Pork shoulders, whole hogs and ribs, oh my!
For one rep, the secret is in the sauce
by Laura Thill
When Michael Cobb isn’t servicing one of his dental customers, you’ll likely find him hard at work over an open fire, armed with several bottles of his secret barbecue sauce. Either way, he means business.
A 10-time competitive barbecue grand champion, the Darby Dental (Jericho, N.Y.) rep is almost as passionate about pork shoulders and ribs as he is about cements and impression material. "I was raised around competitive barbecue," says Cobb, whose father and uncle’s team competed several times a year throughout the 1980s. "These competitions are pretty big throughout Tennessee," he notes. "When my dad, Jimmy, and my uncle slowed down, I picked up where they left off." Today, he, his wife, Shelly, and team members, Gray McDonald, Jimmy Cobb and Deanna Stinnett, compete in about 10 events each year in Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri and the Florida panhandle. Often, Cobb’s 3-year-old son and future barbecue champion, Branden, joins his parents for moral support.
The showmanship
Competitive barbecue is nothing to be taken lightly. "It’s an expensive hobby," says Cobb, who spends as much as $25,000 per contest on meat, supplies, travel, hotels, team T-shirts and grills. "I have a $20,000 cooking rig I built, which I use at the competitions," he adds.
There’s no shortage of competitions to choose to enter, he says. The Memphis City Barbecue Network (MBN) and the Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) offer a slew of events to choose from, he explains. And, there are always the smaller, spur-of-the-moment competitions to attend. "We schedule four or five competitions to attend each year, and then we select another four or five throughout the year, including the annual Memphis-in-May world championship barbecue competition (Memphis, Tenn.)," says Cobb. "There is one coming up next weekend in Tennessee (the Hatchy Hollow Barbecue Festival), and it’s so close to home, we may as well participate."
Cobb prefers entering contests with "big prize money involved - either a state championship or another big-money contest." At one recent contest at a casino in Alabama, his team missed winning the $32,000 prize by two-tenths of a point, he says.
Over the last four years, Cobb and his teammates have not only perfected their barbecue skills, but their showmanship as well. For starters, competitors must know their meat. "Contests (which generally attract between 35 and 100 competitors) begin on a Friday night," Cobb explains. "We must bring our own meat, and we slow cook it for 18 hours. At the MBN, for example, we cook a whole hog, pork ribs and pork shoulder. We must prepare enough for the blind box judges (three sit-down judges), and then, if we make it to the finals, we must prepare enough for [a panel of] four sit-down judges.
"It’s sort of like putting on a show," he continues. "We talk about bringing the meat from its raw state to completion - how we prepare it and arrive at the final product. We must explain to the judges our charcoal rubs, basting process, sauces and cook times." In comparison, at the KCBS, "it’s all about blind judging," Cobb says. "We put everything in a blind box and it’s judged on-site, based on taste."
Amidst the rigor of competing comes a bit of glamour, however. The Food Network is known to cover the Memphis-in-May world championship contest, and film the final round, according to Cobb. "The program airs the following year," he says, noting his team has been filmed twice. "You make your presentation for the TV crew," he explains. "They ask about how you prepare your meat [and so forth]. It went pretty well both times we were filmed. I have been doing this for so long, it comes naturally for me to talk about it." Needless to say, Cobb TiVo-ed both episodes!
No, they don’t get much sleep during a contest, Cobb admits. So, yes, there is a lot of Red Bull being passed around. But, there’s a lot of camaraderie as well. "We have met many friends through the cooking circuit," he says. "In fact, this is how I met my best friend, who lives in Columbus, Mo., and owns a restaurant there. We make plans to meet up at the competitions."
Never a dull moment
Life doesn’t slow down any for Cobb and his family in between competitions. For one, they produce and bottle their own secret barbecue sauce. "My uncle had a barbecue run and sauce that everyone in the Mississippi Delta loved," he says. "He was in the restaurant business, and when he left, he turned the recipe over to me, and I’ve been very successful with it." Indeed, the sauce currently sells in 40 stores, as well as online. "I pass it out to my dental customers and even the judges at the end of competitions," he adds.
In addition, Cobb offers classes to those interested in joining the barbecue circuit or who simply yearn to be excellent backyard cooks. And, he and Shelly cater between five and 10 events each year (each with between 50 and 100 people).
Then there are the seven horses they care for at home. "Shelly is a pro rodeo [competitor]," says Cobb. "So, sometimes we must do our own thing, and sometimes we are able to join each other."
Believe in yourself
As it turns out, selling pork shoulder to a panel of judges calls for many of the same skills involved in selling dental products to dentists, he points out. "Both call for a lot of preparation and self-motivation," he says. "You sell your barbecue product to a judge, just as you sell dental supplies to a doctor. It’s about showing the judge or dentist that your product is the best." It’s as much about selling your product as it is about selling yourself, he adds. "If you are going to make someone believe in you, you must believe in yourself and your products."
And, Cobb should know. "We win quite a bit of barbecue competitions," he says. "Last year, Darby sponsored our team and invited over 400 local dentists to the Memphis-in-May world champion competition. Our team, Team Darby-Q, took 4th place." This was out of 100 championship rib teams, he notes. "You select a category (pork shoulders, whole hog or ribs) in which to compete, and win the world championship based on that." And, the dentists loved the event, he adds. "They had never been to an event like this, much less one sponsored by a dental company."
In past years, Cobb’s team has won about 10 grand championships and 150 or so smaller awards. At the Memphis-in-May competition, they have placed 10th in pork shoulders (out of 80-90 teams) and 3rd in pork shoulders (again, out of 80-90 teams). "Any time we place in the Memphis-in-May world champion competition, it’s great," he adds.
"The patience and attention to detail that has made me a world class BBQ cook has helped me achieve major milestones at Darby," he continues. "I won’t serve a rib that isn’t prepared, smoked and served properly and I certainly won’t take any shortcuts with my clients either."
|
|
|
