since 4 a.m. He said the competition was good, considering this was the first barbecue contest in St. Peters.
Cindy Keck said traveling to barbecue competitions is the family’s hobby. She said the key to competing is coming up with a distinct flavor profile to suit the judges’ different tastes. The Kecks didn’t finish in the top 10 overall, but did score ninth in the pork and beef competitions.
“Winning takes a lot of repetition,” Cindy Keck said. “The more contests you do, the more you get into a rhythm.”
The barbecue competition was one of numerous events planned for Celebrate St. Peters, the city’s first festival in 370 Lakeside Park. The park, off Highway 370, opened in April. Rain prompted city officials to cancel Sunday’s events and altered the times of when some of the bands performed on Saturday.
The “Walk of Fame” Band Challenge on Friday night garnered 13,000 online votes from people who had the opportunity to vote for their favorite band. St. Peters spokeswoman Lisa Bedian said the winner of the band challenge would be named later this week.
Whether the city will host Celebrate St. Peters again next year will be determined by the Board of Aldermen, Bedian said.
“We got lots of great feedback from people, whether they were there for the concerts, kids games or barbecue competition,” Bedian said. “Mostly the feedback we got was that (the festival) had a lot of potential and they wished the weather was better. The people that came out Saturday had a great time. We had a lot of folks
comment it was the first time they’d been to the park.”
Bill & Sheila’s Barbecue