This year we decided to compete at the World Food Championship and The American Royal. On october 25th we started our trip flying from Amsterdam to Philadelphia to Kansas!

Back home we contacted some USA bbq teams to ask if they could help us out with the bbq equipment, The Smoking Hills ( last year's World Food Championships winner) inmediatly said yes. The first thing in the morning was to pick up our gear, when we got there they already packed the van! Huddie was given the keys and we were good to go! Awesome, big thanks Smoking Hills!!! Amazing how the bbq family works together. 

 THANKS Loren & Cheryl!

American royal | Thursday Oct 27th

We parked the van at the spot and did some shopping at Joe's Kansas city bbq store. 

American royal | Friday Oct 28th

Today the venue opened for visitors and party people. In the evening the venue is packed with party people, music, bbq and beers. We walked around and spoke to a lot enthusiastic bbq people who were also competing. Some teams are competing in the invitational on saturday as well, like our neighbours " The Bark Bros". We also met Rub Baby from Swamp Boys BBQ, he is our new sponsor for 2017! 

American royal | Saturday Oct 29th

At 2:00 pm there will be a group off people passing our tent, we were asked to tell them something about ourselves. Huddie talked a bit about our team and gave them a Chicken wing with our own spices and sauce off course. 

Today we tried some ribs hanging in the Gateway Drum smoker, awesome results! Lets start the competition!

American royal | Sunday Oct 29th

Turn in's are good, we  both are happy with the result and can't wait to hear it. Meanwhile we got a taste of Harry Soo's brisket...... nomnommmmm and we picked up a Chop's Power injector to bring home, those things are the best! Thanks again Dan Ulledahl!

Results, out of 563 teams

Chicken, 394 | Ribs, 161 | Pork, 283 | Brisket, 307 | Overall, 296 | 3rd place International team

And so here our trip down south begins....Kansas city to Orange beach, Alabama. On our way we have to try some bbq off course, our favorite was by far Blacks in Austin, Texas. 

• Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que, Kansas City
• Cooper's Old time Pit Bar-B-Que, Austin
• Stubb's BBQ, Austin
• Black's BBQ, Austin
• The Salt Lick BBQ, Driftwood
• Franklin's BBQ, Austin
• Meyer's Elgin Smokehouse, Elgin
• Black's Original BBQ, Lockhart
• Smitty's Market, Lockhart
• The Shed BBQ, Ocean Springs

Finally we arrive in Orange beach at our beautiful condo with view at the Gulf Shores.

The World Food Championships | Tuesday Nov 6th 

We checked out the new venue at the Wharf, got registered, got our picture taken, walked into Mike Mc Cloud ( the founder of the World food Championships) and picked up our awesome World Food Championship shirts.

The World Food Championships | Wednesday Nov 7th 

In the evening we visited the welcome reception at The Flora Bama, it's always cool to meet all the other chefs and talk to some friend from last years competitions.

The World Food Championships | Thursday Nov 8th 

Shopping & prep day. Today we got our tent set up brought all our gear over there and started making plans for the ancillary categories.

The World Food Championships | Friday Nov 11th 

BBQ Ancillary day! Last night we prepped our plan for todays turn in's, at 1:00 pm the turn in for Swordfish and at 1:30 turn in pork belly. That went well, turn in's were good. Now let's focus on the competition.

Get your Swamp boys BBQ sauce here!

This competition we are provided with a Deep South smoker, 2 webers and a gateway drum smoker. Huddie is busy prepping everything and get started. It's a cold night but were in Alabama so we will survive :)

The World Food Championships | Saturday Nov 12th 

Turn in's are good, not so happy with the pork but again ribs are really good... time for the award show! Meanwhile again we walk around, talk to people and her look who's there! All Seasoned bbq team! The competition is really growing, more international teams are competing like Estonia, Puerto Rico, Germany, Ireland, France, Belgium etc... etc.. 

Results, out of 89 teams

Swordfish, 1 | Pork belly, 21 | Chicken, 80 | Ribs, 60 | Pork, 82 | Brisket, 67 | Overall, 73 | 

That was sooooo cool, 1st place in Swordfish! The results for bbq weren't that good, we were pleased with the turn in's and sometimes the judges just do have another opinion.

See you next year Orange beach! 

Big Thanks to everybody who helped out and made this possible!