I moseyed on down to Barbecue Fest around 1:30 p.m. Friday, braving the heat and the searing afternoon sun. Around that time, people were shuffling past me with white Styrofoam boxes, hurrying into the judges’ tent with their entries in the seafood competition (some of them even followed closely by cameramen.) The first tent I came across was the Cattlemen’s tent, where they were selling grills along with the book Everybody Grills. Someone told me that if you win a competition at Barbecue Fest and say “Thank you, Cattlemen!” you get a $1,000 extra in prize money. (I think they were just pulling my leg?)
The first competitors I met were the representatives from Cajun Cookers in Jackson, TN, who teamed up with Sysco for the competition. Darron Hicks came out to chat with me a little, having just entered his barbecue shrimp in the competition. His family started competing in 1985, and he has been trained by his father ever since. The recipe for their barbecue is around 100 years old, and Hicks describes it as “real basic.” “The brown sugar brings out the natural taste of the pork,” he says, adding that it isn’t too sweet. He says, “If you want something sweet, I’ll get you some apple pie.”