Smoke & Bones BBQ trip: A journey to the Heartland
Part 1
By Justin Kyllo
Smoke And Bones BBQ
smokeandbones@shaw.ca
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Photo submitted BY Justin Kyllo
My daughter Jessica and I at the Royal.
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A few years ago, a paragliding accident ended my career as an automotive technician and sent me on the barbecue trail. Since then I've taken lessons from the best, bought an armada of barbecue equipment, established a reputation as a caterer, succeeded in winning a Canadian National Championship, and taken a two month barbecue trip across the USA. I’ve competed in some great contests, visited several fantastic barbecue houses, and made a ton of new barbecue friends. I enjoyed my grand championship award on a trip to Jamaica and have one more trip that I won to San Francisco coming up shortly.
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Photo submitted BY Justin Kyllo
Canadian National BBQ Championship awards.
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I think you could say that I succeeded in turning a devastating situation into a new opportunity at life. It wasn’t that way at first. I had no experience in real barbecue. I had watched it on television and was captivated by the big pits and the terminology that came from the competitors. I had determined that it was, “for the pros down in the South,” but I still wanted to learn and be able to make my own real barbecue. After some research, I bought a good book, a new Weber Smokey Mountain, and I’ve never looked back.
A couple of years later, some competition experience behind me, and some awards that prompted invitations from some big contests, and I decided I would embark on a barbecue sabbatical. I was actually going to compete in the big leagues: The American Royal, the Jack, and The Best of the Best. This would be my journey for knowledge in the world of barbecue. There is one catch; most of my trip will be alone. In the beginning, I will have company because I am lucky enough to have one of my daughters, Jessica, who shares my enthusiasm for competition to be my teammate at the Royal. After that, I drive alone, and this trip will turn out to be over 10,000 miles long.
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Photo submitted BY Justin Kyllo
Jessica and I at the famous original Arthur Bryant’s in Kansas City.
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We left on Saturday, the 26th of September, with my truck pulling our new cargo trailer. It has brand new logos across the sides and back and is full of barbecue equipment, suitcases, a paraglider and a paramotor. Everything that I thought I would need or want for the next two months. We make our way through Washington State and into Oregon on our first day. Highlights included a massive fire in a lumberyard beside the interstate in Washington. As we passed by it, the heat coming from the fire is so intense I thought it would melt the new logos off the trailer! By 8 p.m. we made it to Pendleton, Oregon.
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Photo submitted BY Justin Kyllo
Smoke & Bones’ new trailer with logos.
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Tuesday we make our way across the windy plains of Kansas and finally make it to one of the Mecca’s of barbecue, Kansas City. Once settled in to our hotel we decide to visit the American Royal Grounds. This is a big deal for us. It feels kind of surreal for me to be standing on the grounds of this place that I have only read about. I am a long way from home, excited and just itching to barbecue. I can’t believe I am here. The grounds are huge! I have never seen anything on the scale of this competition. I have seen pictures on the Internet and thought it was big, but I didn't know that those pictures only show part of the event. We also got to meet Steve and Cheryl Holbrook from Kansas City face to face that day. Steve, who is teammates with Paul Kirk, and I corresponded through email before I made my way out here. Bob Lyon introduced us and both Steve and Cheryl drove out to welcome us and offer any help if we needed it. They are truly ambassadors for competitive barbecue and Kansas City.
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Photo submitted BY Justin Kyllo
Snake River Canyon in Twin Falls, Idaho.
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If you have never been before and get a chance to go to Kansas City during the American Royal Barbecue competition, you have to go. Imagine 500 BBQ teams with all of their equipment, their excitement, and their enthusiasm. Put them on the grounds around the main complex with their trailers, smokers, trucks and tents everywhere. Add in the live music, lots of people, and big parties! It was like Mardi Gras.
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Photo by Rob Reinhardt
Teams set up at “The Royal.”
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We normally compete with our big stick burner pit but left it behind due to the logistics of being on the road for two months. I brought along four Weber Smokey Mountains to compete with which is a first. I have never competed with them and typically just use them for cooking pork butts overnight for catering. This would be interesting. Friday night we made our sauces with all fresh ingredients and spices and got our briskets and pork butts on the Weber’s for the Invitational on Saturday. Saturday morning came and we got up and fired up another Weber for our ribs at 6 a.m.. We got our ribs on and then proceeded to start getting our turn in boxes ready. Our chicken then went on which was kind of tricky, as I have never cooked it on the WSM. When it was done I offered our chicken to the Kansas team beside us as it was the first turn in. The first comment I got back was “you guys from up north can cook some barbecue.” One of them, a long time BBQ judge, commented, "That is some damn good chicken." Our next categories came, and as we turned everything in, we felt we had made some really good food, but we knew we were coming to a different part of the world and regional tastes were going to be a factor.
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Photo by Rob Reinhardt
The American Royal banner
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We cooked both days and the way I got to gauge our success for our first time being there was by comparing ourselves against some big names that I recognized. We did better than some of the big name teams in the individual categories, and in fact, the only team from this past year’s TLC’s Pitmasters episodes that we did not beat in a category once over the weekend was Johnny Trigg’s Smokin’ Triggers. I think that for our first time in the Heartland, it was a success. During the Royal, we were also able to share our food and take notes with some of the local teams. We took advantage of that opportunity and it would prove to be valuable later on in our journey. All in all, our first trip to Kansas was a success.
Our next stop is the Jack Daniels Invitational World Championship in Lynchburg, Tennessee.
See Part 2 in next month’s issue...
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