At the American Royal World Series of Barbecue, each judge eats over two pounds of meat during the scoring process. To become one of the over 200 certified judges, volunteers of the Kansas City Barbecue Society go through an intense training and testing process. Find out what it takes to pick the winner of the largest barbecue contest in the world.
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00:00 If you can taste the difference between a mac rib sandwich and real barbecue, raise
00:07 your right hand and repeat after me.
00:10 I do solemnly swear to objectively and subjectively evaluate each barbecue meat that is presented
00:25 to my eyes and my palate.
00:29 So that truth, justice, excellence in barbecue, and the American way of life may be strengthened
00:39 and preserved forever.
00:40 You are on your oath, do a great job.
00:48 We're at the American Royal World Series of Barbecue, the world's largest barbecue contest
00:52 with 505 teams here this year.
00:54 I like to say we're the NFL of competition barbecue.
00:58 So the Kansas City Barbecue Society is a non-profit organization with over 16,000 members.
01:04 Our certified barbecue judges are volunteers, but they're also very passionate about barbecue.
01:10 My name is Mary Ellen Winter.
01:11 I am a J-Cup Master Certified Barbecue Judge.
01:13 I've been judging since 2017.
01:15 So I'm a Master Certified Barbecue Judge.
01:18 That means you've judged 30 contests, volunteered at least one, and you've also cooked with
01:23 a team so you can experience that.
01:26 And then you take a test and you're now a Master Barbecue Judge.
01:29 So it's 9 a.m.
01:30 The first thing we do when we get here from the parking lot is go in and check in with
01:33 the American Royal representatives and tell them that we're here and ready to judge.
01:37 And then we get in line to get into the tent at 10 o'clock.
01:40 And then once we get into the tent at 10 o'clock, they're going to give us our assignments,
01:43 whether or not we're eating food or whether or not we're being a table captain.
01:46 We're just getting people settled in at the table right now.
01:49 Judge 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
01:52 When KCBS trains judges, we give them some framework on how to judge.
01:56 We judge on appearance, taste, and tenderness.
01:58 The way the judges score barbecue is from 9 to 5.
02:03 And then there's a 2 if it's inedible, and then a 1 if it's a disqualification.
02:07 They're going to have four meat categories.
02:09 And it's pork ribs, pork shoulders, beef brisket, and chicken.
02:13 This weekend, I'm shooting for all nines.
02:16 It's all about perfection.
02:17 You're trying to get as much flavor in one bite.
02:20 You don't want to be too sweet.
02:21 You don't want to be too spicy.
02:22 That middle ground is where that's the money spot.
02:25 So we seat six judges at a table.
02:27 In addition to the six judges, we have a person called a table captain, whose responsibilities
02:32 are to go out and get in line, bring back those six samples, make sure all the judges
02:36 get their numbers written on their cards and their plates correctly.
02:40 And then the table captain shows them all the entries they judged for appearance.
02:43 Once we're done judging for appearance, then he starts to pass these boxes, and judges
02:46 remove a sample, and put on their judging plate until all six are on there.
02:52 And once that's done, they go to work judging for taste and tenderness.
02:55 I don't think there's more teams competing in a world championship than there will be
03:00 this Saturday and Sunday.
03:01 It is not for the faint of heart.
03:03 It's what everybody wants to do.
03:05 Pretty special inviting this many teams to one area, getting it judged.
03:10 This is where I come and show what I'm really worth in the barbecue industry.
03:14 There are barbecue gods that are here.
03:16 It's massive.
03:17 Beautiful.
03:18 Thank you.
03:19 So you can cook your best food, but you need to hit those right tables of judges that just,
03:25 you know, really enjoy eating your food and score you for it.
03:27 When cooks arrive on site, the rule of thumb is, before you get to an event, you can take
03:32 anything away from the meat.
03:33 You just can't add anything back.
03:34 So we have inspectors go around and that's what they do.
03:37 They check the four categories or the five categories or however many there are that
03:41 day.
03:42 And as soon as meat's inspected, then the cooks can go to town doing whatever they need
03:44 to do to prep their meat.
03:46 So, I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:47 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:48 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:49 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:50 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:51 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:52 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:53 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:54 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:55 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:56 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:57 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:58 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
03:59 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:00 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:01 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:02 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:27 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:34 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:35 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:36 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:37 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:38 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:39 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:40 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:41 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:42 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:43 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:44 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:45 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:46 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:47 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:48 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
04:49 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:18 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:19 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:20 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:21 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:22 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:23 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:24 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:25 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:26 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:27 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:28 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:29 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:30 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:31 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:32 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:33 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:34 I'm going to start off with the first thing.
05:58 We've got a nail taste.
06:00 Taste is going to be the highest weighted score.
06:02 We have got a nail doneness, tenderness.
06:04 We've got to do a beautiful presentation.
06:06 And we worked so hard to make that perfect entry and get it to the judges.
06:11 The best foods in the world, I don't care if it's ice cream, Caesar, salad or barbecue,
06:15 the best foods in the world are going to have the best mouth feel, the best texture.
06:19 We want this chew to be perfect.
06:22 I'm going to just start garnishing our box and we want to make it nice and pretty.
06:26 So we really want to shoot for a nine, right?
06:28 That's the highest score that you can get.
06:30 And part of appearance is your garnish.
06:34 So basically what we want to be doing is making a very flat surface to put our food on top so it looks pretty.
06:43 You can garnish with parsley, you can garnish with kale, you can garnish with cilantro.
06:48 You don't have to put garnish in the box.
06:51 We instruct the judges not to judge based on the garnish in the box.
06:54 Okay, everybody ready?
06:56 So here's what a box looks like when we get it, the Styrofoam box.
07:00 And the box number will be on it, usually in the center.
07:03 I write my table number in one corner and the entry number in the other corner.
07:08 So this will be entry number two and it would be table four, which just happens to be our table number today.
07:13 We are table four.
07:14 One, four, three.
07:15 One, four, three.
07:17 And box number five is 121.
07:19 One, two, one.
07:20 One, twenty-one.
07:22 So first box for appearance.
07:25 When we present a box of barbecue to a judge and they look into that box and it makes them excited to want to grab a piece of barbecue out of that box, that's a nine.
07:35 That's kind of a basis for how they judge appearance of barbecue.
07:38 We also instruct them if by chance there's sauce on the lid from closing it, not to judge the box itself.
07:44 They're just there to judge the meat.
07:45 They're instructed not to talk while they're judging.
07:51 But they're encouraged to talk after the cards are all picked up so they can talk amongst themselves about what they liked and didn't like between categories.
07:58 What did you guys think?
07:59 Good.
08:00 Good?
08:01 All right.
08:02 I'm in line to get our next entry, which happens to be pork.
08:04 The entries are being submitted right now by the contestants.
08:07 I'll re-number the box.
08:08 This was box number five for me.
08:09 And then we have to write our table number on it, too, so they know what table judge did.
08:12 And then what I do, the triple check, is to write down on here the numbers of each one of the boxes in order so that I don't get a duplicate box later on.
08:20 Okay, now we're going to go back to the table.
08:24 So, you know, in pork, I am going to do a lot more money muscle.
08:28 The money muscle is actually one of the tubes, and it's really tender.
08:32 It's the filet mignon of the pork, if you want to say.
08:36 So, right here is that money muscle.
08:38 We trim that thing out, and that's where we get our slices with.
08:41 It's delicious.
08:42 It's cooked perfectly.
08:43 Everybody's doing money muscle.
08:44 Judges, I'm sure they look forward to eating a money muscle.
08:48 So, what we'll do is we'll be cooking one whole shoulder to take our pulled pork from.
08:53 The reason that we like to put a couple of different cuts in the box is that it just shows that we've got versatility, that we're not just doing one thing really well.
09:01 You know, when you put a plate together, you want a couple of different textures on there.
09:05 It's more visually appealing to have a few different elements in a box where people open it up, and they're like, "Oh, look at that. I've got options."
09:12 Kiss it.
09:14 Kiss it.
09:16 Thank you, Graham.
09:19 Last one for the day, old. We're done for today.
09:21 We're done, baby.
09:23 In pork, I think one of the ideas is if you can smash that pork to the roof of your mouth, it's probably overdone if it's mushy, for example.
09:30 So, you still want it to have some body, some integrity.
09:33 These two, just loved them.
09:36 Perfect balance of pork flavor, smoke, the savory, the sweet.
09:39 They were both outstanding.
09:41 The rest of them, eh, you know, marginal.
09:43 How many rolls have I done?
09:45 Oh, 12.
09:47 It's just kind of a family of judges and competitors, and it's just a very cool experience from that standpoint.
09:55 I'm collecting the judges' slips, and I'm perusing them to make sure that all the categories are filled out, that we've circled pork,
10:01 that we have the table number, the seat number, their judges' number, that they have filled out all the blanks, and they have signed the bottom of it.
10:07 Once that's done, then I'll turn them into a contest rep.
10:10 They'll double-check it to make sure that everything's right.
10:13 Today, I am keying scores.
10:16 So, we have 10 different people that will all be keying scores.
10:19 When you have over 500 teams, there's a lot of scores to key, so we need quite a few of us.
10:25 The way when we key scores, we'll key the scores in off the card, and we do a self-audit.
10:30 So, we'll key going across, but then we'll check the cards back.
10:33 So, we make sure that we key right.
10:35 Beyond that, we will do a separate audit, so somebody else will be looking at our ticket.
10:39 We'll do that for about 20, 25 percent of the teams today.
10:43 With this many teams, we would never have awards if we had to audit everything that was keyed.
10:49 We'll verify with somebody else and get a consensus on that.
10:52 We don't have time to run back to get a score from every judge today.
10:55 There are awards in each of the individual categories, so you can place in chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket,
11:02 and then you take your combined scores of those four categories, and then they award the overall.
11:07 And that's how we find our grand champion.
11:09 But now it's time for the winner. Can I get a drumroll, please?
11:15 With a perfect 180, we have Maddie Maxx!
11:20 Everybody's so passionate about barbecue.
11:23 I've never met anybody who couldn't find something that they loved about barbecue,
11:27 and we all just come together as a group and have a great time and award somebody a bunch of money and a big trophy.
11:33 I started in it because of my daughter. We volunteered and did it for a couple of years,
11:37 and then I decided we would take the real certification course with KCBS, and I got hooked.
11:42 I mean, once you take the certification course, you then have access to their website,
11:46 which has a list of all the competitions nationwide.
11:49 And the money's great. In fact, if you're a full-time competitor like I was,
11:52 you need the money to put fuel in the tank, to buy the meat, to pay the entries and all those things.
11:56 And if you're a full-time competitor, you probably have some sponsors.
12:00 You meet the most wonderful people. They are from all kinds of backgrounds,
12:04 and we all have the common taste of enjoying barbecue. Otherwise, we wouldn't be here.
12:08 Those are some good ribs.
12:10 (upbeat music)
12:12 [BLANK_AUDIO]