It's green, it causes headaches, it costs around $10.00, and it is found in dumpsters at K.C.B.S. contests across this great country. Yep, you guessed it. It"s garnish! As a competitor with Butler Center Barbeque and a CBJ - the world of garnish is a BIG HOT MESS! I want to give my opinion on the topic to garnish or not to garnish.
I started competing nearly 12 years ago and I had no idea what people were putting into that scary Styrofoam box. I used to compete as a one man team and I only knew a couple other competitors and nobody ever mentioned what a turn-in box was supposed to look like. At no point at the start of my BBQ'ing career did I ever think I would spend hours building boxes for an appearance score. Even after the last few years I still can't believe the amount of work that goes into building the "putting green" turn-in boxes.
As I read the box judging comments at BBQCRITIC.COM I see people mention the garnish. I wonder why they mention it at all. I am certain that my CBJ instructor Mike Lake told me that we are judging the appearance of the meat, not the garnish. What does the meat look like? (Yet there continues to be comments on the evil green stuff in the pictures we are supposed to judge per K.C.B.S. rules.)
Our team was recently at a K.C.B.S. contest. The availability of good parsley was sparse and I was nervous that my $200 in competition meat, $175 entry fee, $100 in fuel, and all my incidental expenses could be flushed down the toilet because I wouldn't have a putting green worthy of my fellow judges. Luckily we found a handful of parsley that would work and fared well. A few weeks later, I judged the amazing contest in Mason City and specifically sat at a table of strangers who had no idea I usually compete but decided to judge this particular weekend. I had some preconceived ideas of what I thought they would say about appearance scores. I was right
In between categories, the judges I sat with told me that the garnish does set the stage for the appearance scores. At that point I knew what our team needed to do to bump our scores up to the next level. Since that day we have taken a new approach to the appearance score. We do exactly what I see as a judge as the winning trend and have had increased success doing so. The success is great but wouldn't it be great to get those four turn- in boxes from the K.C.B.S. representative, put them in a safe place, and at 11:50 AM take the first one from it's safe place, put my six chicken portions in the box, and take it to the turn- in spot? I think so!
The true winner in battle over the garnish really appears to be the local grocers in my eyes. Getting rid of green garnish would save over $120,000.00 for K.C.B.S competitors (300 sanctioned contests, average of 40 teams per contest spending $10 per contest on garnish.). As I look at the future of barbeque and explore the possibility of a seat on the state or national barbeque scene, I think my primary platform item would be the elimination of garnish all together and leave the meat to be judged as the rules mean for it to be.
In conclusion, instead of worrying about the green leafy garnish, I know my team would rather worry about the green paper stuff handed out at the awards ceremony.
-- BJ Hoffman
I started competing nearly 12 years ago and I had no idea what people were putting into that scary Styrofoam box. I used to compete as a one man team and I only knew a couple other competitors and nobody ever mentioned what a turn-in box was supposed to look like. At no point at the start of my BBQ'ing career did I ever think I would spend hours building boxes for an appearance score. Even after the last few years I still can't believe the amount of work that goes into building the "putting green" turn-in boxes.
As I read the box judging comments at BBQCRITIC.COM I see people mention the garnish. I wonder why they mention it at all. I am certain that my CBJ instructor Mike Lake told me that we are judging the appearance of the meat, not the garnish. What does the meat look like? (Yet there continues to be comments on the evil green stuff in the pictures we are supposed to judge per K.C.B.S. rules.)
Our team was recently at a K.C.B.S. contest. The availability of good parsley was sparse and I was nervous that my $200 in competition meat, $175 entry fee, $100 in fuel, and all my incidental expenses could be flushed down the toilet because I wouldn't have a putting green worthy of my fellow judges. Luckily we found a handful of parsley that would work and fared well. A few weeks later, I judged the amazing contest in Mason City and specifically sat at a table of strangers who had no idea I usually compete but decided to judge this particular weekend. I had some preconceived ideas of what I thought they would say about appearance scores. I was right
In between categories, the judges I sat with told me that the garnish does set the stage for the appearance scores. At that point I knew what our team needed to do to bump our scores up to the next level. Since that day we have taken a new approach to the appearance score. We do exactly what I see as a judge as the winning trend and have had increased success doing so. The success is great but wouldn't it be great to get those four turn- in boxes from the K.C.B.S. representative, put them in a safe place, and at 11:50 AM take the first one from it's safe place, put my six chicken portions in the box, and take it to the turn- in spot? I think so!
The true winner in battle over the garnish really appears to be the local grocers in my eyes. Getting rid of green garnish would save over $120,000.00 for K.C.B.S competitors (300 sanctioned contests, average of 40 teams per contest spending $10 per contest on garnish.). As I look at the future of barbeque and explore the possibility of a seat on the state or national barbeque scene, I think my primary platform item would be the elimination of garnish all together and leave the meat to be judged as the rules mean for it to be.
In conclusion, instead of worrying about the green leafy garnish, I know my team would rather worry about the green paper stuff handed out at the awards ceremony.
-- BJ Hoffman
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