BBQ Pitmasters Episode 5 American Royal Open

Take a moment to read through the previous episodes, especially the first one if you haven’t already. It will give you a better understanding of the “characters” involved with the show and with the rules and procedures for the BBQ competition circuit.

BBQ Pitmasters Episode 1 Smokin’ in Mesquite Nevada Open BBQ Championships
BBQ Pitmasters Episode 2 Murphysboro Barbecue Cook-off
BBQ Pitmasters Episode 3 Decatur Riverfest Cook Off
BBQ Pitmasters Episode 4 American Royal Invitational

This episode was the American Royal Open held in Kansas City, Missouri. Held right on the back of the Invitational which took place Friday & Saturday October 2-3, 2009. The Open took place on Sunday and as it’s name implies is not exclusive with is competitors as you can see with the nearly 500 who have entered.

This is one of the largest BBQ competitions in the nation…so any finish remotely near the top is darn good. One of things about the American Royal Open is that there is a group of competitors that tend to do it more as a party rather than a contest. More power to them but the real serious guys don’t appreciate that much. Harry Soo had an issue with this as the team stationed right next to him held a party with 300 guests that went into the wee hours of the night affecting his sleep.

Another interesting thing about this competition is that they require a 1:1 competitor to judge ratio. That means that there are a lot of judges that have been certified just for this contest…which also means that they’re brand new and don’t have experience. Myron discusses this a bit and brings up the point that their tastes are different and mentions that if he had chicken legs he would serve those over his thighs.

American Royal Open BBQ Contest
Location: Kansas City, Missouri
Date: October 4, 2009
Categories: Chicken, Ribs, Pork & Brisket
Total Competitors: 473
Promoter: Kansas City Barbeque Society
Website – Results

Chicken
14 – Tuffy Stone – Cool Smoke
59 – LeeAnn Whippen – Wood Chicks BBQ
186 – Johnny Trigg – Smokin Triggers
261 – Myron Mixon – Jack’s Old South
266 – Paul Petersen – Pablo Diablo BBQ
315 – Harry Soo – Slap Yo’ Daddy BBQ

Pork Ribs
30 – Johnny Trigg – Smokin Triggers
46 – Myron Mixon – Jack’s Old South
62 – Paul Petersen – Pablo Diablo BBQ
66 – Harry Soo – Slap Yo’ Daddy BBQ
192 – Tuffy Stone – Cool Smoke
365 – LeeAnn Whippen – Wood Chicks BBQ

Pork
6 – Johnny Trigg – Smokin Triggers
78 – Myron Mixon – Jack’s Old South
139 – Paul Petersen – Pablo Diablo BBQ
199 – Harry Soo – Slap Yo’ Daddy BBQ
210 – Tuffy Stone – Cool Smoke
353 – LeeAnn Whippen – Wood Chicks BBQ

Brisket
3 – LeeAnn Whippen – Wood Chicks BBQ
75 – Myron Mixon – Jack’s Old South
87 – Tuffy Stone – Cool Smoke
248 – Johnny Trigg – Smokin Triggers
320 – Paul Petersen – Pablo Diablo BBQ
385 – Harry Soo – Slap Yo’ Daddy BBQ

Overall
47 – Johnny Trigg – Smokin Triggers
50 – Myron Mixon – Jack’s Old South
70 – Tuffy Stone – Cool Smoke
139 – LeeAnn Whippen – Wood Chicks BBQ
177 – Paul Petersen – Pablo Diablo BBQ
256 – Harry Soo – Slap Yo’ Daddy BBQ

“I don’t give two shits if somebody stood up back there and held their hand up and took the damn oath of BBQ and says well hell I’ma certify BBQ, my ass. Ya know, just because you sit there and said some words how in the hell does that make you a judge?” All you’ve done back there, you took a damn oath to eat. And that’s all they are…damn eaters.” – Myron Mixon

“One error lead to a second error and second error lead to a third error. Ah, that has never happened to me in a contest where I’ve kind of lost my focus on 2 of the 4 meat entries. Usually we’re very focused but I was just tired. And waking that one hour late on the morning of the cook just really threw us off.” – Harry Soo

“I’m just 1 of 500 that cooked their ass off. I know everybody else did too…but I know what kind of damn stuff I had, same kind of stuff I got has probably done won me $100,000 this year already. Ya know, and you come here and you don’t even damn walk, I mean it’s damn heartbreaking. You know I could have stayed close to my damn house and won me 5-6 thousand dollars this weekend.” – Myron Mixon

As always there were some guys from the show that weren’t featured. This episode left out Johnny Trigg (mostly) and Tuffy Stone. I really don’t know why TLC decides to do this each time. Obviously it has something to do with what they think people will like to see and which teams have the most “drama” or sound bites.

I personally would love to at least see something on everyone each episode so you know they are there and kept in the loop on how they are doing. Even more surprising about this is that Johnny actually finished the best in the Overall category at 47th and Tuffy finished a respectful 70th. They did at least show a very small bit on Johnny at the end of the episode but really just on the relationship between him and Paul.