2024 SCA Steak Champion Chris Lytle

This Week We Were Joined By 2024 SCA Steak Champion Chris Lytle. Chris Brought Along Friend Of The Show Craig Carter. Chris and Craig Break Down This Year's 2024 SCA Steak Championship. Chris Shares A Shocking Fact About This Victory, Not Only Was It For The World Champtionship, But There Is Another Crazy Fact About This Win. Phil, Kyle, Craig, And Chris Have A Very In Depth Conversation About All Things Barbeque. Chris Even Drops The Tongs A Little On His Championship Steak! 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to don't drop the tongs.It is March twenty sixth, and we
got some guests with us today.Phil is not here yet, because last
we heard, Phil went skiing.Yes, Phil the Grill attempted to snow
ski. You can leave your jokesat the door with that. But we
do know that Phil, Yeah,exactly, And of course he picks the

(00:23):
first time to go snow skiing togo to winter Park Colorado, which is
like world class skiing. I wouldlove to know how many times he fell
on the damn hill. But nonethelesshe's not here, possibly suffering from altitude
sickness or whatever. So Phil's nothere, But I got Kyle with me
from your behind barbecue. You know, his wonderful new restaurant, Birds and

(00:47):
Bones, is open for a monthnow. Kyle looks like he's ten years
And you heard some guests we gotin the background. Kyle, I will
let you take over the introductions.My brother, all right, well,
not a stranger to don't drop thetongues. We've got Craig Carter. Welcome
Craig Carter. What's that, buddy? And he's wearing a robe and drinking

(01:07):
wine, which okay, I'll uhand then we got the world champion,
newly crowned s c A steak champ. Chris, what is up? Chris?
My man? What's up? Yes, sir, oh, Andy's got
the ring on. Have you takenit off yet? I have taken it

(01:30):
off. You know, as youknow running a restaurant, you gotta take
it off because it gets in theway when you're cooking and you don't want
to get it messed up in therestaurant. Yeah, but I'd be holding
it up like this, like,oh, hold on, bro, I'll
grab that pizza real quick, pullthat out. Hold on, you know
what I'm saying. That's all slippingout of my pocket, slipping on my

(01:51):
hand when I take the pizzas outto the rest Yeah, throw that sucker
off. That's exactly so. Chris, you are the Sea World champion.
Tell us about your background, howyou got started and all this what you
like to cook on your right youtold Kyle and I off line before we
got started. You got a restaurantwhere you're from? Give us the four

(02:15):
one one on you. My name'sChris Loudel. I'm from Burning, Alabama.
Hi a roll tide or a warEagle? Uh oh Yeah, let's
just say I'm not a war eagle. I have been a roll tide for
a long time. Nick Saban retiringdidn't bother me too much. But what

(02:35):
Alabama did to Eli Gold, itkind of it put a sour taste in
my mouth, I would agree.So do you hate me because I'm a
University of Michigan fan and we stoppedyour asses on the goal line to uh
and send Nick Saban out with abig ol' l oh. No, I
don't hate you, but you cansquirrels got to find a nut every now
and then. It's true, man, you guys dominated the landscape for twenty

(02:55):
years. So we'll take our onewinn and we'll hold up. It's just
like when Auburn beats Alabama once everyseven eight years. They talk about it
forever. And you know you gotyou when you beat Obama. Man,
you got when you beat a dynastyonce in a while. You got to
hold it up there, all right. So you're from Alabama, tell us
more about it from Alabama. SoI've cooked competition barbecue for a long time.

(03:19):
Ever since I was a kid.My dad and his best friend was
in it. I watched it whenI grew up. I started my own
uh two thousand and seventeen, Iguess it was it's year Aircots and won
his World championship. I was headedto a barbecue contest with my wife in

(03:40):
Tennessee and I met Mark Lambert andMart Lambert had been had gotten to be
buddies, and I stopped by thewarehouse they were getting ready for the Toka
NBN contest. I was going toa CASEYBS comp. Lambert was there,
Scott Guy was there, several morewas there. And at the Toka that's

(04:00):
when SCA was really just kind ofkicking off. They've been around a few
years, but it was getting bigger. They're practicing steak well. Lambert and
Scott got my wife over there andtried to and started teaching her how to
do state contests. Because my wifeshe yeah, she done my boxes and
she was tired of not being ableto cooking nothing. So when they hooked
her on steak, Mark Lambert costme a ton of money that day because

(04:24):
we bought two. We bought hera PK and I said I wasn't cooking
one yet, but we bought herPK and we started out the end of
twenty seventeen. Cooking twenty eighteen,I met Alan and Eric Allen Smith Erk
Cosson with Boys Night Out and wejust kind of clicked and got to be
best friends. And I've cooked withthem ever since. In barbecue steak.

(04:47):
I'm gonna tell you a real interestingstory or real fun story about it.
The World Championship last Sunday was myvery first win. I've been cooking steak.
I've been cooking SCA since the endof two twenty seventeen, regular since
twenty eighteen, and I've had allkinds of second place finishes. Me and
my wife got married in twenty nineteen. For our honeymoon, we went to

(05:11):
the Bahamas when Brad Barrett put onthe the state contest in the Bahamas.
I finished second there. She finishedsixth, and she beats my ass pretty
regular. But that's a cool rivalryto have though. That's good it is.
She's a badass. She's a badass. She finished second at the countdown

(05:33):
classes. Wow yeah, so okay, so I know you got to finish
this, but so you've never wonan SCA contest, never won an SCA
contest, So how'd you get yourgolden ticket? On? Weldon tickets.
You can get passed downs. AndI've had second places, yep. And
if the first place is one,second place gets in her third place.

(05:57):
Whoever in the top ten all theway down gets it, bro, because
I go ahead. Sorry, TimBrown passed passed me mine down in the
Eldorado, Arkansas the second week inDecember. Wow, as you'll learn you
as you as you'll learn Cow youprobably already learned. You don't get to
go out and compete as much aswhat you won't want you open the restaurant.

(06:17):
No, I don't see it everhappening right now as I look at
it, effort see it happen.You don't never see another cop in your
life. You'll get absolutely done.But I'm sure I'll be able to sneak
out because you know what last year, I think it was last year,
I was chasing, you know,trying to get a first place ticket,
and I must I had eleven secondplaces, eleven and then towards the end

(06:41):
of the year, I think itwas November, I finally hit one boom
and I got my first place.But I was eleven second place, eleven
times second place, which was crazy, Bro, it was crazy. It
was kind of pissing me off too, exactly. I hear you, bro,
if it was, I'm gonna tellyou Craig, Carter Mattos and Tim
Brown, Sandy Brown, Alan,I mean they the mentorship and the friendship

(07:02):
they given, they gave us throughoutthe year, and just little things to
tweak, you know, because theycook a lot. They cook. They
cook. Craig, Craig's a warriorat it. He cooks every weekend almost,
you know. So when we getto cook side by side and they
get and you watch them and youwatch their process compared to somebody that only
gets to cook ten or twelve contesta year. You know. Yeah,

(07:24):
that's that's what got me where Iwas Son, And you know, I
kind of look at it too.It's like where you guys compete. You
guys literally can drive in a fourhour radius any which way and you can
hit a contest. You could hittwo contests, you could hit three.
Out here we out on the WestCoast, we're limited, like we are
on contest. Well, lu's lookat all the people you're competing against.

(07:46):
I mean, you guys NonStop acompeting against champions, world champions, I
mean NonStop compared to every weekend andyou try to slip into one of those
contests when you're chasing your golden ticket, you try to slipping in one of
them contest where there's only twenty twentyfive thirty folks, and by Friday when
everybody sund up, you've got fiftyor sixty exactly exactly. Yeah, See,

(08:07):
we don't have that pretty much.I think the biggest one out here
is probably about fifty teams, Iwould say, but yeah, but I
mean way Bullhead gets pretty big.I think that was like forty eight last
year. But yeah, but likeI said, I mean, you guys
are non stop competing against you know, competing against the best. And we're

(08:28):
pretty good out here too, butyeah, like not on the caliber of
like some of you guys that areliterally every weekend. Yeah. When twenty
and twenty two when I ran points, I mean, Vitel was Litel was
one of those dudes that that hewas. He called me up, He's
like, dude, you're going ongoing and I'd meet him there and he

(08:48):
was, I mean, he wasa critical part in me doing what I
did in twenty one and twenty two, and and I felt like, I
mean I always wanted, and Iwas always just like diving into ancillary yeah,
And I was like, all right, let's let's work on steak.
Yeah. Well see, because whenyou're chasing ancillary points like back when,

(09:09):
back when I was chasing too,I mean you could turn in multiple times.
I did not give a damn aboutmy steak, being honest, I
don't give it damn. I turnedin four or five ancillary per you know,
per ancillary that they had just toget the points. So, yep,
all right, now, Chris,you said you own a restaurant.

(09:30):
Correct, it's a barbecue pizza restaurant. Barbecue, all right. So you
were telling us about some of yourpizzas you got going, I gotta explain
the some of those. It's homepretty damn good. So when I worked
construction for twenty one years as acrane operator, and I stayed there for
twenty one years, that company Iworked for went out of business and kind

(09:50):
of a restaurant fell in my lapfrom competition. Folks want me to cater
and do things like that. DidJoey train Joey? Yeah? Yeah.
Joey's one of the guys on BoardsNight Out. He's a great dude.
He trains us all to do itall. But so the restaurant kind of

(10:11):
fell in my lap. And I'vealways said, if I opened a barbecue
restaurant, there's no way you knowhow much barbecue to cook every day.
So what do these guys do toso they don't have so much waste?
How are they making money? Andas I got in the restaurant world,
I learned and realized that a lotof people don't cook fresh barbecue every day.

(10:33):
They cook it once a week,and that's why you got commercial barbecue.
But I like to have mine asfresh as I can. So what
I do is what I have leftover each day for my half chickens,
my pull pork, and my brisket. I shred it and I put it
on the pizzas the next day.So I've got a pull pork pizza,
smoke brisket pizza, and smoked chickenpizza. My pull pork and my brisket

(10:56):
both have barbecue sauce on it,cheese, red onions. The poor porks
topped with pickles, and the brisketstopped with jalapenos. And then when it
comes out of the oven, wetop it again with barbecue sauce. The
smoked chickens got red onions and baconon it, and being we're in Alabama
and you gotta have white barbecue sauce, so you top it with a white
barbecue sauce. Wow, that doessound I was gonna start cooking pizza.

(11:24):
No. I could barely handle whatI got. Now. They say it's
the most profitable thing in a restaurant, but I'll call bullshit. I've heard.
I heard breakfast was the most profitablething. Is that true? Probably?
I don't know. Bacon. Baconcosts money. If you're in a
small town or a small restaurant,you got all the the older guys.

(11:46):
I'm uh, that was gonna comein and sit there and drink coffee for
three hours and take up table spaceand never order nothing to eat. True,
So that's gonna cost you money.True? True. I see your
first win sc a world title.Did you did you when you turned in
the steak? Did you think,man, I may have a chance,

(12:07):
or did you think, well,we'll see how what you think. I
knew I had a chance. Iknew it was a pretty steak. Uh.
Depending on who you talked to,they say I had a little Aggett
walk about me all day that day. Oh he did. He did too.
He showed everybody in the compound thatsteak I did. But it was

(12:31):
a it was a it was Imean, it was a gorgeous It was
a world championship stake. And hemade it even prettier when he cooked the
seven bitch I did. Yeah,I got. I mean, it was
just it was meant to be thatday. All I can say about his
good Lord had it in his willfor me to win that day because I
mean, you know, I hitthe right table. Yeah, you know,

(12:52):
it could have hit a different tablewhen it could have went a different
way. But it was a prettysteak. Uh. Yeah. There's several
people out there that said I hada little Eggets in my walton that I
kind of I didn't know, butI knew it was a good state.
Yeah, me, Alan and Eggcould Me and Alan Egg had left out
Tuesday of that week to go tothe Ace Hardware Show because we just released

(13:15):
Southern Thunder. Yeah, and Ihave been We've been me Craig, several
of us. We've been working withit for almost a year and we've been
trying to get it out probably alittle bit over a year, and I
knew the color that it puts ona steak. It's it's unreal. So
I haven't had the Southern Thunder yet. What is the difference between that and

(13:37):
the latest one? You guys justare you know? Yes? What is
the difference between those two color andflavor? I mean totally different, two
totally different flavors. Yes, AndI use both of them, nice,
both of them. One, Iuse one. I use a Southern thunder

(14:00):
from on my steak, and thenI finished with Midwest dust and it's it's
yeah, makes a pretty good steak, all right? So are you it
makes the world champion steak? Yeah? No ship? Are you a Are
you a try hard guy or aspineles guy? I'm gonna try, Okay,
I'm gonna try. I like Ilike a bigger try. It was

(14:22):
a big summer, bitch, don'tlie it was. It was all right?
All right? Well, we gota special guest to just joined us.
He decided to show up today towork your ship. Look, it's
filled grill. Are you are youon crutches? Nah, Bruddie, I

(14:46):
need, I need, I needa new head though, bro, because
I had altitude sickness. Out andUH went the park. Bro. He
told it. He told, boy, yeah, I knew you had that.
Ain't no joke. If you actuallydid have it, I give you
no, I didn't know. Andyou know what I did that I didn't
know. You wasn't supposed to.First off, whoever heard of altitude sickness?

(15:09):
And then anybody who goes to themountains. So I landed. I
landed for Phoenix to Devi and thenI drove up to the mountains and it
was this windy road all the wayup ten thousand elevation and then I tried
to wash down my altitude sickness withsome tequila, and oh my god,

(15:33):
I almost died. Like I heardmy art racing in my ears, like
I thought I was. I wasnever going to make it back home.
I wanted to end the trip rightthen and there. All right, we'll
get back to you. We'll hearmore about your your death defying you know,

(15:54):
there was a reason why they inventedfuel injection engines. Fuel injection,
what's that? You obviously never dealtwith? Vapor lock? Now. I
flew there and then I drove fromDenver up to UH Winter Park. But
it was like an hour and ahalf. Oh my god, it was

(16:18):
hard. You went across the divide. All right, So back to Chris.
Sorry, so you turning this beast? You know it's a monster.
When like, what was the feelingis they start calming them down? Are
you starting to go like, Okay, this is either going to go really
good for me or damn. Ididn't even get a call like there had
to be in that feeling because theystart being like calling them out. I

(16:38):
mean that had to be anxious aboutnumber fourteen. I turned and looked at
my wife and I said, I'mnot feeling this. I need another beer.
Hold on, did you leave togo get another beer? Because I
know how it works. No,we take we take the cooler to okay,
all right, good? Yeah,we we usually take three coolers.

(17:00):
There's one. That's what I'm goingto say. Because it's it's a long
week. Then our cooler is usuallyempty like midway during the ceremony. Because
you're an alcoholic, that's why wetake That's why we take three coolers.
I'm gonna say. That's one thingabout the White Lightning play. I promise
you we're not gonna run out ofbed. Yeah, I need, I

(17:22):
need a new plan, Craig,come on, adopt me, Brodie.
I need to be with the whitelightning crayer. Dude, you can't even
hang out. You can't even hangin the mountains. What makes you think,
Oh no, I'm not fucking withthe mountains anymore. That's it,
Yo. About three thousand feet ofelevation is my limit. That's it,

(17:44):
all right. So you're sitting there, they're counting down the numbers, like
I know because I've done it,you know, And I always have a
feeling like maybe, like maybe,and then I always second play myself like
nah, no way, no way, that's it. That's how you were
doing it. Huh. That's that'sI think we all do the same way.
Okay, I got a chance.Nah, I ain't got a chance.

(18:04):
Okay, I might have a chance. Just back and forth, yep,
okay, every dream that I getthe first place call. Yeah,
so they call your number, andlike, so walk me through that.
They call your number, and you'dlike double taking it? Is it?
You have a picture of it onyour phone or you got the you got
the got mine in my hat.My wife's got the picture on the phone.
So they come out and I can'tremember who was hosting it. The

(18:29):
two people that was calling the numbersout, they go to talking, they
call Bred and Ken out. It'sa dead tie for first place. Me
and Stacy Craft both scored a twofifty three point nine. We had fifties
across the board with a fifty threepoint nine and taste, so there was
no break in the tie. Andthey all come out and they go to
talking. So we all know it'sa tie. They we didn't. They

(18:49):
didn't tell the score, but weall know it's a tie. And it's
kind of funny because I talked toEd cottson well, which we talked pretty
regular, and I told him abouttwo or three weeks before, I said,
you know, this World Championship isgonna be a dead tie for the
first place. I said, andif they if I'm one of the ones
that win it, and they flipa coin to see who wins this damn

(19:10):
World Championship, I'm flipping tables,Ed Cottson, if you get second with
your with your yeah, with yourrecord, you thick second, I'll be,
I'll be, I'll burn. Ihope you burn the place down.
I hope you so. So theywe know it's a dead tie and Ken
calls my number first. Well,there's four people in that building that know

(19:30):
my number, and it was me, Trish, Tim Brown, and Sandy
Brown. And when they call mynumber, they said, I look down
for just a second, and beforeI could get up, Tim Brown was
hugging me, and they called theother number and Stacey got her call and
they she made it to the stage, and I think it probably took me

(19:51):
an extra ten minutes to make itto the stage between it just, I
mean, it was unreal. Thepeople, yeah, it was. It
was a blad. So when theycalled my number, I look down and
I jump up. Tim Brown grabbsme, Eric Hotson, Grass me,
Craig they all, I mean,they're all just on top of me and
we're hugging and celebrating. Then Ifind Alan Bill mand right there. Matt

(20:15):
overson the all how big, howbig is your booty hole? With all
those guys grabbing on you, I'mstill sore, yo yo. I don't
know if they asked you what wasyou cooking on? I was cooking on

(20:37):
an M eight okay, okay,M eighty. The I started out on
a back. When I first started, I started on Weber and then I
went to a PK, then Iwent to the M sixteen. But last
year I bought a M a Dat the Worlds and I started cooking on
it last year. And it's withthat eighty. What's the difference because it's

(21:00):
a smaller one, right, it'sthe smaller than sixteen. And then so
let's tell tell me the process asfar as like resting from the sixteen to
that, not even resting. Butwait, you're now you're gonna go all
the way. Now you're gonna justjump right into his secrets. Real well,
I just don't I want to know. I want to know what the

(21:22):
process is from We've seen I cookon the I cook on the p K.
So shut your ship barrel. Heybut hey, hey, hey hey
Phil, Hey Phil? You wantyou want to you want to know what
he did ask and what he didasking? What he did on Thursday of
the World Championship. Was it Thursdayor Wednesday? Or Thursday? Chris,

(21:47):
Tim and Sandy, Tim and Sandyuh one day was ancillary Thursday. That
was problem Friday, Friday morning.Friday morning he took Tim and Sandy's class.
Oh wow wow. So they hada class in the parking lot or

(22:11):
something aheaded after Airbnb, whoa Okay, okay, that's dope. That's dope,
and his life, him and hiswife when took Tim and Sandy's class,
and and and was it cooking onthe M eighty. That's my question
was did they teach you on theM eighty? Okay? Yes? And

(22:37):
that's why, that's that's why youdon't want to give out that little that
little process secret. Now I getit. Now I get it because because
because because here here's my deal.Right, So when I first started cooking,
I was cooking on the C four, right. The problem I was
having is after I got my marksright then, you know, putting it

(22:59):
together, carrying it to temp,I had to like cover it. I
feel like the lid. Closing thelid really helps the consistency of your cook
right, not just that upper rackthat they have and you kind of put
your steak in there on the Cfour. So that's why I was curious
from the sixteen to the M eighty, like where that spot is on your

(23:23):
on your cook the sixteen to methe sixteen and the PK because my watch
still cooks on the PK. Andyou can you can ask Carter We've all
tried to talk her into going awayfrom it, and she she ain't leaving
that PK sixteen. In the PKyou can set up kind of a two
stage fire and you can put youryou can put your marks, you know

(23:45):
the fires undeasy grakes, put yourmarks on it. Then when you go
to your riser, you know you'reaway from your fire. Yeah, same
way with the sixteen. But theM eighty everything's like that little and straight
on top and that and that's partof that was part of my question because
you know, cooking on the seaforce the same deal, right, so

(24:06):
your you know, your your rackis right up top, you know,
right above that direct heat. SoI'm just pro I was curious on how
that kind of transpired from the sixteento the M eighty. You know,
it really doesn't change it a lot. I thought it would, but it
really it doesn't change it a lot. Uh, it's just getting used to

(24:27):
being in a smaller area because yourheats, your heats still coming straight up
some, but it's going around yourgreats, you know, because the heat's
gonna kind of it's almost like aconvection coming around the side of your greats.
And then heating your stakes, soit's not coming directly up, you
know. Craig, Craig Carter.Craig Carter's in here. And now I

(24:48):
understand why Craig had to jump onhere because he wants to make sure you
don't drop any times. And he'snot he's a justice. So I got
another question. When you when youflip right, so you put in your
mark, you do one whole sideand then flip to the other side,
because and now for some people they'llthey'll flip, they'll do one side and

(25:11):
then flip and get a mark onthe other side, then flip back and
get another side and then flip.All right, So I'll get one side
done and then I'll flip to theother side, and then now I'm checking
tempt to see if it needs togo on the riser or not. Let
me ask you this, when youput your marks, do you now flip

(25:33):
to the other side and put iton the riser or do you just throw
it on the riser? Look atcop That's what I tell him. That's
my responsible I was like to seewhat that what that question was. But

(25:55):
I mean, I pick a showside from the beginning of what I call
the show side. I picked ashow sid from the beginning. Yep,
I'm never gonna let that show sidetouch exactly. You're never gonna let that
show side touch the foil touch never. Yeah, exactly got it. That
that's my baby, I mean,that's that's and that's the reason why that

(26:17):
because when I kind of thought thatpeople would flip it only because of the
direct heat being right underneath it,because you already finished that that other side,
right, unless you're starting with yourshow side last on your flips.
I'm never letting the show speaking.This is what we gonna say. I'm

(26:44):
like, how many times we're gonnasay this? You you my way in
I'll ask back. There's there's souchof the like these questions that you were
just asking, Chris kind of tieyou into how you probably got altitude sickness
because everything in your life you halfasked in as soon and take the easy

(27:14):
route, and then it gets youaltitude sickness. I guarantee you got altitude
sickness because the guests, Yep,I didn't drink water. No no,
no, he's not saying he dranktequila and then he's drinking on No,
I drank beers. Beer beer hasgot water in it, you know what

(27:36):
I mean? And especially if you'redrinking like beers, you're drinking like beers,
you know. But Yo, thatmountain was crazy that I'm never never
going out, all right, Chris, that's part is you should be as
crazy as that one is. Youshould keep on going. So, Chris,
how many I could ask? Howmany classes have you taken on either

(27:57):
the online or in person? Forsay, steak for State. I've taken
Tim and Sandy's class. You haven'tdone any of the online? Uh?
Barbecue champs, Barbecue champs? Nowwhen not? When he's got Matt Overson

(28:17):
and Eric Hotson Brown, I mean, how many Craig Greg exactly side with
Craig, Tim, Matt, Sandy, Eric Cotson. I was gonna give
you. I was gonna give youa hard time. I was gonna say,
if you're taking class Jeff Jacobson,oh yeah, he's a killer.

(28:42):
Can't yeah, you can't forget Jeff. I mean when you're cooking around all
the White Lightning crew, somebody,we're all cooking together. It's just about
every weekend. So I mean everyweek you guys travel. We don't cook
every weekend but every time we cook, I mean it's usually it's not just
one or two, you know.Usually we're all talking and two or three

(29:03):
or four of us show up ina contest together. You know. Now,
do you guys ever get any hateor any any eyeballs from people when
you guys roll up and you guysare all cooking together, the whole White
Lightning Crew and stuff like that reasonwhy anybody in the world loves us.
I'm hating. I walk through andI start kicking ship and no, just

(29:26):
nobody would hate on White Lightning never. Ye, Yeah, I hate.
I hate. I hate when Ilook at these guys try I try to
get them drunk. I try toget them drunk is out. But I
think they cook better when they're drunk, because you know what Phil knows.
Phil travels with me a lot.We get. We get the eyeballs,

(29:48):
we get the we get a lotof stuff. When it's just Phil and
I or I, Smitty's rolling orwhoever's with us in our camp. We
all cook together, and we alwaysget the oh, man, what's going
on? Or the guys that walkin your trailer and just what's up?
Man, and just eyeball your wholetrailer, just see what's going on,
just to see what you got.Yo. That's that's that's when you start
staging things in your trailer or inyour cook area. Put like sand song

(30:12):
or some saracha beer. That's amusk. That's a musk. All right,
So let me ask. Okay,so I'm gonna ask both of you,
Chris and Craig. Did you guysdo ancillaris? Yes, you both

(30:36):
did. Craig, yes, yeah, I hold on, Phil? What
what first day was? It's appetizers? So can I ask you to what
you guys did for your appetizer andif you made it to the next round?

(30:57):
Was it anything? Appetizer? Oh? That's right. They had to
cook with sauces, right, wehad We had to have a Croy Valley
sauce. If you'd have showed up. Fail you to know. I didn't
get the ticket, maya, Isuck? There's that? And they didn't
call me. They didn't call me? What was that? What you?

(31:18):
What did I find out last week? How you good to got to call?
If if it went down the list, they would have called my name.
I think there's a couple of peopleat large. Yeah, I'm at
large. But they didn't call me. Yeah you didn't. You didn't cook
enough to earn an at large.Bit. I don't care about that ship.
You're too busy getting your footwork.Jiggy back to you guys. Did

(31:44):
you guys advance to the next roundin appetizers? No? Wow, no
crag you neither. Nope. That'stough, man. It's every time I've
done ancillary at the Championship, I'venever made it to the second rounde.
This was This was the first time, and that uh yeah it it.

(32:05):
I mean, they killed me onmy flavor and I I did the same
thing that I did the two weeksbefore and had almost the perfect core.
But but you had to use thissauce. I did. How they gonna
how they're gonna knock you on theflavor if they gave you the taste flavor
that you're bost to us, right, lord? I did smoke another.

(32:28):
I did the same thing the weekbefore in Tunica to the exact the exact
recipe. I love you, Phil, and I finished second. It's great,
cheered you got second last week.I finished second in Tunica the week
before Worlds with the same exact deal. And I finished thirteenth in my group.

(32:50):
Oh that's worlds because they only takethe top ten. So finishing thirteen,
that's gotta sting. Well, Igot fifties across the board of fifty
one taste and then I got aforty eight and overall impression or execution,
whatever you want to call it.So you know, yeah, same thing.
You got fifties across the board witha fifty one taste. Fifty one
taste ain't great, but I mean, you know, it's higher than a

(33:14):
fifty, and it's higher than afifty, and then you get a forty
eight and overall and I'm like,where the hell that even come from?
You know? Okay, to focuson my semi final stake, so the
finals exactly. I may not havenever made finals in stakes. All right,
then let me ask you this.All right, So you you placed

(33:34):
thirteenth in your in your group,Craig, where did you place in your
group? I was like, Iwas like twenty third, twenty third?
Yeah, what Chris? What saucedid you use? I used the Apricot
chapolte, Craig, what sauce didyou use? Same thing? I mixed

(33:55):
it. I mixed it, butI mixed it with another I did a
caution with another sauce because I dida pork Billy. I did a pork
belly Christini, so I needed thatred color and a little bit of barbecue
flavor to it. So that's thatsounds fire too. Let me ask you
this, Craig, just because youyou're playing with pork belly and and I'm

(34:16):
coming to Memphis? Are you doingMemphis and may or Smoke Slam Memphis and
May Good? Can you keep yourlittle pork belly ass over there. I'll
be a smokes I'm doing Memphis andMay with that world champion right there.
Oh you got the ring on yo? You over here, stunning Chris Ship.

(34:37):
Okay, okay, if you onlystarted you would have heard all about
the ring. Thanks for How canwe not doing Memphis in May Phil?
Because you've walked the stage at Memphisand may I know, but you come
close to winning Memphis and may Hewin the hell? Are you not doing

(34:58):
Memphis and may Smoke Slam with moremore? Smoke Slam is not a world
championship. Yeah it is. It'smore money in it next the World Championship.
Y'all keep your answers over there andI'll go to smoke slam and you
come over. Hey, I'll comeover and have a bardy. Thank you.

(35:19):
Same here, baby, same here, and we're gonna go out for
dinner. Yes, we may comeover there too. We may do both.
I've heard that. What I've beentelling people, hold on what I've
been and what I've been telling andwhat I've been telling people is if you
got a team of say, thirtypeople, why the hell wouldn't you separate

(35:42):
and say half goes here and halfgoes here. I've heard the rumor boards
not doing both. I'm not hereto deny nor conflain, but I've heard
that rumor. That's what I woulddo if I live That's when I would
do it. I'm snitching. I'mlike, Yo, you can't. You
can't do two crowns. Why can'tyou? Yeah? Why not? I
don't know. I'm gonna put itin the fine print that you don't.

(36:07):
Hey, I mean we're made.I mean rules are usually made because of
us. That's exactly right. YouYou ain't live there, Greg, you
ain't all right? So here,here's here's something else. Right. I
got. I got a couple ofquestions because I'm coming, I'm coming east
and I'm gonna do some s eas on the East coast, right.

(36:30):
I want to know how many uhrib contests you did for s AS,
Craig. Have you done any ribsother than just the World Championship? Yeah,
I've done. I mean I dothree or four year contest. No,
I mean for for s c Aon the guidelines. Okay, what

(36:52):
what do you feel is the betterturning? Is it something outside the box
or just direct regular competition ribs?If you know, if you don't,
you already know this is, don'tdrop the dog. You gotta drop some

(37:14):
kind of drops on your top,Craig. It wasn't no standard casey where
Craig and I have the same boata round the same damn thing. So,
I mean it depends on Okay,it depends. It depends on is
it meat? Is it meat onlyor is it creative? So if it's

(37:37):
creaty, I would jazz it upa little bit. But meat only,
I mean you might as well justdo a straight up K C B S
s c A rib so so,so explain that a little bit, then,
Craig. Because s c A hasnow added ribs as one of their
categories, just like steak, soit's it's always been a category. Okay,

(37:59):
but yes, it's always been acategory, but it's not really considered
an ancillary, right Is that moreso like a mean turn in? Now,
No, it's just an ancillary.Okay. So so it's in the
it's a open Do you feel likethe judges give you more love for creativity

(38:20):
or do you feel like judges iskind of looking for that traditional knock you
out the socks, knocking me outthe socks type rib in a box.
Like I said, it depends onthere's two different style categories. Okay,
you can have a creative which youcan wrap in bacon, you can put

(38:42):
stuff on top of it and turnipsoup shit, that's right, Or if
it's meat only, you can't wrapit in bacon. You can put you
can put a little bit of chives, a little bit sessamecs on stop on
top, but you can't you can'tdo all the fancy stuff with it on

(39:02):
the meat only so so so,so how how do you determine it too?
Because I haven't seen that really spelledout as far as it being meat
only or just uh, it beingit's it's it does read it read it?
I got to read it. Yeah, because you can't. You can't

(39:23):
take you can't take you can't takethe meat off the bones either. You
know. My brother just showed up, my brother. My brother, they
told me to read the rules exactlywhat rules? My brother said, what
rules? Okay, So so asof as of this year. So when
it says last year, it saidmeat on the bone in the rib in

(39:49):
the meat only category. Yeah,so there was one contest. I turned
in meat on the bone, likeliterally meat no on the bottom. I
had your h I had your Iwon't drop the tongs on it too much,
but I had your ancillary last yearwhen we were all huddled up in

(40:14):
my trailer because it was it wasraining and storming, you brought your ancillary
over and I'm like, ahh uh, Craig. But anyways, I'm gonna
leave it at that. So didYouTube Chris? Did you guys cook the
ribs at the World Championship? Yes? You did? I did, Okay,

(40:35):
Craig, I was so he Chris, I finished twenty sixth I think
wow, what was that? Wasthat? Traditional or untraditional tradition? Where
did you what did you place,Craig? I think it was twenty eight

(40:55):
what was that traditional on traditional traditional? Because it was me they specified it.
I mean it had to be fairribs. And I guess what I'm
saying is is like, so Idid see some people like they posted like
they kind of breaded and deep friedtheir ribs as well, and they didn't

(41:19):
do well. You know, SoI was just trying to see, like
as far as and maybe you guysknow because you were out there was most
of the winners the traditional following likek CBS rules or was it like off
the cuff? You know what Imean? Outside the box? Hey,
Chris, what what? What?What Eric Conson get? Eric Conson got

(41:42):
second and Marcio got first? Sothat that that should tell you the one?
Yeah what what? What? What? What? Type? What type?
What did they put in the box? Phil Barbaricie tell you Phil barbecue,
crab barbecue, reaching barbecue barbecue withcrab ring int country style ribs,

(42:05):
oh country, Oh that Chinese ribs. At the end, they put a
little red food coloring, uh color. We took a skill saw, we
took a skill song and got themexact size of the box. All right,
let me ask you one more question, so see if I can get
an answer see I'm I'm digging.I got a dig That's my job,
all right. So if you're notgonna tell me traditional or snow skiing,

(42:30):
yo did did did? Did theyboth do the same? Like, either
they both did traditional or they bothdidn't do traditional? Well, one time
the ribs they turned in the sameexact ribs. They cut them in half
and put them in war each bike. Yeah, there you go, perfect
answer. Oh so rip tips,somebody put in rip tips and then other

(42:52):
person put in the somebody put itripped tips, and somebody put it in
the bowl. Chris, So you'renow an official worldion you win the state
contest, are you? I mean, does that kind of like boom?
Like you're good, You're done,not done, but you're like like I

(43:13):
accomplished it, Like what what nextis there to accomplish? Of course you
probably want to go win the damnthing again? But are you going to
cook his more? Well? Holdon, hold on, hold on,
hold on, I gotta I gottasay something here before Chris pipes up.
A lot of people don't know thisabout Chris. But Chris is on the
Boar's Night Out team and the WhiteLightning Team. But Chris is also one

(43:35):
of the he he is the bestnight man in barbecue when it comes to
cooking the whole hog. And he'sworked his ass off to learn those pits
and he knows them by the backof his hand. And here's a no.

(43:57):
I can't wait for Memphis and madethis year to see what and what
he does with those hogs and theway he turns them out is phenomenal.
But that man is one hell ofa pitmaster and that's what he does.
That's awesome. Oh So basically,basically you're saying your tips now, yeah,

(44:19):
because you know why? Because nowI see what's going on in Memphis
of May. You go in aheadand bringing in a ringer. You know
what I mean. He's been onthe team for years that they know bringing
it in. I've been there sincetwenty eighteen. Yeah yah yah, oh
wait where would you cook? Youcooked Memphis of May before, Chris,

(44:40):
I've cooked Memphis in May since twentyeighteen with with with uh wars. Thanks
for showing up early and hearing you. Did you not just listen to what
I said, Phil, I did, but you didn't say that it was
the Memphis of May that he wascooking with you guys with he's been cooking.
Yeah, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, boards not out goes, I

(45:06):
go, yeah, all right,oh okay, all right, all right,
So what kind of hog do webuying this ship? Where's your holl
coming from? With the only hogwe ever buy, Jim, we're gonna
have a compart durrock hog on everysmoker we ever cooked? Okay, and

(45:27):
what what we're cooking on? Wecook on backwoods. You fit that whole
hog on the backwood. Yeah,they've got a competition hog smoker. And
they got a little red box smokertoo. That fits one. I could
barely get eight pieces of chicken thighson that, but you're getting a whole

(45:47):
hog, right. That's because you'renot laying it out right, sis sticking
stand up, stand it straight upand down. Try it that way.
That red box is badass. It'sfunny. So Chris, what's your next

(46:09):
what's your next goal? Man?Oh? Nay h My next goal is
Memphis in May? Uh, thenight after we won world championship. The
guys they they just we go everytime somebody wins small event, big event
to us and wins huge no matterwhat. And we're gonna make sure,

(46:30):
the person that wins are the teamthat wins is celebrated. So our celebration
at the trailer that night, I'mnot gonna tell everything that happened, but
i will tell you we had aconversation that my goal starting this year was
not to win the World Championship.Obviously, I mean, that's that's part
of it. I'd love to winthe World State Championship, but our goal

(46:52):
this year would just win Meficine MayUh Alan Eck has chased Memphis in May
for years and years and years.We finished second twice in the last six
years. Two years ago we finishedsecond in Whole Hog and we were six
hundreds of a point behind Blues HogUh to Grand. So our goal has

(47:14):
been Medicine May. And I toldeverybody that night, come to Memphics May
prepared to walk that stage because that'swhat that's that's that's our next goal.
I'm not saying we're going to I'mnot calling the shot. I'm just saying
that's our goal. That's where weOkay, I'm not that I'm not that
the getting to call the shot,but it's not it's not confidence. And

(47:42):
we've got We've got a song thatwe play that. I mean, the
our rings and our championships, wekind of show that we can be confident.
Yeah, we back up what wetalk. You got heavy hitters on
that team, bro, you gotwe do yep. Right, So so
this year, what's the lineup forhule Hall? Have y'all seen yet?

(48:07):
Like? How many? Like abouttwenty six of y'all? Right? That
do all? What I hear?Did I say? Did I hear somewhere
around thirty or thirty two? Craig? Is that what I heard? I'm
not for sure. I think Isaw I saw twenty six last week,
so I think it's about the same. Yeah, yeah, who who Who's
your biggest? Like I know,and I know this is a public question

(48:32):
right to everybody. I ain't goingto go there. I mean, it's
exactly and not only and not onlythat, it's like you're just trying,
you know, for every competitor.I know, for me, I'm just
trying to get my best cook.Like what do you do? You just
want to see that golf cart comedown the road. That's it, that's

(48:55):
it. Or you want to seethat golf cart come down the road.
Yeah, and then and then andthen you got to reset and then you're
against three other teams or an olderman walking up to you. Well,
as you guys are all pissed off, throwing everything in the trailer, saying
hey, congratulations you made the topten. Yo, pull out of it.

(49:15):
I was like, yo, wedidn't get nothing. I was like,
this is some bulls yo. Yo. He's like, hey, are
you trap house? I was likeyeah, I was like what. I
was like what? I was like? I thought he was going to tell
us we was dq in a boxnow or something else. And then he
was like, well, you guysmade top ten. I was like what

(49:37):
I was sh in the back ofthe truck. He was ready to pull
out of it. You know,Pops was trying to find a gun that
got pulled out on him and yeah. So it was No, it's a
great bringing Pops. Are you bringingPops with you the smoke smoke slamfill?
No, I'm bringing Smitty and Moley. Oh I just dropped the toms.

(50:02):
He dropped the dogs. Wow,I brought the A team. Hey,
look I learned I learned from thebest. Yeah. Look, it's all
of you guys, right, Andthen Kyle's look look where he's at right,
now he's in a basement, youknow, living with a ghost.
You know, he's getting molested bya ghost each week in the basement,

(50:23):
and and and he won't come outand play anymore. So I gotta find
a new team member. So I'mgetting the band back together. You know,
my man's Smith Dalk. So youread the instructions and is what you
were saying, Hey, hey,speak speaking of getting the band back together?
Here later on this year, wemight be uh traveling out to uh.

(50:45):
I did get a text message aboutthat, about going out to Arizona
and cooking an SCA competition cooking withsome no no showo oh which one out
here in November? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, the trailer's yours. I
already told you that we need toget that on the busna be and there's

(51:08):
gonna be a rib cook to Phil. Yeah, what should I do?
Traditional? Untraditional? And I don'twant to hear no poppy seeds. I
don't want to hear poppy seeds andnone of that bullshit. All right somewhere
from from the Chinese restaurant and turnthem That's what I'm thinking. Who has
done that? See? That's what? Okay, this is the thing,

(51:29):
right, it's gonna be creating andit's gonna be wrapping shitty bacon. Yo.
When when has okay, like bearattacks, right, when has a
bear really got punched in the face? Right, Like if you punch a
bear in the nose, you'd belike, oh, ship, you know
what, I'm gonna just go andget this salmon in the lake. I'm

(51:52):
not gonna bother with this guy nomore. And so it's the same thing
with cooking. Right if you putin some Chinese ribs, when's the last
time somebody might be tied to eatribs by the time they get to your
box. He'd be like, oh, ship, he got fried rice and
Chinese ribs, and this ship,this ship as good as hell. I'm
giving him all chance. I thinkthat's gonna work. Yes, try it,

(52:12):
Yes, it will be a perfectscore. Do it every time you
go for it. Phil. Thefirst you mentioned earlier in the podcast before
Phil got here, that you werewatching your dad and grandpa do the barbecue
contests, right, so, andthen you jumped into it, right yes,

(52:37):
okay, So were you still runningPops's recipes and then slowly tweaking and
traveling and doing the whole thing incase some somewhat. Yes, Uh,
when I was a kid, Istarted, you know, they were they
they went out for the party.They really wasn't They were doing the backyard
deal. There was a local contestback then. It used to be called

(52:58):
pig Fast where it was. Itwas sanctioned by Memphis in May, and
they were there more for the party. But I watched him and watched him
and watched him. And then afterI graduated high school and I went on
the road working construction, I comeback and by that time that contest had
swapped over to a KCBS comp andI had done my studying and research,

(53:21):
so I used some of his whathe taught me. But at the same
time I knew that, you know, mom and pop recipes don't work,
yeah, to an extent on thecircuit. So how much do you think,
I mean, there's been a lotof change that you've seen growing up
and then into KCBS, And wasblues Hogs still pretty popular back then?

(53:42):
I mean, I know he wasslowly getting going and stuff like that.
Right, he wasn't as popular whenI first was around it. But when
I started doing all the studying andall that, Yes, I mean they
were they were still pretty popular.And what do you mean by mom and
pop recipes homemade recipes. I mean, I'm not saying they're not good,

(54:06):
but I mean the judges are lookingfor a flavor in competition, yep,
and you gotta go with that flavor. If not, if you're gonna get
one of those core cards that sayunknown flavor. And okay, let's talk
about that. Let's talk about that, all right. So unknown flavor is

(54:30):
not a flavor that they're used to. I'm not saying like, use honey
mustard or anything like that. Butif you have a killer barbecue sauce and
it's got the regular ketchup molasses whichto shear and and apple cider vinegar,
and you think it's bomb, right, Because I think I had the best

(54:51):
barbecue sauce off the street in Atlantaat this one little pit, and I
was like, holy shit, thisis like the I wish. I've been
trying ever since to try to recreateit. But the flavor of profile is
already gone. But are you sayingthat you can't use you can't create your
own sauce. It has to besomething that's already out there and winning for

(55:19):
you to win, a barbecue corI'm not I'm not saying you can't.
You can, but I mean it'sfew and far between. How many people
do you know it's cooking cops thatdon't mix blueshag True, that is true.
Everything's got blues dog in it rightnow. I'm not saying that you

(55:43):
can't, because you can't, butbut your profit ubilities is a lot lower
off. That's most people. Doyou know what that's that's that's that's something
that's big right there. Like whatyou're just saying right now, that's that's
huge for me because I don't reallyfeel that a lot of cooks, you

(56:05):
know, they're just trying to goout there, you know, especially like
new cooks. Right if you're tryingto get in the game. You're like,
yo, I want to hit themwith something that they never had before,
but that would not really place aswell as it may place. Just
I mean, look at Southern Thunder. It's it's new. They've had it
for a little while, but it'snew. Unfortunately, it's hit. I

(56:29):
mean, it's been out on theshelves two weeks and it won a world
championship. At Stake, We've beenblessed with that you know, but I'm
just saying, you know it willhitt. But like that's right, Yeah,
No, that's good to know.I'm glad And this is part of
this is part of the reason whywe kind of put this podcast together,

(56:52):
right, to just kind of likesit around that fire and kind of like
converse about different things we do andwe don't do, because this is the
behind the scene things that nobody sees, right or nobody hears, you know,
of what it's like cooking three daysin the rain and getting a ring
for the first time after taking aclass and from what you've already been cooking

(57:19):
for years, and you feel thatyou're a great cook at something, and
then now you humbled yourself to takea class and learn from somebody else that's
killing the game to understand what thatone thing or that second thing that you
might have missed that got you thatring. Am I right or wrong on
that? Chris? You're right?The small things and you can ask Craig.

(57:42):
I give them all credit all thetime, Carter matt O, Eric
Allen, TM, Sandy when we'reall together, I mean, we just
you watch the process and the smallthings is what gets you there, you
know, you gotta be humble becauseyou don't know everything. Somebody's got to
teach you something. Yeah, somebody'sgood sometimes just sometimes you just got to

(58:02):
reset. Yeah, yeah, you'reright, You're right. And Craig and
and how how long you've been cooking? How long you've been cooking in the
circuits U s c A since thebeginning ten years barbecue almost twenty so.
So with that being said, right, and this is another great question that

(58:25):
I want to share to my radioland right, but his after cooking that
long, do you ever get acold streak? Or like dang, because
you start getting it, yeah,right, you start hitting it hit.
So when when you get that codestreak, do you do you sometimes like
second guests? Or do you keepgoing out there with the same thing,

(58:49):
or maybe you go back and say, maybe I need to or what is
everybody else doing now different to getback into the game, or maybe I
need to tweet this like talk alittle bit of out that. What you
do when you kind of get thatlittle cold streak? I don't know how
many times, especially in Sea,I've went back to the basics. I

(59:10):
mean and it's I mean, it'strimming, it's marinade, I mean everybody
asked about marinade. I mean I'vemarinated the same for four or five years
with the same I mean with wickipig. But it also changes with the steak.
The meat changes everything else. Butyou always got to go back to

(59:31):
the basics. Start out simple,don't over complicate it. Don't put twenty
thousand rubs on it. All thesepeople are going they put out there like,
oh I put twenty rubs on it. I mean they they name every
spice they got in their damn trailer, and there ain't no way. Then

(59:52):
people are putting every damn spice theygot on their trailer. Yeah, on
the steak. The big thing outhere too, is a lot of people.
I'm using six different rubs and I'musing this, and then I got
this marinade that I sprinkle a littlebit of this in there, and then
I do that and this. I'mlike, bro, you got to just
relax a little bit, like cutsome of that out. And exactly basically
I agree with you. Start fromthe you know, sometimes you got to

(01:00:14):
go back and yeah, unfortunately,and Phil and I have both been there.
We were like, hey, let'sstep back a little bit, because
it's the same thing with barbecue.I mean, yeah, definitely. I
mean I got some of the bestI got some of the best tips from
from uh from Kyle and and Caffeiniand and Sterling three years ago. I

(01:00:35):
mean it was it was like reset, go simple, yeah, and nail
the flavor. Yeah, no,I get it. And one thing we
try to do with barbecue. Youasked me about classes with steak. You
know, I haven't took any,uh I really there's a couple on there.
I want to take Raymond Patterson oneof them. He's just got a

(01:00:57):
new one now and I'd really loveto just watch his class and see.
But we try to take barbecue classespretty regular. Somebody in the B and
O camp try. We try toget somebody at a barbecue class at least,
maybe not once a year, butyou know, once every other year
or something like that, just justto keep the knock shark. Yeah.
I mean, you know, nomatter how good you are, you can

(01:01:20):
always learn something something, right,Don't you feel that way? Because I
mean I've been cooking probably since whattwo thousand and fourteen, and I took
a few classes, and no matterwhat, like we all kind of run
the same techniques, but you ineach class you could pick up one or

(01:01:40):
two points. You're like, ah, I didn't think about that. Like
man, little nuggets. That's alwaysjust the people is when you take a
class, take the notes, doyour thing, but concentrate on like the
little things, the little nuggets it'sthis much better, or oh, flip
the chicken over season the bottom ofthe chicken before it goes in the box,

(01:02:02):
or just little nuggets and implement itinto your game on what you do.
That's just kind of how you keepasking about ribs feel. Uh.
I took Travis Clark's class this thispast February. Uh And since we took
since I took Travis Clark's class,I come back and s c A had

(01:02:25):
a rib a rib cook off inNesbit and I won the ribs in Nesbit
and then Eric finished decond in ribsand Alan finished seventh in ribs at the
out there at the World Championship.So just the little things we took from
that class is you know, wedidn't we wasn't trying to change the whole

(01:02:46):
game. We weren't trying to gostrictly with what Travis does. But like
but like Ale said, the littlenuggets that you pick up that you could
just the small things that change thatchanged my rib game and changed the whole
being o rib game for just youknow, and you know, honestly just
a couple of things. Yeah,and honestly for me, I think that

(01:03:06):
was I took that class. Imean, okay, So when I started
barbecue twenty fourteen and doing my thing, and probably after three years in I
saw Travis Clark was doing a classand I took that class, Pops and
I did, and that was byfar one of the best classes I think
I've ever taken. I mean,it totally opened my eyes to just different

(01:03:29):
things and how big of a madscientist this Travis is on just the little
things that he does, and itreally opened my eyes. And then it
was like okay, and I hadto take a step back and be like,
dude, I'm doing way too muchor I'm not doing enough in this
category or this or that. Butthat was That's honestly been one of my
favorite classes I've ever taken. Yeah, it was a good class. I

(01:03:52):
you know, I had telling peopleI was taking it. They had I
had different thoughts go into it,because I think people have different thoughts about
Travis Clark. But when I tookthat class, he's a great day.
Not his He's respectful, you know, and and that and that's the thing
you know, when you when we'vebeen cooking together for a long time,

(01:04:15):
you know, there's there's the onesthat we respect because they you know,
we're passionate about what we do andwe want to you know, get better
at just our craft. Right.And you know, I've been to classes
and I know Kyle was in thesame class I was in, and we
took a class and this person didn'tgive us anything, right, they went

(01:04:39):
through their whole cook but didn't saywhat they were using. I was like,
well, what's the sense that thestupid ass class? Right? Like
I know how to cook the rip, like you know what what what tidbits
are you know are you giving?So that's the difference, you know,
I really feel that, you know, from where we started in the beginning

(01:05:01):
as just you know, the barbecuecommunity and how much it has grown and
how much we see on TV nowto where you have conglomerates starting their own
networks and just wanting to show differentcooks and different types of cooks all the
time. You know, it's somethingthat I feel it's and I could honestly

(01:05:26):
say with the group that we haveright here, it's not all about the
money, you know what I mean? And you could tell the ones that
it is all about the money,right, I'm just trying to do this
because I want to win and Iwant to do this, and it doesn't
fare well, right, and thenthey lose their focus because it was all
about the money and it wasn't aboutthe passion and and love and the fellowship.

(01:05:48):
And you know, I really feelthat, you know your if your
heart's in it, then your mind'sin it, and that's what makes the
community a lot stronger and what roles. I love it, you know,
I was. I was sad thatI didn't get to uh the world this
year out in Dallas, But afterlooking at your weather conditions, I wasn't

(01:06:13):
that sad anymore. But hey,hey, you got to tune up for
skining. Hey, a couple ofquestions that I asked Rob Dodge last week,
Right, I'm gonna I'm gonna revertback to you guys. A couple
of things I did see at worldsuh that he really didn't have too much

(01:06:35):
answers for the one thing I sawsitting on the sidelines was a couple of
blank spots where people didn't go upand claim their prize, Like what was
that about, Like you were sittingin the auditorium and they were calling numbers
and nobody came and claim their prize. I think that was in the preliminary

(01:07:00):
and early on when uh. Ithink there was just a lot of people
coming and going and the rain,yeah, the rain, just everything.
I mean because at the end ofthe at the end of the day,
I think only one didn't get claimed, and I'm not for sure why or
how I mean, but there waslike three or four at the beginning,

(01:07:21):
but I think it was all justa miscommunication, people trying to pack stuff
up. Miss miss miss just missedit. I don't think it was anything
significant that that that makes that makesa total lot of sense and that and
nothing bad Friday Thursday and Friday cruft. Yeah, and that's the thing.
I would have probably got way andI'll be like, you know what bumped

(01:07:42):
this, I'll find out later ifI want it now. The other thing
that I noticed was the scorings inthe different groups. Can y'all elaborate to
that? Like I've seen some werelike fifty fifty fifties, fifty three point
four and tay. And then I'veseen other groups they didn't get they didn't

(01:08:03):
get that high. Like I wasin the group that didn't get that high
in the semifinals. I was,yeah and so and that and that's the
thing. Do we because I knowin casebs right, we have this whole
thing on the table of death.Are we now starting to get groups of

(01:08:26):
the table with the group of deathand that's the eight I don't think.
So go ahead, Chris, youknow, especially at World you gotta you
gotta remember you got judges coming fromall over the world. You got international
judges, You've got from all overthe different parts of the country. So
I mean, I think, youknow, and I think they probably do

(01:08:48):
a fairly good job of spreading themout throughout the tables. And you get
some international judges hitting, you know, on a couple of tables not used
to American flavors, and I thinkI think that may affect the scores.
But you know, I don't thinkit's I don't think it's a bad thing.
I just you know, I thinkit's just no, and you know

(01:09:11):
what that and that's what I youknow, started seeing a lot at the
Royal. I've been seeing a lotmore international teams getting called in the last
couple of years, and with theI'm trying to be politically correct, but

(01:09:31):
more of the Latin start out,but but more of the Latin background,
right, So I'm thinking, youknow, Latin, right, there's a
little more spice to what they've beenturning in. And that was a no
no for a while at the Royal. It's always needed to be sweet,

(01:09:53):
you know, extra sauce. Doyou think some of that is changing the
game on flavor profiles because of thedifferent judges and where they're coming from.
Yes, yes, Phil, Yes, Phil? All right, all right,
all right, enough enough with Philattempting. I think we're getting I

(01:10:15):
think we're getting way too I thinkwe're getting way too deep into a great
Okay, I asked Craig. Iwant to ask Craig one more question.
Oh boy, how far north haveyou competed in s c A and how
far south? And what has beenyour like even playing field as far as

(01:10:40):
flavor profiles. I'll never go toWisconsin again. Yeah, And I've competed
all the way from Florida to thebottom of Texas. So, and you
keep the same flavor profile or doyou spice it up or tony down when

(01:11:00):
you go into different areas. There'sa few ers. I'll I add a
little bit of salt to it,but for the most part, I just
try and keep the basic profile.Yes, all right, well let's wrap
this up. I'll send it toyou, Phil, thank you. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, email it tome. Are you coming hey?
Are you coming to North Carolina nextmonth? No, I'm actually going to

(01:11:24):
Connecticut. That's why I'm trying toget my tips. Why light and southern
thunder and your walk there you go, all right, I'm going with it.
I'm going with it and cook itperfectly too, right, and you
uh, and you better, WickedPig. I'm always wicked Pig. I'm
wiki picked down. You know.You know why I'm gonna I'm gonna drop

(01:11:45):
the times right now on why Becauseone of my secrets in marinating my meat
pause is pineapple enzymes, which WickedPig has in it, right, So
that pineapple ends on. Does itjust flavor it, but it also breaks
down the muscles and the fat,and I love it. You may not

(01:12:09):
even wickipig cook with white lightning andSouthern thunder and your wall, no matter
where you had to cut, evenif you pay for all your steak.
All I can tell you is we'regoing to go there. I heard at
one point in time the judges didnot like a deep fred Rabbi, and
I don't know where that comes from. You must have got a text.

(01:12:31):
All right, I'm a back offbefore I barrel pulls my coot plug.
You already got fold. I justshut you off right there because you don't
understand time change. So all right, Well, thank you so much to
Chris. We understand it's getting closeto ten thirty your time. Craig as
well. Appreciate you guys coming onwith us this late. We thank you
guys. Congratulations to Chris, worldchanging. Congratulations world Chap. I appreciate

(01:12:56):
it. Thanks for coming on withus, Craig, Chris last, thank
you all. I appreciate it.Yes, yes, I'll see you guys
in Memphis later. Good. Thankyou, Beryl, thank you,