Chefs from across Canada gathered this weekend at the Western Development Museum to tempt the taste buds of the judges for the first Barbecue Showdown.
The battle of the barbecues is put on by the Pacific Northwest Barbecue Association and gives chefs the chance to showcase their grill expertise in competition.
The Chef's choice category Saturday allowed the teams to showcase their culinary creativity with all sorts of mouth-watering dishes. Entries included grilled banana bread topped off with ice cream and fresh Saskatoon berries, and an unusual, but surprisingly delicious, combination - gourmet chocolate covered bacon.
Kuzzins catering from Cochin, the only local competitors, offered up tasty smoked honey garlic chicken wings.
The professional competition commenced Sunday and challenged teams in grilling four different meat categories: Little Porker (pork butt), On the Rack (pork ribs), Wishbone (chicken) and Da' Udder Meat (beef brisket). There were a total of five teams that competed, as those were Prairie Smoke n' Spice, Burnside BBQ, Bear B Que, Rub Me Tender and Kuzzins BBQ.Rob Reinhardt of Prairie Smoke n' Spice BBQ proved he knew exactly how to satisfy the judges' palette, winning three of the five categories and earning the title of top chef.
"We're thrilled with the win today, the hospitality of the WDM and sponsors has been fantastic," said Reinhardt, who added his recent win to an already impressive stack of awards an honours in barbecue competitions. "We feel very welcome here and we look forward to spreading the word and getting a lot more teams our here next year."
