The only cooking contests I have ever been in were BBQ/smoked meats at the American Royal World series of BBQ held in Kansas City every October. We had an amature team of 5 or 6 guys and would smoke meat for 2 days and nights for the various entries...ribs, brisket, chicken, sausage, pork butt.

It was always a good time with mass quantities of beer being consumed. No cameras around to catch any errors and only the judges to please. I also volunteered to be a judge a couple times. Free BBQ!

So, if you were invited on Barbecue Brawl, where they do all different kinds of barbecue, how would you prepare?

I’m curious what the massively ignorant error wss, if you remember? Forgot to salt the pasta water? 😂😉 I always feel so smart when I point out errors to my wife before the jusges say anything. 🧑‍🍳

If this is one of those competitions where they throw random ingredients at you and force you to make them work, then perhaps the biggest asset would be to know what stuff is. Maybe I’d walk up and down the aisles at supermarkets, in particular ethnic shops, and make note of everything I’m not remotely familiar with. Meat and seafood first, produce second, other perishable areas next. I’d be least concerned about anything in a can or jar, at least you can taste those to get an idea what you’re up against. For example, a while back I posted a picture of pork bung and uteri from H Mart. I’d be happier having at least a broad idea how to manage those! 🤢

Sherry, you don't have to play, but imagining can be fun.

FOAS, I do know, but I don't want to make a SPOILER. It's not that consequential though. The contestant was assigned dessert (one thing any chef going on any competition should do is know how to make dessert, at least the basics). Part of the chef chose to make was meringue, and the chef wanted it to be less sweet so cut the sugar, at which I yelled, out loud, in my kitchen, "The sugar is structural!!" I'm no expert in baking science, but I know that. These people should know their eggs. It failed the way I expected it would. The chef figured that was what went wrong, but still didn't seem to know why.

I’d likely have to deal with any stress issues, especially if I had no idea what would be coming at me. I’d try to focus on keeping things simple yet creative and appeal to the masses. These days I’m good with timing, but there was a time when that escaped me. Being a contestant could take the fun out of it for me. However, I agree with plllog regarding learning from it. So, what would I need to brush up on? Relaxing and trying to have fun!

how would you prepare?

I'd buy the best cuts of meat I can find to smoke and then hit the liquer store to stock up on beer. I make my own rubs so I'd have to make those. I already have plenty of smoking wood...hickory, apple, cherry, oak.

I had the opportunity to sign up for a TV food competition show once. I passed on it. Way too high strung. I'd prepare by getting a new doc to prescribe a round of xanax. To get me through filling out the paperwork, heh.

But a bit more serious, depends on the show. Some utilize a more mystery basket format, some have a more open pantry format, and some have dish specific format. Each format would get a different approach. But I would for sure have to improve my plating skills, they ain't pretty.

If I actually counted the number of barbecue contests I entered, I'd probably get ill just thinking about the money I wasted. Preparation means buying the meat, mixing up plenty of dry rub and barbecue sauce, and mentally getting to a place where I know that nearly $1000 is going down the drain on overly sweet barbecue that I'm not even going to want the leftovers from.

Barbecue judges have become spoiled and pre-conditioned to one specific taste profile. If you can't cook that profile, all you're doing is cooking a bunch of meat that you'll take home and give away. My last contest was in Grant, Florida around 2012. I had never jerked a rack of ribs before and figured, what the heck, I'm not going to do this again, so I grabbed my jerk rub and dusted up three racks of loin backs. Well, of all the strange luck, I hit a table of judges that liked it hot and spicy, and ended up with a 2nd Place trophy for ribs. It was the only time I was happy to bring home leftovers.

Interesting Ricky...I'd never have thought of using jerk rub on ribs. Now I'm intrigued and might have to give it a go. I've jerked chicken plenty of times but always spatchcocked on the grill, not the smoker.

@LoneJack Zn 6a, KC - When I lived in South Florida and grew my own Pimento wood, I smoked all my jerk chicken. These days, it's 35 minutes on the Weber with the jerk rub and Royal Oak. Every now and then, I'll jerk a rack of ribs. Maybe for Jamaican Independence Day this August. I can always butterfly a Boston butt and jerk it in the Backwoods as long as I'm doing a couple racks of ribs.

Thank-you all for your comments. Especially interesting were the real world competition notes.

For the best known TV bbq contest, they expect the competitors to know all different kinds of barbecue as well as different proteins (inc. chicken and fish) and vegetables, starches, everything cookable on a grill, pit or smoker.

I'm a good cook with a recipe, I can develop a good recipe with time and contemplation, and I'm good at throwing things together to make a tasty dish. I can make sauces. I can also bake, and alter baking recipes or wing it. But I don't think any of that would be good for a competition. I doubt I have the skills for that. Feed happy people, yes, but display technical prowess? Doubtful. And I have little experience as primary on a barbecue. I can make a charcoal fire, and heat things and smoke them, but I don't have enough temperature control knowledge to confidently cook on an open fire.

But I can imagine. I yelled at the screen, as I said above, but she didn't hear me, and had the structural issues I predicted. If I were a restaurant chef going into an elimination contest, like Top Chef (and it's obvious that the contestants have seen the show before), I'd make sure I could make dessert basics and understand how to adapt them. That's a cake and kinds of decorative frostings and creams, a pie, a mousse or similar, a gel and ice cream in a pro-machine and, in case, liquid nitrogen. I'd also learn how to use the common machines, not just the ice cream machine, but Vita-mix and immersion blender, food procdssor, stand mixer and sheeter. Also deep fryer, commercial convection oven, blast chiller, anti-griddle...

Besides unfamilar things like desserts and equipment, there are some basics that not all working chefs know. The skills things go down to the initial steps that the restaurants may buy already done. Buying a box of NY steaks might be a lot more cost effective than buying whole and having the staff cut and package the steaks. So knowing how to break down a bird, a big fish including drawing the pinbones, a pig, a side of beef, including how to move it, may come in very useful. Also, learning how to make and use all the basic sauces, including the mother sauces, but also brown butter, chimmichuri and pesto, salsa picante, hot sauces, Asian sauces, curries, condiments, etc. You might be able to use a bottle, but if there's no fish sauce, for example, it would help if you can grab a tin of fish and build something similar in a blender. Oh, and study up on different fish, and weird produce.

Basically, I think the more you know, even if its just in passing encounters, the less likely you'll be left spinning not knowing what to do.

I honestly could not imagine that I would bother to " prepare." The thing about cooking competitions is that taste is 100% subjective. I know that there are those that follow what the professionals say is "correct" and are scared to have their own opinion. But real people who can think for themselves have their preferences, and I could serve the same plate of food to 10 different people, and have 10 different reactions. Those same 10 people could be given 10 different peoples version of a dish and all 10 of them could pick a different one to be their favorite. I would show up and do my best and forget the rest.

So, if you watch, you can get a bead on what they want. Both the Top chef type judges and the Food Network ones are looking for pretty much the same things. It's the local and otherwise invited judges who have really different opinions of how they should be. It's very entertaining to listen to how local dishes should be made from local judges, as opposed to what the standard TV competition says. And really fun when the declared haters of vegetables, or okra, or any particular thing, praise the contestants who make them well.

For standard judging the most important rule is not to neglect the assignment. Make it obvious that you used the technique or profile or ingredients that are required. Make sure required stuff is noticeable and, if appropriate, used in several ways. Cook the meats to med-rare, and even pork and chicken should be barely cooked through. Know how much cook is preferred for diferent kinds of fish/seafood. Oh, and know how to open clams and oysters, and which bivalves to cook open, remove for not opening, etc.

As for flavor, they don't want traditional even in tradtional foods. They want full spectrum always: Every dish should have all the tastebud flavors, especially acid (sour), plus umami, and textures like creaminess, crunch, chew, melt, etc... I hate crunch in Mac & Cheese. The farthest I'll go in that direction is the vegetables (not really crunchy anymore) in salsa picante. They want some counter to the softness. I'd just use fresh veg, but they probably like the cornflakes or whatever on top that leave shattered crunchy crumbs throughout. (Ick.) And they want a lot of salt--especially the ones from the East coast.