At the Lake Placid “I Love Barbecue” Festival

Growing up in Texas, I sort of took barbecue for granted. It was an ever-present fixture and sure, I’d have some pretty good chicken or brisket at a neighbor’s party or our local barbecue joint, Sonny Brian’s. Never did I imagine that there exists a million-dollar industry and nationwide subculture of competitive barbecue.

That’s right, competitive barbecue. The people I met at the Lake Placid I Love Barbecue Festival combined culinary passion, state-of-the-art equipment, mythic family recipes and serious dedication to produce some of the most extraordinary barbecued meat I’d ever seen. They’d traveled not only from all over New England and the Northeast, but from Alabama, Virginia, Minnesota and California, not to mention a few Canadians. Plus three days in this summer’s intense heat standing guard over their smokers and crafting their wares. I was pretty impressed.

But what impressed me most was not just the competitors’ dedication and fervor. It was their camaraderie. In spite of the fierce competition, everyone was happy to visit with their neighbors, trade anecdotes, and kick back with a cold beer. They all seemed to know each other from past competitions (I guess when you attend between 9 and 15 a year, it’s hard not to) and delighted in the sharing of food, drink, and company. As a newcomer to the competitive barbecue culture, I felt enormously welcome. And I certainly enjoyed a good lunch from the volunteer table at the judge’s station. To whoever entered that sweet, tender barbecued chicken—you are wonderful.

Naïve me, I just always assumed barbecue was a culinary pastime only people from Texas really cared about. How wrong I was! Each region of the US has its own variations on barbecue, and in fact it’s the Kansas City Barbecue Society that’s the sort of big-dog in the competitive barbecue universe. I met several Rhode Islanders; a Minnesotan led the judges in their official oath.  New York—and the North Country—were well represented. In retrospect, I can imagine no better way to spent the fourth of July than to learn about a culture and cuisine that transcends regionalism and ultimately brings people together. Dmitry Feld, the festival’s organizer (who left the Soviet Union in the seventies to work for the American Olympic luge team) put it best—“We have real American cuisine.”  That real American cuisine, my friends, is barbecue.

Sarah Harris
NCPR News Intern

Sarah’s audio feature from the Lake Placid BBQ Festival