Saturday morning, the Ques Brothers were hurriedly preparing for the judges at the 2007 World Barbecue Cooking Contest down in Tom Lee Park. Several members of my freshman cooking team had stayed up all night making sure nothing went wrong — that the rotisserie kept spinning, the smoke kept rising, and the food was the best that could possibly come out of our oxy-moronic “Southern Yankee” smoker, made in Indiana.

After 19 hours slowly turning in the applewood, hickory and cherry smoke, our 17 pound pork shoulder was as good as it was ever going to get.

A handful of of team members — the diehards — had been tidying up the booth. The cigarette butts had been cleaned up, the floor swept, the tablecloths brushed. The place looked twice as good as it did when we threw our party for the sponsors.

We set up a single cocktail table in the middle of the tent and dressed it gingerly with napkins.

Pitmaster Willie pulled one of the four competition shoulders out of the smoker and peeled off the aluminium foil to see what we’d achieved.

Willie called it a “pork marshmallow,” soft and juicy on the inside with a delicious black bark on the outside. The bone didn’t just slide out. It fell out. We knew we had something amazing.

We used tongs to pull the first one apart and arranged it in a styrofoam box for the blind tasting. It was sent off to the judging without sauce. That’s how confident we were in our meat.

Finally, we all donned our Ques Brothers aprons and black fedoras (like the Blues Brothers, get it?). Steve, the veteran planner on our team, prepped the crew on the pomp and circumstance of ushering in the judges.

When the first judge entered, we’d first introduce ourselves. Then our pitmaster Willie would give a tour of the grill. We’d offer the judge water, but we wouldn’t put it on the table. Our sauce with real maple syrup was also “optional,” offered as a side item but not requisite with our exquisite pork shoulder.

The first judge, Bill Holt, arrived promptly at 11 a.m. Willie explained his cooking method. Bill talked about his own cooking experience. There was something very “My Dinner with Andre” about watching the two of them chat about barbecue as our team members watched on the perimeter.

Finally, he threw us a compliment. A darned good compliment, if you ask me.

“This is an outstanding piece of work,” he said. “The next two teams I’m going to visit have something to beat. Easily this would fall in the top four or five shoulders I’ve ever had.”

Holt has been judging for about 15 years.

The second judge, a Memphis lawyer named Danny Kail was more chatty with Willie, especially about the weather. They had a long conversation about the history of riverboats pulling up in Memphis and pig roasting in holes dug in the ground. Finally, Willie asked, “Well, what do you think?”

Kail looked down at his paper plate. “I think I’m eating it all,” he said. We took it as a good sign.

The final judge, Mark Delashaw, stomach heavy after two previous booths, was the quietest of the three. Willie did all the talking. As we had done with the other judges, our team applauded as he left.

Later that afternoon, we could hear the celebrations in the other booths as the top three finalists were announced. We were not among them. We’d received perfect tens in every category but one.

Delashaw gave us a 9 for our bark (the crust) which was darker than the mahogany color he wanted to see on pork shoulder. All we could do now was wait to see if we made the top ten.

Oh, and we could also tap another keg and get ripped. Which we did. And we ate those incredible leftovers.