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Winning (and losing) on the barbecue trail

Blake Moody
Posted 3/22/17

This weekend my barbecue team Tortoise Q competed in the 9th annual City of Fernandina Beach Rib Cook-off. This can’t-miss event includes beachfront cook sites, some of the best weather that …

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Winning (and losing) on the barbecue trail


Posted

This weekend my barbecue team Tortoise Q competed in the 9th annual City of Fernandina Beach Rib Cook-off. This can’t-miss event includes beachfront cook sites, some of the best weather that Florida has to offer and one of the area’s greatest promoters in Jay Robertson. Jay puts on a fantastic overall show for the public and the participation from barbecue teams is a testament to how well he treats them.

I started to get the butterflies as I approached the final stages of packing the car last Friday. The drive to the competition is always enjoyable. The hard work is done, the day job is complete and now you can focus only on cooking, visiting friends and enjoying yourself.

This event has been very good to Tortoise Q as we have won first place chicken and second place ribs. Our cook site was located next to our good friends, Tony Rodgers of Bones 11 and Tim Wysocki of BluesyQ of Middleburg. Last year, Tony won the grand championship and Tim is an outstanding cook as well. Being in such close proximity allows us to hurl good natured insults at each other throughout the weekend. We were excited.

Friday night came to a close quickly (we didn’t arrive on site until after 9 p.m.) and Saturday morning started at 4:30 a.m. Before we knew it, the cooking was complete and all of our food had been turned in. Overall, I was pretty happy with our entries and I remember how Tim was telling me that he was very underwhelmed by his ribs. He was a good sport though and wished us the best.

Being in love with what you turn in is usually the kiss of death believe it or not.

At the awards, they never called our name to come to the stage. There would be no championships, recognition, trophies or high fives. The judges didn’t like Tony’s food either and yet we cheered our friends as their names were called out by the announcer. Tim had a fantastic finish and landed in the Top 5 overall. Witnessing his astonishment was a thing of beauty.

We walked back from awards empty handed as this was just another day on the barbecue trail. You win some and you lose most. I most certainly did not blame the judges for the scores they had given me. We got the car packed up, tried desperately not to forget any of our children and headed back to Jacksonville.

Win, lose or draw we always post-party at Brewer’s Pizza in Orange Park. You should never let a win or a loss get in the way of Taylor and Troy’s pizza or one – or 3 – of Steve’s beers. If you think about it, we always win.