Provincial Rankings

Just like hockey or soccer or baseball, I consider BBQ to be my competitive sport.

We also have provincial rankings through the Canadian Southern BBQ Association's BBQ amateur virtual BBQ circuit.

Results were posted today and I learned that Heart of Gold BBQ (HOG BBQ) is currently ranked 1st out of more than 30 teams in the CSBBQA.

Our fellow competitor Cory Wiseman from Cochrane and his one-man team Newfie Q is currently ranked third.

There is one competition left in October in Quebec and an Ottawa competitor of the team Boy meets Grills could still take the lead.  I will not be competing in that competition.

All the BBQ practice has paid off and Andrea and I are happy with our rankings, even if we do move down to 2nd place between now and October.

Timmins BBQ competition Results

What a great event we had in Timmins today.  It was a bit on the chilly side during set up (4C) but our smokers warmed us up and the warmth and friendliness of Timmins residents created a great day.

Thanks to the 7 teams listed below who participated in this first year event.  4 of the teams were local and 3 were travelling teams.

Here are the results.

Overall Results

Grand Champion : HOG BBQ

Reserve Grand Champion : Boy Meets Grill 

3rd : Newfie Q

4th : D-Dubs BBQ Grub

5th : Eastview Smokers

6th : Hot Diggity

7th : Super BBQ Bros

Chicken

1st - Boy meets Grill

2nd - HOG BBQ

3rd - D-Dubs BBQ Grub

4th - Super BBQ Bros

5th - Eastview Smokers

6th - Newfie Q

7th - Hot Diggity

Ribs

1st - HOG BBQ

2nd - Newfie Q

3rd - Boy Meets Grill

4th - Eastview Smokers

5th - D-Dubs BBQ Grub

6th - Hot Diggity

7th - Super BBQ Bros

Misery Box (oops. I mean Mystery Box)

1st - Newfie Q

2nd - HOG BBQ

3rd - Boy meets Grill

Mystery box ingredients were : Hanger Steak, Fruit Cocktail Mix, Capers, Vegan Cheese and Chicken Flavored instant ramen noodles.

Thanks to our sponsors 

Porcupine Hardware - TimberMart - Energymizers :  Broil King Keg

Cedar Meadows Resort : 500$ package

Canadian Tire Gas Bar - 200$ in gift cards

La Chaumiere Restaurant : breakfast for the teams

Eastview RV - Traeger grand prize for Northern BBQ Tour

Too many businesses to name who donated swag for the teams.

Thanks to CSBBQA reps for helping with the event : Sean Vodden, Tabitha Woodall, Bill Pudim, Barb Van Rassell, Mike Callaghan

Thanks to our organizers : Therèse Chartier and Phil Whissel

Thanks to the countless volunteers who helped out during the event.

Thanks to our judges : Tim, Jackie, Simon, Pierre, Andy, Lynn, Paul, MJ and Sean

Till next year.  

Last BBQ competition of the Season

Well this is it.... The Northern BBQ season wraps up this Saturday (sept 12th) with a competition here in Timmins.

I still have room for a few last minute teams, but it would be certainly easier to plan if I find out early.

Up for grabs is a 1000$ Broil King Keg compliments of Timber-Mart and Energy Mizers here in Timmins.

2nd prize is a love and Romance Package from Cedar Meadows Resort.

This is the first competition I ever attend where Andrea wants me to place 2nd!!

Prizes for 1st ribs and 1st chicken are 100$ gift cards from Canadian Tire.

Many other prizes and gifts to be won thanks to generous local sponsors.  

Should be a blast. Hopefully, Heart of Gold BBQ can smoke out the competition at this event. 

2 down, one to go!

Well, I've had the chance to compete in 2 BBQ competitions so far.

First up was Kapuskasing.

1st place ribs
3rd place chicken
2nd overall
1st place mystery box

Next up was Smoke on the Water in Cochrane

2nd place chicken
3rd place ribs
2nd place mystery box
3rd overall

Only Timmins event to go.  We'll see how things end up at the end of my season.

It's a wrap!

What a whirlwind summer this has been.www.eastlink.ca

I spent two weeks of the summer planning, organising and shooting a brand new TV show for Eastlink TV called Backyard BBQ Battle.  Together with my co-grillmaster Bill Pudim, we filmed a total of 12 episodes.

This was an immense project that had a lot of moving parts.

Many thanks need to go out and these are in no particular order.

This was first and foremost a show about food.  Clancy's Meat Co. provided us with some outstanding meat to work with.  Thanks to Cynthia and her staff for carefully selection nothing but the best cuts of meat for us to showcase on the show.

To Dave Carter and the crew at Eastlink doing video and sound, you guys were amazing.  You pushed us hard but I think we ended up with a show everyone can be proud of.  Thanks Neil, James, Rob, Lydia, Mark, Joey, Paul and Stewart.

To our hosts for the 4 days (plus the 2 extra days of set-up and tear-down) Estelle Proulx Giannunzio and her husband Dino, thank you so much for your hospitality.  We felt so welcome on your beautiful property and the visuals provided will make for some great footage.  Was also nice to have access to your kitchen for prep and dishes and for the odd ingredient that we forgot at home.

Our official photographer, Marc Durocher from Marc Durocher Photography.  Not only did he create a kick-ass Promo Poster, he took many shots during filming as well as shots of our plating.  These will allow us to put together a fantastic Facebook page for people to follow us and a website to follow.

Our set designer, Jennie Doucet-Leblanc of Uniquely Yours Design outdid herself.  She was on location early every morning to make sure everything looked wonderful and ready to be captured by the camera.

We had some wonderful Production Assistants as well.  Jackie Lachance, Karen Collins and Spencer Corbeil.  You did all the grunt work (mostly dishes) and really took a lot of the heat off of us so we could concentrate on prepping and cooking.

A show such as this could also not have happened without some sponsors.  Thanks to Eastview RV for the use of a trailer.  Thanks to Andy Rochon at  Energymizers for the beautiful Napoleon Prestige Grill.

Thanks also to Gary Trotter at Traeger Canada for use of a Lil Tex Elite Pellet Smoker for the shoot.

Thanks to our friends Pascal and Eliz at Muskoka Fire Pits and Blue Ocean Lighthouse in Gravenhurst for the donation of the custom made firepit.  We put it to good use and it will look great on TV.   It became the focal part of our set for these last 6 episodes.





Thanks to the 36 judges who took the time out of their busy schedules to come and eat our food and chose a winner.  We hope our meals met your expectations.

And finally to my co-host Bill Pudim.  You drove me a bit nuts, but in a good way.  We both put out some pretty decent food and elevated BBQ to a whole new level.  What started off a a little pitch to Eastlink for an afternoon project morphed into a heck of a ride.

Keep an eye on our Facebook page for show times.  Should be airing some time in October!!

Backyard BBQ Battle - First 6 episodes

Over the past few days, my BBQ friend Bill Pudim and I have been involved in the filming of a brand new grilling-bbq show for Eastlink TV.

Coming soon to a TV set near you is Backyard BBQ Battle.

2 grillmasters

Canada vs USA

New school vs old school

simplicity vs complexity

1 ingredient... cooked in 2 very different ways.

The whole experience this week required a learning curve.  We had a great crew from Eastlink that really pushed us in order to get the best shots under a tight shooting deadline.  

Some of the Eastlink crew : James, Neil, and show host Stewart

During the two days, we were able to shoot 6 episodes and 6 cooking tips.  We will gather again in August to shoot 6 more episodes.  All of these will be edited and will air on Eastlink TV this fall.

Thanks to our meat Sponsor Clancy's Meat Co.  It was an honour to be able to feature their wonderful meat on our show.

Here are a few more pics from the day of shooting including a few money shots of our food creations.

Pork Tenderloin

Our judges table.  Thanks to Jennie Doucet-Leblanc from Uniquely Yours Design for the set design.

Photo by Marc Durocher Photography

Photo by Marc Durocher Photography

Kapuskasing BBQ competition

The Kapuskasing BBQ competition is less than a week away.

It promises to be a great event and will be held on the Circle during the lumberjack festival.

Entry is 75$ and includes your meat, your entry into the Mystery Box competition and prizes.

Here is a list of prizes up for grabs.

Grand Champion:  Muskoka Chair (Prize Value $300)

Reserve Grand Champion:  Yamaha Outdoor Speaker System (Prize Value $200)

1^st Place Chicken:  Wireless Weather Center (Prize Value $50)

1^st Place Ribs: Wireless Weather Center (Prize Value $50)

Mystery box:  Wine/Cheese Cutting Board bag, 4 Stemless Wine Glasses, Picnic Blanket, LCBO gift card (Prize Value $100)

 Plus, an authentic wooden cutting board crafted in Kapuskasing.

Sizes vary for different winners. Large, Medium and Small. 

For more info, you can contact Ashley at welcome@kapuskasing.ca

Eastview RV Northern Amateur BBQ Challenge

3 Northern competitions to get your grill on!

It's going to be a busy summer of BBQ.

3 events are on tap in northern Ontario this summer as part of  the Eastview RV Northern Amateur BBQ Challenge.

First up is Kapuskasing on July 25th.  They will host the Chopped and Fired Up Chicken and Rib Cookoff.  This is a first year event and will be held on the Circle in Kap.

Register here.

The next Northern Event will be the 3rd annual Smoke on the Water Amateur BBQ contest in Cochrane, Ontario.  Event will be held on the Waterfront on August 8th during their Summerfest.

Register here.

The last event of the summer will be Timmins Fall Fair Smokin' and Grillin' BBQ Competition to be held on September 12th at the Mountjoy Arena.

Register here.

Entry fee into each event is 75$ and includes your meat to cook (2 racks of ribs and 2 full chickens).  There are great prizes to be won at each competition and there is a Traeger Lil Tex Elite smoker to be won by the team that scores highest at one of the 3 events thanks to Eastview RV.

For more info, you can get in touch with Rene Gaudreau or Bill Pudim.

If you want to know more about competing in an amateur BBQ competion, you can read my past 2 posts.
So you wanna compete, part I.
So you wanna compete, part II

Looking forward to seeing you at one of these events which are sanctionned by the Canadian Southern BBQ Association.

Great prizes for our Timmins competition

Our Timmins BBQ competition will have some of the best prizes that amateur BBQ has to offer.

First up for Grand Champion is a Broil King Keg, donated by Timbr-Mart/Porcupine Pro Hardware and by Energymizers in Timmins.  This is an outstanding Grill worth over 1000$.

2nd place overall will win a Love and Romance package from Cedar Meadows Resort valued at 400$.

1st place chicken and 1st place ribs will receive a 100$ gift card from Canadian Tire Gas Bar.

Please take time to support these generous sponsors and let them know that you saw their sponsorship here.

Plenty to win... so why not try your luck at competitive BBQ.

Time for some cheap Ebooks

I`m a big fan of Steven Raichlen and his various TV shows, his website Barbecue Bible, and also his books.

He's currently offering a massive sale on 4 of his books in Ebook format.

These are currently discounted to $2.99 each.  That`s 4 massive titles for 12$.

Get this offer before it disappears.

Click here to take advantage of this offer.