What Is Competition BBQ?
The Basics
It is exactly as it sounds, its people and teams cooking barbecue in some kind of competition structure. Most commonly in the UK, this is part of an bigger event such as a festival or food fair, but they can also be stand alone.
Generally speaking it is a hobby for enthusiastic amateur BBQ'ers and cooks. A chance to get together with likeminded people in friendly competition.
It has has its origins in the USA where there continue to be large numbers of barbecue competitions and cookoffs, mainly around low and slow cooking. In the UK, while we have that also, many of our competitions are freestyle. Allowing creativity and much broader types of competition.
Formats
The original imported format from the States is low and slow (also known as Master Series). They generally follow an established four round structure, usually of chicken, pork ribs, pork shoulder and beef brisket. These are the standards of American barbecue. Variations on this include Kosher, where pork is swapped for Kosher meats including beef ribs. More info can be found on our page here.
Here in the UK the primary format is what is known as freestyle. This is where each round has a loose set of rules and may be based around a specific kind of dish, ingredient or theme. These contests allow competitions to have greater freedom in what they produce and how they produce it.
An increasing number of single product contests, particularly in Europe are emerging, mainly around steak cooking and pork ribs.
Organisations
There are a few organisations large and small that will provide governance and structure to barbecue contests.
Here in the UK, we as CompBBQUK apply our structure to contests that we organise or sanctions, but may UK contests apply their own unique structure and format.
The biggest in the USA is KCBS (Kansas City Barbecue Society). As well as sanctioning many Master Series contests across the USA, they provide their competition structure to some of the biggest and most prestigious contests in the UK and Europe. Many teams will focus on KCBS contests because of the opportunities it presents for invitational events across the world and to compare with teams across the world. There are several other large sanctioning bodies in the USA, but currently only KCBS has been imported to the UK and Europe for the traditional four meat contests.
Other sanctioning bodies include SCA (Steak Cookoff Association), and the Rib Cookoff Association. Both American and with a competition presence in the UK or Europe. More information can be found in the "Organisations" section of this site.
Getting Involved
You generally will need to supply your own kit like shelter, grills and smokers. We have a more detailed view on this here. You will mostly need to provide your own ingredients too. The exception to this is contests or rounds within contests where specific ingredients are provided as part of the rules.
The competition barbecue community is warm, friendly and welcoming to newcomers, and we here at CompBBQUK will do all we can to help, guide and advise new teams taking part in our contests, or other contests. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us.