Results From The Weekend's Smoke At ICC, An Old Fashioned Barbecue Brawl
Barbecue was served in a variety of styles.[/caption]
ICC is the International Chef Congress, an annual multi-day gathering of restaurant industry workers organized by Star Chefs that happened over the weekend and wraps today. Events included chef-studded panels (Danny Bowien, Bryan Voltaggio and April Bloomfield were booked to speak this year), as well as tasting events and plenty of late-night activities best left unprintable.
But this year the organizers have taken a major step to open the festivities to the non-industry with their first "public" event (up until this point tickets were only sold to restaurant works and media). And indeed it was a good one, with 10 competition barbecue teams traveling to New York's Pier 57 from Texas, Vermont, New Jersey and New Orleans to compete in four categories: New World, Regional American, Asian and People's Choice, utilizing a number of proteins including lamb, pork and beef brisket. For the New American round, teams were required to use Korean fermented red pepper paste (gochujang), a tip to the event's sponsor, Chung Jung One.
And here are the results:
Regional American category: 4505 Meats; San Francisco, CA
New World Category: The Belted Cow BBQ; Essex Junction, VT
Asian Category: The Carillon; Austin, TX
People's Choice: Jason Dady Restaurant Group
Grand Prize Winner: The Carillon; Austin, TX
The winner received an all-expenses paid trip to Korea, presented by Chung Jung One, as well as an MLR 150 competition-level smoker and a chance to compete at the World Food Championships in Las Vegas, courtesy of Southern Pride.