Marvin Millsap and Eric Roy, who form the team of Marv’s Meats, received a score of 11 on their ribs at the 30th Annual American Royal Barbecue held Oct. 1-4 in Kansas City.
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Considering that the Royal is the largest barbecue contest in the world, with nearly 500 teams competing, an 11 is an excellent showing.
Marvin and Eric have been competing at the American Royal Barbecue for four years on a smoker built by Marvin. If they do have a secret to a winning barbecue, "It’s not something we would divulge," Marvin said.
The barbecue is the opening event of the American Royal. It was held in conjunction with a barbecue-related trade expo. The Kemper Arena was full to capacity during the food festival.
"We stay down there and camp out like a vendor, generally for four days," said Marvin. "We make a little vacation out of it. But by the time we’re done, it’s the finale. I’m done after that."
Competitors must enter four categories in the culinary contest, ribs, chicken, brisket and pork.
It takes between 5 ½ to 7 hours to cook the ribs. Turn-in time is on Sunday at noon. The meat is cooked in increments and the brisket is always the last.
Once done and garnished, the meat is placed in a "to-go" container and sent off. Competitors are not allowed to watch the judges when they do the tasting. There are six judges. They judge the meat for appearance, tenderness and taste.
"It’s very secretive," said Marvin. "You don’t know how you’ve done until they put up the scores that night."
Marvin went home Sunday and fell asleep. He was awakened by a phone call from Shad Mort. Shad had found the team’s score on the Internet. He told Marvin their scores for the chicken (279) and pork (266) and brisket (156).
"I told him, well, that’s not impressive," said Marvin. "Then he told me the kicker — that we’d scored an 11 on the ribs. That was impressive."
In fact, they were only a few percentage points from winning it all the way because the judging has lots of variables and comes down to the ten-thousands of a point. They were actually tied for 8-9 and 10th place.
Marvin said he and Eric appreciate their supporters. The competition is fun, but it can also be pricey. He said the team plans to go again to the Royal’s BBQ competition next year. He has no idea how well they’ll do.
"It’s the luck of the draw," he said. "We go down and do our best every year. It depends on the judges and their preference and taste."