One whiff and it’s obvious why Cool Smoke was named 2007’s national Team of the Year by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, the 8,000-member sanctioning body for 300 barbeque contests held nationwide. The honor is bestowed annually on the team with the highest cumulative score for the year. Teams compete in chicken, ribs, pork and brisket; each category is scored 2 through 9 in appearance, taste and tenderness/texture. Such an all-around title is no mean feat for the relative newcomers—Cool Smoke’s first competition was in 2004.
Tuffy, 44, wiry and quick to grin, brings the ribs from the pit to the specially constructed, waist-high table in his small motor home. His ingredients are lined up: Parkay squeeze margarine, honey, brown sugar, apple juice, a couple more coded canisters. He sets the first rack on top of several large sheets of aluminum foil and squirts ribbons of yellow Parkay up and down its length, then does the same with honey. He dots on brown sugar, sprinkles with spices and spritzes with apple juice. By the time he’s done, the rack looks like a long, flat cake decorated by an exuberant 5-year-old. Tuffy repeats the procedure on the other side, then wraps the mess into a neat little package and runs it back out to the pit. He hops back in and starts on the next rack.
“I like these,” says Tuffy, happy with the color and texture of the meat.
“Yeah, remember what happened last time you said that,” says Kendall, a wry, mild-mannered CEO of an orthodontic appliance firm.
As Tuffy runs another flat packet out to the pit, his good friend Johnny Trigg passes by, a blue-eyed bear of a man, barbeque legend and the only person to win the Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational twice. “What the hell is that?” Johnny growls.
“It’s my chicken.”
“We beat it down with a sledgehammer,” Kendall offers.
Back inside the RV, Tuffy examines the third rack. “Man, they got a nice color.”
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