Here are some clips from Saturday’s Sunset Symphony featuring Lamar! in white jacket boogie, an airshow moment, David Loebel in his last Sunset Symphony gig and a few fireworks to round it out.

Here are the top winners of the 2008 Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest in the main categories.

Grand Champion

Natural Born Grillers, Olive Branch

Whole Hog

First: Natural Born Grillers, Olive Branch

Second: Gwatney Championship BBQ Team, Cordova

Third: Yazoo’s Delta Q, Nesbit, Miss.

Shoulder

First: Sweet Swine o’ Mine, Olive Branch

Second: Southeastern Smokers, Cumming, Ga.

Third: The Ques Brothers, Memphis

Ribs

First: Rib Ticklers, Batesville, Ark.

Second: Sassy Sows, Brandon, Miss.

Third: Smokin’ Razorbacks, Little Rock, Ark.

Patio Porkers

First: Got Pig?, Memphis

Second: Smokin Spiders, Memphis

Third: Here for the Beer, Little Rock, Ark.

People’s Choice*

First: Rhoda Brown’s Smokie Fatties, (#31), Monroe, La.

Second: Rock ‘n’ Roll BBQ (#55), Lakeland, Fla.

Third: Wizards of Que (#14), Hot Springs, Ark.

*The numbers are provided so participants will know whether the barbecue they voted for in the blind tasting, which were numbered and not named, won.

Links

All winners of the 2008 Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.

Jennifer Biggs’ wrap up of the contest.

Article about how the 2008 Mrs. Piggie contest only had 2 competitors. Sad.

Commercial Appeal Editor Chris Peck sees the Fest as a casual way to make important connections.

Saturday night: otherwise known as the fourth night of partying for many barbecue teams competing in the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.

 We watched some of our rivals pack up shortly after the winners were announced. But we won’t be going home early this evening. We’ll be here until the wee hours. We’re celebrating.

 The Ques Brothers, the barbecue team I am on, took third place in the country (and by simple math, the world) for our pork shoulder. I would love to report the names of all the other winners. But as soon as our team was announced in third place the whole team jumped up on stage. I was taking pictures with two cameras. The trophy is huge. Three people carried it back to our booth, triumphantly. More champagne. This scene was repeated throughout the park as the other winners celebrated. Music, beer, more food. Good times.

Willie, our head chef, will go back to his small barbecue joint in South Chicago and display his trophy. It will invariably bring recognition and hungry eaters. After last year, our first, he changed his recipe and to 9 primary ingredients instead of 3. He thinks this could have cinched it. There will always be speculation in this contest. On the way back to our booth lugging the trophy – the equivalent of a winning trot around the course – Willie and his cooks were already discussing what to do differently next year.

That’s barbecue for you. You can get an amazing flavor, master a recipe, smoke the hell out of a rib, a shoulder or a whole hog. In the end, it’s all about the next light of the grill. It’s an obsession that has made Memphis the epicenter of barbecue.  Year after year, we come, we cook, we eat, we party, we ask: how are we going to top ourselves next May? 

Congratulations to all the teams who competed. The Ques Brothers will see you next year.

The 100 Degree Celsius team from Norway is led by an Okie and a few other expats who know what a good rib is. Here’s Craig Whitson to give an inside view of what it’s like to compete in the World Championship. And then some of his team get just silly.

In my years of chowing down on barbecue, I’ve never had any as good as two servings I had today. The Pink Ladies had the most melt-in-your-mouth Berkshire shoulder, the sort of experience to make you shout hallelujah. Then I zeroed in on the booth of the Estonian barbecuers from Turi and I’ll tell you that between the flight attendants and the firefighters, I’m glad I didn’t have to choose. The Estonians whole hog was robust and meaty and moist through and through. OK, now I’m hungry again and they’re leaving town. I’ll let Roland Ounapuu, president of the Estonian Barbecue Association tell it.

The Congressman had a busy day.

Being on on a barbecue team is like catering a 4 day, outdoor party for your friends who have brought their friends and the friends of their friends. You get dirty, you get worn out, you get drunk, and then, after all that, you get to maybe win a trophy for your cooking.

It was 2:30 this morning when my stamina began to give out. I was one of five people getting our booth ready for the judging of our pork shoulder. Mikey and Willie Jr. were installing carpet swatches on the floor to make our booth look somewhat Turkish in theme. 

Dave Garr and Efraim Cuevas, two of our excellent prep guys down from Chicago, were tending to the smoker. Efraim, or Left Hand as we call him, was concerned about keeping a steady temperature in the rotisserie. Logs added, logs subtracted.

And I grabbed a trash bag and went about the business of picking up the cigarette butts — hundreds of them —  squashed into the muddy floor. Before he left for the night, team leader Chuck said “don’t worry about it, the judges are taught to judge from the waist up.” But I wasn’t going to risk losing a meat point on a butty floor. We turn on the stereo and clean up to Eric Clapton’s “After Midnight.” 

Efraim, who is a restaurant chef, decides to reconsider our sauce. This is a very creative hour for artists, cooks, etc. We sample his new concoctions on Saltine crackers. “I’ll keep working on it,” he says. 

Mikey and I finally leave the park to get some sleep, hardly concerned about the judging that will come at 10:45. We are achy and ready for a breaky. My hands smell like stale butts and beer. My clothes, like smoke. Dave and Efraim are up until 4 a.m. minding the smoker. This is their big moment.

The judges come around the next morning and our main cook Willie and Left Hand decide to handle the presentation alone. They put on chef jackets. The three judges come and go. 

Later in the afternoon, we receive the message. Our pork shoulder is in the top three. Champagne bottle pop. Celebrations begin. 

Around 3:30 p.m. four more judges arrive to determine which of the top three teams are the champions in the pork shoulder division. From behind the bar, Mikey observed: “They were very animated. One of the judges ate so fast she almost choked. I took that as a good sign.”

They went away full, and pleased.

The Ques Brothers barbecue team, only in its second year and seriously lacking in sponsor money, is very happy. I am, at the time of this posting, sitting on the upper deck of our booth listening to Bob Marley singing, “Every little thing’s gonna be alright.” Oh, and drinking from the keg of the good beer we’ve been hiding for the diehard team members.

This keg was provided by John Bragg, owner of the Downtown restaurant Circa and a team member.

He sits down next to me, in a plastic chair borrowed from someone’s patio. “You know, there is a big difference in a lot of teams down here,” he says. “For some teams, it’s just about feeding a lot of people. I was once hired to cook ribs for like 400 people for a corporate team.” He takes a swig of his beer. “I tell you what. I’m really glad to be here and not be cooking. Our guys really care about their shoulder.” 

Willie, Left Hand and Dave are glowing like embers in our smoker. We drink. We await the award ceremony and, no matter what happens a half hour from now, we await the celebration to come. 

With that fancy pig shoulder being offered up for the first time, the Pink Ladies welcome their judge and cross their fingers.