FIRST-YEAR BBQ CO with competitors and patrons alike


BY TREVOR BUSCH insight magazine


cess. “We’ve heard nothing but positive feedback.


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Frankly, everyone is really excited to have it again next year in 2020,”said project manager Meghan Brennan of the May 25 event hosted in Confederation Park.“We’ve even got a few people from the public saying when can they sign up next year for the competition itself.We’re looking at mak- ing a few changes for sure, but I think it went really, really well given this is the first time we’ve done this in Taber, and the first time that the town itself has ever tried to do something on this level for a barbe- cue competition. So I’m quite pleased with how it went.” Contestants began preparing their submissions


for the judges in the park at 8 a.m., but the main event would get started at 5 p.m. with stage enter- tainment, a public meal, judging of the various sub- missions,and a beer gardens, which stretched until 10 p.m.A total of 13 teams competed in the 2019 event. “This year we had a ceiling of 30 people


(entrants),”said Brennan, who also serves at the town’s communications co-ordinator.“That’s just based on the amount of electrical power we could provide.But as we put more power in Confederation Park, there’s always the ability for more. But that kind of depends on the registrations we get per year,and we’re usually pretty good at making things work." In the Emergency Services Category, Sweet


Smoke would take home top honours, followed up by Smoke Eaters BBQ and the Taber Police Association. In the Public Category, Pa-D Whack Smokers would emerge triumphant, and was also


s a culinary kick-off to the summer months for the Town of Taber, the inau- gural Backyard BBQ Competition is being heralded as a resounding suc-


the overall winner. Second place was taken by Marvelous Q, and third went to Sacky’s House of BBQ. For 2020, consideration will be given to the type


or variety of meats that will be prepared for judg- ment, as chef’s choice can sometimes have judges comparing apples to oranges. “Definitely the ’streams.’Obviously this year we had public versus emergency services.We might change it up to a type of meat, or just make it all public, something like that. It’s still very much up in the air,but we like the idea of maybe — instead of having chef’s choice of meat — you’re in a certain meat competition if you want to do ribs, or tender- loin, or something like that. It makes it even easier for judging for sure,”said Brennan. It is a sentiment Greg Price, editor of the Taber Times and Vauxhall Advance agrees with in Brennan's assessment, having been invited as a guest judge for the EMS side of the competition. "It was an absolutely fantastic event,with some


tasty entries and great camaraderie all day long among friends and family.But, what I found difficult in giving people a fair shake in judging was at times I was comparing different types of meats. It may just be personal preference what the judge likes with one type of meat over another,not how well some- thing was prepared," said Price. "If it's the same type of meat, then everyone is on the same playing field with their chef skills and you are less likely to have one person win simply because that was the pre- ferred type of meat among judges.Nevertheless, everything was delicious and I was honoured to be selected as a judge at the inaugural event." Demand for the pulled pork dinner far exceeded


expectations, according to Brennan. Roughly $1,500 was raised for the Taber STARS Charity Auction. “A few other changes might be to the dinner itself.


Obviously our goal was to feed 200,and we far exceeded that.We’re still counting the funds, but we’re looking like we probably fed around 300 peo- ple. So we went 100 over the expected amount.


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