“Oh my God, I didn’t know it could taste like this.”
Karen Pack, immediate past president of the Vaad HaKashruth of Greater Kansas City board of directors, said she was blown away by last year’s first ever Kansas City Kosher BBQ Competition & Festival, and can’t believe how many times she heard that or something similar from festivalgoers last year.
“Their shock and amazement was really the best part of the festival,” Pack noted.
She’s not the only one looking forward to this year’s event once again organized by the Vaad. It will take place Sunday, Aug. 18, on the grounds of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah. (For more information, see box Page 19)
“I am most excited about bringing the entire Jewish community together to experience the most authentic kosher barbecue competition in the country, and celebrating the role of the Vaad,” said Jason Sokol, the event’s chair for the second consecutive year and a member of the Vaad’s board.
Organizers can’t quite put a finger on how many people attended last year’s event. Vaad Executive Director Rabbi Mendel Segal thinks it was around 2,000 people. He and Vaad Board President Debbie Sosland-Edelman said they learned a lot from last year and believe they’ve made changes to improve the event.
“We are taking it up a notch in year two, building on the fabulous momentum of the first year and working diligently to make improvements in the areas where we were most challenged,” Sosland-Edelman said.
This year’s event will be sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society.
“We are very proud to be a part of the Kansas City Barbeque Society which I believe is the largest group of barbecue enthusiasts in the world. By being part of KCBS, we will elevate our competiof KCBS, we will elevate our competition through their rigorous certification and judging program,” Sosland-Edelman explained.
KCBS Executive Director Carolyn Wells said the society is delighted to sanction the local contest. She explained that the designation means this kosher barbecue contest will be able to use a system that has worked thousands of times, from rules and regulations, to certified judges, to professional contest representatives who supervise the judging area and tabulation of scores utilizing KCBS’s proprietary software.
“In short, it adds integrity, and keeps the organizer from having to reinvent the wheel,” Wells said.
Kosher barbecue is definitely an unexplored area for KCBS.
“For us, it is a pleasure to foster the sport and art form of competition barbecue in a non-traditional arena, in that half our regulation categories are pork, and none are normally kosher. We like new challenges and adapting to the marketplace,” Wells added.
Rabbi Segal likes the idea that the KCBS will be in charge of the contest.
“They do 400 events per year. They are awesome,” Rabbi Segal said.
Besides the actual competition, there are events for the kids, classes for adults, concessions and contests.
Rabbi Segal said parking will be increased this year to handle bigger overflow crowds and there will be a larger police presence at the event. Major changes, he said, have been made in the concession area.
“We’ve actually visited two other festivals to watch them. Then we went back to the drawing board and created a better plan,” Rabbi Segal said.
Rabbi Segal said last year more than 1,200 pounds of meat (that’s pre-cooked weight) was sold at the festival. This year 2,500 pounds of meat has been ordered.
The ordering process at the concession stands, he noted, has been simplified.
“We’re keeping it very simple with hopefully enough variety to keep people happy,” he said.
Offerings will include burnt ends, chicken legs, hot dogs, vegetarian smoked sausage and brisket — both a sliced plate and sandwiches — along with extras such as cole slaw, pickles and chips. As they did last year, they hope most people choose to pay with credit or debit, although cash will not be turned away.
Rabbi Segal has also learned how other events operate by participating in them. He recently medaled in chicken, brisket and ribs categories at the Long Island Kosher BBQ Championship.
“I already had an interest in barbecue before we ever decided to organize a contest here, but this definitely has caused me to take it up a notch. I don’t think I ever would have been in competitive barbecue if not for this,” he said.
This year 20 teams are registered to compete. Last year the event was capped at 15. Surprisingly there is a lot of interest from non-Jewish barbecuers in the contest.
“We figured there would be a genuine interest from non-Jewish teams to challenge themselves,” Rabbi Segal explained. For instance, last year’s grand champion, Smoked to Perfection BBQ, was sponsored by a Jewish-owned company, Kansas City Audio Visual, but the team members were not Jewish. It was the first time they ever cooked kosher food and the team was one of the first teams to register this year.
“There are serious barbecuers that don’t keep kosher, that aren’t even Jewish, that are excited about this event,” Rabbi Segal said.
Milton Brod, who’s been certified as a judge by the KCBS since the late 1990s, was at the event last year and intends to judge again this year. He pointed out that since barbecue contests are traditionally pork-based, this kosher barbecue competition gives participants the chance to demonstrate that great flavor and quality barbecue can be achieved with beef, chicken and lamb.
“In addition, this event brings the community together to enjoy and have a fun afternoon. The teams are awesome and most are very good with a barbecue grill. The feedback I received last year is that they all had a good time. I’m glad I volunteered last year and am looking forward to helping this year,” Brod said.
Competitors actually begin cooking for the contest right after Havadalah concludes on the night before the event, at 9:30 p.m. Because the contest is kosher and is strictly supervised by the Vaad, everything the competitors use is provided by the Vaad. Following the competition the re-useable items — such as the grills — are available for purchase or are cleaned and stored for use the next year.
Proceeds go to help the Vaad pursue more avenues for kosher foods in the area.
“We’re trying to get the cost of being certified kosher down a little bit, especially the cost of kosher supervision,” Rabbi Segal explained. “If we can charge them less that helps them.”
Pack said credit for the success of this event, and the Vaad in general over the past several years, goes to Rabbi Segal.
“Because of the renewed passion for kosher in Kansas City and the talent, dedication, hard work and creativity of Mendel Segal, Kansas City has the opportunity to experience what some other communities take for granted. Now we are seeing the fruit of that in the second annual barbecue festival,” Pack said.
She said dedicated lay leaders and the Vaad’s board work very hard on the festival to bring about the resurgence of kosher in the area, and because of that the community was pleasantly surprised by last year’s event.
“Yes we had glitches last year and we’ll probably have glitches this year. But that’s not the deal. The deal is the event is happening. People are placing advanced orders online and it’s just not the same old kosher in Kansas City anymore. It’s new and it’s vibrant and it’s yummy,” Pack said.
