Jersey grillers take grand championship
The 13th annual New Jersey Barbecue Competition and 11th annual Anglesea Blues Festival awarded cash prizes, trophies, plaques, and, most importantly, bragging rights to barbecue teams from across the country this past weekend.
Fat Angel Barbecue, a barbecue competition team and catering company from New Jersey, was awarded grand champion at the competition of the 66 teams. The team had also placed first in the chicken and brisket categories and was awarded a plaque and $3,000.
According to Eric Shenkus, New Jersey State Barbecue chairman, $10,000 in prizes was awarded to winning teams as part of the competition, which is sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. Shenkus said more than 100 judges were used to determine the winners.
Mayor Bill Henfy helped hand out awards to the winning team and said that the barbecue and blues festival is a big hit every year.
“North Wildwood is a great town,” he said to the crowd at the festival, “And you help make it that way.”
For the first time, an honorary award for Alexander “Butch” Lupinetti, was given to the New Jersey team with the best ribs. Lupinetti had competed at the festival until his death last year with the “Butch’s Smack Your Lips Barbecue” team. The award was presented by his wife, Lynne Barag, to Smokopolis Barbecue.
The festival had begun Friday, and the teams were presented with an “Iron Chef” competition, where they were given a secret ingredient to barbecue from the judges. This year, the ingredient was a whole turkey. Wilbur’s Revenge took the prize. Their secret? “We just cooked a turkey,” said David Marks, the team’s founder. Besides the traditional barbecue categories of chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket, prizes were also given to the best dessert and sauce.
Mike Johnson of the Wildwood Anglesea Barbecue Team said they were celebrating their 10th year competing at the championship. In hopes of winning big, the team had returned to their original barbecuing technique: low temperatures and slow cooking. They had spent the past two sleepless nights basting and grilling. To this local team, however, a good time was most important.
“It’s one giant tailgate party,” said Johnson. The team was ranked 62 overall of the 66 competing teams.
To pair with the food, national and regional blues acts also performed as a part of the 11th annual Anglesea Blues Festival. The Randy Lippincott Blues Band and Zydeco a-Go-Go had festival goers dancing and singing along on Sunday.
Jean Rossman of Cape May Court House felt the same way about the open air festival.
“I don’t even like the blues, but I think it’s a lot of fun,” she said. She and Joe Illingworth of Villas spent the entire weekend enjoying barbecue and blues at the competition.
“It’s an excuse to pig out,” said Illingworth.
