The Best (Rib) Rack In BBQ
Ryan writes about what it truly means to win in the BBQ community.
I started the BBQ Tourist channel on Instagram six and a half years ago to share my BBQ travels and connect with fellow barbecue enthusiasts. In between BBQ road trips, I have always tried to stay connected to the barbecue community by cooking in the backyard and sharing recipes and stories of my successes (and sometimes my failures) with pitmasters and grilling aficionados everywhere. While I am neither an award-winning competitive pitmaster nor a professional chef, I have learned my way around the smoker and the grill over the years.
Recently, I made a particularly beautiful (and delicious) rack of Asian-inspired smoked spareribs using Chris Cooks Crazy Asian Explosion seasoning and Blazing Star Asian Bang sauce, garnished with green onion and toasted sesame seeds. I was encouraged by friends to enter the “Best Rack in BBQ” contest on Instagram, with the top prize being a new Pit Boss Grills Sportsman 820 Pellet Grill and a set of Spaceman Knives Gravity Series Knives. My pellet grill recently stopped working so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try to win a replacement.
The Best Rack in BBQ contest was started in 2021 by talented Canadian backyard pitmaster Steph Foster of the Foster Feasts Instagram channel and the hilarious Mazie Schaefermeyer, who shares recipes and fun videos on her BBQ by Mazie Instagram channel.
“We started this whole campaign as a joke because, as women, we were often getting sexualized comments as women in a male-dominated channel. As we’re both lovers of puns and comedy, we thought it would be hilarious and fun. It’s been amazing what it has grown into,” Foster told me. “We love this community so much, and it’s something to give back.”
Contestants entered the contest by tagging hosts Foster and Shaefermeyer and sponsors Pit Boss and Spaceman Knives in an Instagram post showing their best rack of ribs and using the hashtag #BestRackInBBQ24. The top 16 entries were chosen to go head-to-head in a series of bracket votes. Foster pointed out that even though the votes count the popularity of each entry, “the contestant’s account size doesn’t matter, and it’s truly amazing to watch people come together to celebrate delicious BBQ.”
I truly wanted to win the contest, so I encouraged my audience to vote for my entry during each round. I reached out to family and friends and campaigned to get them to vote. It was a wonderful excuse to reconnect with my audience and folks from the community I have gotten to know through the years. To my surprise, I made it through each bracket of the contest all the way to the finals.
In the finals, I was pitted against Mike McGuinness of Iron Mike’s BBQ, who I had been messaging and cheering on throughout each round. McGuinness is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and an Ironworker (hence the name Iron Mike’s) based in Connecticut. He is also a talented cook, a fierce competitor, and a heck of a nice guy.
The final vote was neck and neck up to the last minute. There was a less than 1% difference between the votes in the final bracket. In the end, McGuinness won the grand prize, and though I would certainly have loved to have won, I could not have been happier for him.
I later learned that McGuinness had come in second place in the Best Rack contest in two different years. He sent me a message immediately after the results were announced, thanking me for such a fun and spirited competition. He wrote, “It was really awesome to get to know you throughout this whole thing. This title is yours next year; I know it!”
This experience really highlighted my favorite part of BBQ — the amazing people. I got to catch up with friends from the BBQ community, received a number of supportive messages from my audience, and got a ton of new followers, including many friends and supporters of McGuinness and the other contestants. Even though I came up short in the contest, I still feel like I won in so many ways — and for that I am thankful!
--
Ryan Cooper
Co-Founder, The Smoke Sheet
Do you have what it takes to be a King? Submit your best sauces, rubs, marinades, and condiments to Sauce King NYC™ to find out! Compete to win across categories, including Best Hot Sauce, Everything Sauce, and Grill Sauce. Do you think your sauces, rubs, marinades, and condiments have something special? Suggest your own unique category to the judges, and you may just take home a new crown. Registration is open now through August 20, 2024. Visit saucekingnyc.com for all the details.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Smoke Sheet to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.