Troy Black On the road

Charleston Success!

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 10:25:07 -0500

Charleston, SC, one of my favorite cities to visit for great food and fun. What a weekend I had starting off the competition season.

I arrived in Charleston early on Thursday with two brand new cookers that had never been fired up. This was not the way I wanted to start the season, as I hadn’t had a chance to practice on these cookers. Thursday night, all day Friday and Friday night became an adventure with severe thunderstorms accompanied by high winds kept everyone on their toes watching the weather. A few tents were lost in the lake which caused a few teams to relocate to safer ground.

There were nearly 100 teams competing in the dual sanctioned contest. I only competed in the KCBS contest which was full of teams considered to be some of the best in the country including last years team of the year, Cool Smoke, along with Smokey Mountain Smokers, Checkered Pig, B.S. Pitmeisters, and other nationally recognized teams.

On Saturday, the storms were gone, but the strong winds and falling temperatures made turn-ins a little difficult. I was by myself and had to run my own turn in boxes. The wind was so strong that I had to hold on tight to my boxes when taking them to the judging area to keep them from being blown out of my hands.

We gathered for awards around 5:30 in the afternoon and heard a great band called The East Coast Party Band. Top five in each category were called to the stage. I only received a call in Brisket getting a third place trophy, which I was quite excited about, but the real excitement for me came at the conclusion of awards when I found out that I had place 3rd place overall in the competition just three points behind Cook Smoke in second place. Smokey Mountain Smokers took home the grand championship. Congrats to both Joe and Tuffy.

Third place overall was a great way to start off the competition season for team Learn2Q. As for the new cookers? I LOVE them! Next stop on the tour is Hammond, LA, another one of my favorite stops. Can’t wait to eat some crawfish and boudan. YUM YUM!

Learn2Q Earns Two National Top Ten awards

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 12:56:34 -0600

This past weekend, the annual KCBS year-end awards banquet was held. There were about 400 people in attendance from all over the country to celebrate the competition season of 2007.

I was very fortunate to have been awarded two year-end top ten placements for 2007. I placed 8th in the Pork category and 2nd in the Ribs category. This was very special to me for lots of reasons. First, there were over 1400 teams that place in the top five at least once in competitions for 2007. It is estimated that over 3000 different teams competed during the year. Secondly, ribs has always been my strongest category. I set out in 2007 to bring up my pork rankings, so finishing in the top ten gave me quite a sense of accomplishment. For 2008, I am doing a few things different to get my chicken scores more consistently in the top ten.

Troy Does Channel 4

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:08:40 -0600

I visited WSMV Channel 4 in Nashville and appeared on More At Midday with Jennifer Herron to promote the Southern School of Barbeque. I did a dry-rubbed apple basted turkey breast that was pretty incredible. I’m very excited to kick off the 2008 school tour. This is a new venture which will educate the backyard chef on how to cook authentic low and slow barbeque. Visit my web site for more info and schedules. www.learn2Q.com