City Paper Interview: Pitmasters on the Perils of Barbecue Competitions

In our discussion with some of Nashville’s best pitmasters for this week’s

, the topic of competition came up. It’s a sore spot among some in the barbecue community, with critics saying that the winners all taste the same, and not necessarily in a good way. Carey Bringle — who recently opened

in the Gulch — is a decorated veteran of the barbecue competition circuit. Pat Martin (of

) and a group of chefs and pitmasters formed the Fatback Collective team to try and combat the homogenization of competitive barbecue, finishing third at Memphis in May in 2011 (a fine account of that attempt

). Will Newman is the owner of

, with locations in 12South and East Nashville. Molly James runs the Nashville-area

restaurants. Jack Cawthon has been selling barbecue in town for four decades, most recently in his

, near Charlotte and 16th Avenue North. Here’s an excerpt from the discussion:

Pat Martin: I haven’t done the competition thing other than here and there, like with Carey or John Willingham, but competition barbecue to me is — I think it’s been great and it’s been real bad. And specific to this question, I mean, quit wrapping it, quit injecting it, and quit doing all this shit to it and just cook it. Just, you know, time and real wood fire and salt and black pepper, whatever else you want to throw in on your rub, but, you know, people are constantly trying to figure out a way, like Carey said, to rush it and speed it up, and, you know, just don’t do it if you’ve got to speed it up. I mean people wrap it so they can speed up their ribs so they can get them done faster. I guess to the home cook, they sit around and watch these barbecue pitmasters, and they think that’s the — that’s what you have to do because they’ve won championships. Well, we all know these judges are — I mean, the stuff you’d eat at these competitions … I mean, I’ve judged at Jack Daniels twice and I’m telling you it is — some of it is absolutely inedible.

Will Newman: Plus they do the chicken now …

Pat Martin: Yeah, like in a little muffin thing and all that.

Will Newman: They’re all the same, covered in red sauce.

Molly James: Covered in sauce and injected with all of that stuff