BBQCRITIC.COM
  • Home
  • Reviews
    • BBQ Competitions
  • JudgeMyBox
    • SubmitBox
    • Published Boxes & Scores
    • Become a BBQ Critic Online Judge
    • KCBS Judges Oath
    • How to become a Certified BBQ Judge
    • Search Judge Comments
  • Ask the BBQ Judge
    • Ask a Question
    • Read the Answers
  • Features
    • Feature Stories
    • Give It To God
  • About
    • Contact
    • Testimonials
    • BBQCriticTV
    • Blogs >
      • Columnist Dave Compton
      • Columnist Marc Gonick
      • Columnist Mike Hall
      • Columnist BJ Hoffman
      • Columnist Herb Kane
      • Columnist Hance Patrick
      • Columnist Dan Rote
      • Guest Columnist Dave Anderson
      • Become a columnist!
    • BBQ Critic In the News
    • Links
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Become a BBQ Judge

Garnish is a Big Hot Mess

9/28/2011

10 Comments

 
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
10 Comments
Hance - MIM/MBN/GBA CBJ and comp cook
9/28/2011 11:42:32 pm

BJ,

Good write-up. Apparently there's been an undercurrent for years to get KCBS to eliminate this. I understand that KCBS introduced garnish early on as the founders felt strongly that it set KCBS apart from other sanctioning bodies. They've since passed away, and respectfully I agree that I think it's time that KCBS seriously consider getting rid of it.

As judges we're told to disregard it. However, I come from a lengthy art background; technical art, the science of color, and applied that knowledge in advertising and marketing. I can tell you matter-of-fact, the best judge is a human and the human eye cannot remove the wonderful green on white and reddish/brown on green contrast. It cannot. It's frankly just more appealing. So what we're told/instructed to do is actually physically impossible.

I've only judged one KCBS contest myself, as a guest. I remember talking about this afterwards, and one judge actually said "What, we're supposed to judge appearance on just meat alone? That'll look aweful!" . . . It's what we're instructed to do. Might as well eliminate it, because obviously many judges can't.

Also, to the founders, respectfully, IMHO, KCBS no longer needs it to stand out.

Reply
Bob Sarno link
9/29/2011 11:18:35 am

If they like the green so much, they should hand out green styrofoam boxes, or maybe some Astro-Turf mats.

Reply
Dave Compton CBJ
10/5/2011 04:25:49 pm

I agree!!!

One of the comps that I enjoyed the most was the World Brisket Open at the GAB in 2010. I was lucky enough to get a seat at the final table & judged the 10 best entries. The boxes had six slices of brisket only! No garnish. No 7th or 8th piece. No burnt ends.
As each box was opened it was passed around the table with each judge taking one piece. When all 10 pieces were on our plates we then judged each piece on it's own merits for apperance, taste & tenderness right there on the plate. I really felt like I was judging a MEAT contest :>)

Reply
Herb - Master CBJ/Certified Table Captain
10/5/2011 04:48:31 pm

@Dave Compton - I really like that method of judging, Dave. Starting the appearance score once it hits the plate is PERFECT! I'd like to judge that contest someday. :-)

Reply
Tim
10/6/2011 03:06:25 pm

I see what garnish does for presentation and liken it to how the proper garb can make a sexy woman even sexier.

At the same time, if nobody could use it, then we would only be judging meat...which I think is the main reason for the contest.

I'll do it either way, but I would definitely not complain if they did away with it.

Reply
Abel CBJ link
10/7/2011 09:52:06 am

I agree about the garnish. When I took the class to become a CBJ I would say that 1/3 of the class was about what is a legal and what isn't a legal garnish... It was almost like it got more attention then what is good and what isn't a good piece of meat.

There is far to much focus on something that we should be overlooking. I was told that the garnish is necessary because it helps hide the juices on the bottom of the box. Well why not use those small meat pads to soak up juice when you buy pre-packaged meats?

Reply
Hance
10/14/2011 05:12:12 am

Dave, VERY cool competition. And, WOW, judging MEAT on the appealing/appetizing nature of that piece of meat. What a novel concept!!!

;-)

I've never seen it done that way, but I think it's a wonderful idea.

Reply
video24
11/20/2011 12:26:41 pm

Is the solution to this question not plainly obvious..... like a 2x4 across a mule's head, Green stuff is not about BBQ, is a garden club grandfathered into this organization somehow.

Reply
RaineĀ® KCBS CBJ CTC Cooking team link
7/28/2014 01:14:23 am

Telling judges to disregard the garnish is not something KCBS has always promoted to judges. So why now? Why the change? Why is something allowed in the box if we are not supposed to consider it? Or why are things not allowed? If we are not supposed to be looking at garnish, then why should any garnish be illegal?

We are supposed to judge the entry based on the way the team presented it. So, if a team puts in garnish, is that not part of the way the presented it, so shouldn't it be taken into consideration? If it is the box, it should be judged, legal or illegal.

Teams have been told that for a while now, and it shows in their entries. So many teams seem to not give the garnish much thought, and just through a mess of something green in the box. A team should just save the money they spent on garnish, if you aren't going to give attention to it.



The problem now, is that judges and table captains are ignoring the garnish to the point that illegal garnish is getting through. Teams are not getting DQ'd for illegal garnish, because nobody saw it.

Reply
Dave Kitchener
8/16/2014 09:55:22 am

During the CBJ class I took, I remember being instructed that we were not to judge the looks of the garnish--they were adamant about that point...but then every team goes to great lengths to produce the best looking, smoothest carpet of greens they can produce. And judges continue to look at it. I'm down with the Turf idea! Maybe the stuff that comes with sushi--place a roll of that in the box...(no, not wasabi! the stuff that looks like edging!)

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    BJ Hoffman

    Windsor Heights, IA
    KCBS Certified BBQ Judge and member of Butler Center BBQ team.

    Archives

    December 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011

    Categories

    All
    Kcbs

    RSS Feed


    BBQ Critic

© 2011 TO PRESENT BBQCRITIC.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL MATERIAL (PHOTOS, TEXT, AUDIO & VIDEO) MAY NOT BE BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR  REDISTRIBUTED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM THE PUBLISHER. ANY QUESTIONS, GO HERE: CONTACT