Skip Steele, head pitmaster at Pappy's Smokehouse and co-owner of Bogart's Smokehouse, somehow finds time to compete in the occasional national BBQ competition, the granddaddy of which is the Memphis in May International Festival, which took place 10 days ago. Should you hear any grillers or pitmasters rhapsodizing about "The World Series of Swine," they are referring to this extravaganza and no other.
There are several categories at MiM, but the most prestigious is "Whole Hog," where competitors are judged on their pig's ham, shoulder, and loin.
Out of 35 teams, Hogapalooza placed 5th in Whole Hog, less than a point out of third place, which would have put Steele's team in the finals (a rejudging), and a chance to win, place, or show, no small feat in that 11 Grand Champions were competing in this year's Whole Hog, including Yazoo's Delta Q, last year's winner (and 2nd place this year). Steele is no rookie in this rodeo: his team won the Whole Hog competition in 2000 and finished 6th last year.
To show how close this year's results really were, Mike Emerson, another member of the Hogapalooza team, told Relish that the team "scored 1013 points out of 1120, so one more judge giving us a 10 instead of a 9 would have made the difference." The king of the sound bite also quipped that "maybe we got the Russian judge."
Emerson, who joined Steele and Pappy's veteran Mike Macchi at the event, will also accompany the group on June 11-12 at the Big Apple Barbeque Block Party, a humongous invitation-only event held every summer in NYC's Madison Square Park, where teams will come prepared to feed 10,000 people over the course of two days.
