Judging Barbecue at S.C. Festival of Discovery

[00:00:02] What you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is The MESH. Barbecue summer is here! Whether you're at home or going to the beach, lake, mountains, or city, be sure to support your local barbecue businesses. From the butcher shops to the pitmasters in food trucks, pop-ups, and neighborhood joints, for dine-in or catering,

[00:00:28] Carolina Barbecue Festival reminds you to visit your locally owned businesses for barbecue summer. Visit carolinabbqfest.org for a list of local pitmasters that'll get you started. And while you're at CarolinaBBQFest.org, be sure to sign up and stay connected. You'll get all the latest details on upcoming events and coming soon, official dates for the 2027 Carolina Barbecue Festival.

[00:00:53] Until then, be sure to enjoy Barbecue Summer with your locally owned barbecue businesses. And as the United States celebrates 250 years of freedom, Local Barbecue Summer continues on The Low & Slow Barbecue Show. We're taking it to Greenwood, South Carolina, where the Festival of Discovery is wrapping up our 4th of July summer holiday week

[00:01:21] with three days of blues and barbecue for the 25th time. South Carolina's Festival of Discovery will shut down the highway, fire up the competition smokers, tune up the guitars, and celebrate in the streets. To tell us more about the big event, especially that barbecue part, we're talking with Kathryn Gaither, who's involved in the judging of the competition barbecue, that this year is going to qualify a couple of people to compete in the Barbecue World Cup

[00:01:48] and a $1 million prize in Las Vegas. Kathryn, welcome to The Low & Slow Barbecue Show. Good morning. Thank you for having me. We're so excited to talk to you, but as the 4th of July here is right around that time of year, I want to talk first about your ideal July 4th. What would you pick to have on your picnic plate for 4th of July? I would have pork ribs and corn on the cob. Oh boy, those are a couple of my favorites.

[00:02:17] It's hard to beat ribs on the 4th of July. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about Kathryn and how you got involved with the Festival of Discovery. We'll talk a little bit about the judging in just a few moments, but how'd you get involved with the festival and when did that get started? I have been a judge for 24 years and it was just kind of a fluke that I heard that there was going to be a class for our barbecue judges here in Greenwood. So I decided I would go and I just loved it.

[00:02:47] I fell in love with it and I look forward to it every single year. It's just, it's just wonderful. It's an experience like no other and to be involved with the judging is a real treat for me. So what can people expect? Of those times, have you been to the Festival of Discovery? I know this is the 25th anniversary. Have you been every year? I have. I've only missed one year. We were at the beach, so I've only missed that one and I hated to miss it.

[00:03:16] But yeah, I've been here every single time. Wonderful. Well, what can people expect when they come out for the festival? Hot. It's always the hottest day of the year, but it's just, it's just excitement in the air. If you're a barbecue lover, everyone's excited and everybody has barbecue on their plate. They go around, they have a taster's choice.

[00:03:40] So you can go around and get taste or either buy your full meal or buy barbecue to take home. But it's just excitement in the air and lots of vendors, but it is extremely hot. Yeah. So the fan, cool clothes, dress lightly, sunscreen. I know you'll be out there in the sun. That's some other good advice. Over the 24 years that you've been going, how do you feel like the festival has changed? Or has it? Oh, it's just gotten better. Every single year, it's gotten better.

[00:04:10] And the team that puts on the festival discovery, they're just incredible. And they, all of your needs are met. They have everything for you and they make it so easy. And it's just a privilege to be able to be drawn as a judge. Oh, wonderful. So about 50,000 people will come to Greenwood for the big event this year. A huge economic impact. We had Gibson Hill on the podcast here not long ago, and he told us a little bit more about that. What is your favorite part of the weekend?

[00:04:41] Oh, just being a judge and getting to eat some fabulous barbecue, wonderful chicken, great ribs. I had not had brisket until I started judging. That was very new to me. But now I look forward to it every year and it is the last thing that you judge. So I just kind of try not to eat too much. So I'll have plenty of women to taste all of the brisket.

[00:05:06] Well, I know that can definitely be a challenge there, whether you're a spectator or a judge. Let's talk a little more about that judging. But before we go into the judging, you said you've been doing it for about 24 years. What about before that? What was your relationship with barbecue before that? I know you're kind of from the South, South Carolina, you said before. You've been in Greenwood a long time. What's your backstory on barbecue? As a child, I really didn't know what barbecue was.

[00:05:35] I'm from a very small town. I grew up in Union, South Carolina. And the only barbecue that I really knew about was my uncle would sit around a charcoal grill with chicken legs. And he had a big pot. And I know it had butter and Worcestershire sauce. And what else was in it? I don't know. But he would cook it off the heat. And he would just sit there for hours. And those were the best chicken legs in the world.

[00:06:00] And my father, on Fourth of July, he would always get hash. Now, in South Carolina, hash is gray. I always stay to judge the hash, the South Carolina hash. And there's very few people that really know what a true South Carolina hash is. We either had it on rice or I had it on a piece of bread. And it was delicious. But very few people know how to make it.

[00:06:26] I'm glad I don't know what's in it because I may not enjoy it as well. But that was my growing up introduction to barbecue. And when I moved to Columbia to go to school, I was introduced to Piggy Park. Oh, yeah. And that kind of did it. Maurice and I just became big friends. So that was the barbecue that I knew was the mustard-based barbecue from Piggy Park. Yeah, that's good to hear that tradition that's alive in South Carolina.

[00:06:56] And it runs deep there for the hash and for the mustard. Let's talk about the judging. You said something just kind of piqued your interest one day. Why did you decide to go from eating it and enjoying it to being maybe a little more critical about it? Yeah, I was just curious. I have enjoyed cooking and I have cooked most of my life. And I just wanted to know more about how to make really good ribs or really good chicken. And so that was the reason. I still don't know how.

[00:07:25] But when you sit around the table and you talk with other judges, there's so many of them that are competitors. So they know everything about it. And it's just so much fun to sit around the table and discuss cooking barbecue with them. You learn so much about what they do. And it's just been so enjoyable to get to know the people there that you see every single year as fortunate enough to come back to Greenwood to the Festival of Discovery. Yeah. So talk a little bit about the training.

[00:07:54] What do you have to go through to become a Kansas City Barbecue Society judge? Okay, it's a whole day class. And you go through every single thing that you could possibly go through from questions to learning and to actually having a plate put in front of you and learning how to judge and taste and how to be critical and not critical.

[00:08:17] You know, one of the things that has kind of been hard for me is in my mind, I have barbecue that I really love, but it can't be something that you love because that competitor may be putting his favorite barbecue sauce on that rib. It may not be my favorite sauce, but still I have to judge the way that he fixed it. So you can't just use what is your favorite.

[00:08:45] You have to judge how they prepared it, how tender is it, you know, the presentation, how it looks. A lot of it depends on that particular competitor and what they give you. Sure. And I know there's a bit of a rubric for judging each one of those little categories that you talked about. You had a full day of training. Do you go back and get recertified?

[00:09:09] Do you have to get a brush up or is each competition a renovation of those skills, rejuvenation? It's kind of a renovation. A lot of people are table captains. I am not a table captain. I haven't really wanted to become a table captain because that person just serves you and brings you the barbecue. They don't get to judge it. No, it is no fun. But they're very important to have those table captains.

[00:09:38] But one thing I'm a little bit nervous about is I have judged 26. I think I've been 26. Before I judge my 30th, I have to work with a team. I have to cook with a team that is competing. So I'm a little bit nervous about that because I've seen these guys and they stay up all night long doing this, you know, and I'm not the youngest chick on the block. So for me to get in there.

[00:10:06] But I'm really, really looking forward to that. And I hope I can find a great team to work with. So that I've got to do within the next few years. Okay. Yeah. Well, that'll be interesting. Have you already started thinking about who those people might be? Do you have connections with any of the competitors that are out there, especially the folks that come back to Festival of Discovery year after year? You know, I don't. But I know that there are a lot of local barbecue teams.

[00:10:32] And I just, I think I'm good Kelly and Gibson to maybe recommend someone to get me in touch with to see if they will let me cook with them. Yeah, well, that'll be a cool event. So walk us a little bit about through what the day looks like for a judge. What from kind of from start to finish? What does Catherine do on barbecue competition judging day? Well, I don't eat breakfast. That's for sure.

[00:10:59] So you get there and you meet with all of the other judges and KCBS reps. And they walk you through the day, what to expect. And of course, if you're an old timer, you know exactly what to expect. But there are always new people there that are judging for the very first time. So they go through telling us a little bit. And then we have to take the pledge, the barbecue pledge, which is serious.

[00:11:24] But then it's funny to have to raise your hand and everything kind of thing. And then we have about an hour that we get to walk through and look at the teams. We're not able to talk with the teams unless we just say good luck or it smells good, you know, something along those lines. And then we come back and they start bringing in the first plate at 11 o'clock.

[00:11:49] So at 11 o'clock, you have chicken brought in and it will be six of the best pieces of chicken, usually five, that you've ever eaten. And you want to eat every single one of them. And then you have at 1130, then they bring in ribs and you'll have six of the very best ribs you've ever eaten. So once again, you have to control your eating. But you judge each one.

[00:12:16] You'll have six pieces of chicken brought to you and you taste each piece of chicken individually. It's a blind tasting. You don't know who prepared it, but it's six different competitors. We'll have a piece of chicken on that plate and you judge each piece of chicken. And then you have a 30 minute break for the ribs come in, as I said, and then you'll judge those ribs.

[00:12:39] And you'll individually, you know, some people say that, oh, my gosh, it's the best rib ever fell off the bone. If it falls off the bone, it's overcooked. Yeah. To us, it is. It has to leave a clean bite. Me too. There's just certain things that you have to look at. And then we have pulled pork that comes in. And after the pulled pork, you have a little break and they bring in lemon sorbet to cleanse your palate. Oh, nice. Yeah.

[00:13:08] That's a great trick. But I'll tell you, too, when I first started judging, when you open the door of your car, the smell was just incredible. You could smell barbecue everywhere. And after judging, your hands would smell like barbecue for, you know, a day and a half, probably. But now they have all of these fancy cookers that you don't smell what's cooking.

[00:13:32] And I really do miss that because the smell of, you know, charcoal and barbecue and the wood was just incredible. I do miss that. But still, the experience is something that is just so much fun. Yeah. And obviously sounds like you eat a lot. Now, you said six competitors. There's close to 100 that are competing in the competition. I guess it's broke down between all you judges. It is. It is.

[00:13:59] Each vendor, well, not vendor, each competitor will have to pick out six of their best ribs or chicken or, you know, whatever they're doing. They don't know who it goes to, but they will present their plate to bring in for us to judge. All six of those pieces that you're going to be tasting are six different people. Mm-hmm.

[00:14:28] So it's not, you know, you don't, you don't taste the same thing. But it's, it's, it's just all good. It's very rare that it's not good. You know, they're real careful too. I know I was eating a, testing a chicken thigh and I bit into a toothpick. And although that could have been the best chicken thigh I've ever eaten in my life, it was disqualified. Yeah. Because, you know, it could have been a marked piece of meat, but it wasn't.

[00:14:57] It was, you know, that team pulled the skin back and basted, puts the skin back and forgot to pull the toothpick out. Yeah. Which was such a shame because they are, they're very particular about everything being perfect. Even down to the garnish has to be perfect. Yeah, I'm sure. And, and of course, again, this year's Festival of Discovery competition will qualify two people to compete in the Barbecue World Cup Million Dollar Prize, Las Vegas, a little bit later in the year.

[00:15:26] That's going to be a big thing, extremely serious situation for almost 100 people that are competing out there. And I want to talk a little bit about barbecue more just a moment. First, I want to remind our folks that our episode sponsor today is South Carolina's Old 96 District to remind you that barbecue and blues are together again for South Carolina's Festival of Discovery. It's July 9th through 11th, end of 4th of July holiday week.

[00:15:49] Join us in Uptown Greenwood for the People's Choice Barbecue Competition, a hot dog eating contest, kid zone, and of course, three days of live blues music throughout Uptown Greenwood. Come to the South Carolina Festival of Discovery for the blues cruise, a Kansas City Barbecue Society Championship cook-off, and a weekend of fun in South Carolina's old 96 district. Follow South Carolina Festival of Discovery on Facebook. Visit UptownGreenwood.com. You'll get all the festival details, including the music lineup.

[00:16:19] Then join us. Meet us. We'll be there July 9th through 11th in Uptown Greenwood, South Carolina. So back to the judging, Catherine, quickly, what does it take to win? What does a competitor have to do to rise above all those 100 others to get that prize and the qualifier? You know, I wish I knew. I wish I knew what the secret was because they all have their own famous recipe.

[00:16:46] So when I do get to cook with a team, that will be a learning experience for me to see exactly the techniques. You know, some use an injection method for the tenderness. So exactly what they do to win, but they have certainly got to bring it on and put their best foot forward and just turn out the best barbecue ever. Yeah. And I know they've also got a Kids' Q competition. Are you involved in any of the judging for that?

[00:17:13] I am not. I'm not. I'm going to let those children have their fun. Yeah. Well, it's fun, but they're competing out there, too. You know, as a judge and seeing young people and older people competing, you know, what do you think about the young people trying to get involved in something like that and following into those competition ranks? Oh, I think it's great. I love that they're getting those children interested. And I watch Food Network a lot, and they have a child's show up there that the children do baking.

[00:17:43] And I am so impressed. And I think they're never too young for you to start letting them stand by the grill with you and be able to baste and learn to cook, even if they start with a hamburger. I think that's wonderful. Or to cook the best steak. That's a great way to start. Yeah. Well, you said it yourself. You did it alongside your predecessors, your father and your uncle. Well, you saw how they did it. And obviously, great memories for you there.

[00:18:10] The competition, for those who want to know, for the Kids' Q is July 10th. It's from six to eight. Young chefs are going to compete for cash prizes. And the prize of a Kids' Q champion is probably the most sought-after thing. Last year, it was the Prissy Pig and her brother, and then the Barbecue Ballers won. So I know the Kids' Q competition is a big thing. So is the People's Choice. And you mentioned that you see people walking around the festival

[00:18:35] with a plate full of barbecue. How do you feel like the People's Choice competition compares to all the specifics that you guys are doing in the KCBS judging? Well, the majority of the competitors are not involved with the Taster's Choice. They're so busy concentrating on what they are doing that they don't want to mess with that. So it's just something totally different. It's just, you know, people that are selling barbecue.

[00:19:05] And they are the ones that do the Taster's Choice. There's some good barbecue, and there's some real different barbecue. And those that have won prizes in the past, they're just all decorated. You know, they have their flags and their trophies, and they're displaying all the badges that they want. So it's fun for them, and you'll eat some really good barbecue just doing the Taster's Choice. Yeah, wonderful. So maybe tell me, as somebody who's been involved in the festival and been in Greenwood for a number of years now,

[00:19:35] what do you feel like this festival means to the community of Uptown Greenwood and sort of the surrounding county? I think Greenwood looks so forward to this, and especially the barbecue lovers. They love it. You don't have to be a barbecue lover, though. So, you know, they have kids' wives and, you know, all the stuff that they would have pretty much at any fair. So there's so much for children uptown. So the parents come up there with the children, and they eat barbecue,

[00:20:03] and then they go down to the fair part of the festival and just have a good time. I think the children enjoy every minute of it just as much as the older folks do. It's going to be hot. Prepare for that. Drink plenty of water. Wear sunscreen. Find shade where you can. Pace yourself on the barbecue and the enjoyment of the sunshine and the festival and the music and the blues. And look forward to finding out more about that. As we kind of wrap up today, Catherine, you've been generous with your time. I appreciate you so much.

[00:20:33] I do want to ask you one kind of final question. Why do you keep doing it? What keeps your fire burning, both for judging and getting involved in this? Just the adrenaline rush. You know, it's just so much fun. You get there, and you just love it. You see old friends, and you just anticipate that very first bite that you just love. It's just such a wonderful thing for me, and it's a pleasure to be able to be a judge at KCBS.

[00:21:01] And so I look forward to it every single year. And that, my friends, is the final word from KCBS-certified judge for the South Carolina Festival of Discovery. Coming up July 9th through 11th, Uptown Greenwood, Catherine Gaither. Thank you so much for joining us today. Cheers. My pleasure. The Low and Slow Barbecue Show's local barbecue summer season is sponsored by the Carolina Barbecue Festival. Whether you head to the beach, the lake, the mountains, or the city, be sure to visit your local barbecue businesses this summer.

[00:21:31] Go to carolinabbqfest.org for a list of local pitmasters. They'll help you get started. And while you're there, sign up to stay connected, and you'll be the first to know the dates for the 2027 Carolina Barbecue Festival. To our audience, thank you for listening to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show. If you like what you hear, share our podcast with your food-loving friends. And please subscribe. Give us that five-star rating in your favorite stream. You can find more local barbecue people at our website, lowslowbbqshow.com. We've got a library of podcasts, more than 100.

[00:22:01] A lot of them feature interviews with local pitmasters, business owners. They tell their story. Give them a listen and make plans to visit their business this summer. You'll also find our blog with barbecue news, festival, and event details. And if you sign up for our weekly newsletter, we'll deliver the latest Carolina barbecue news to your email inbox. The Low and Slow Barbecue Show's proud to be part of the Mesh.TV network, a podcast. That's where Andrew Moose is the producer of our podcast and so many more at the Mesh network.

[00:22:29] You can listen to them all at themesh.tv. That's where you'll also find the Low and Slow Barbecue Show, where I'm your host, Sugar Willard, reminding you that for the best barbecue and the best barbecue podcast, make it low and slow. You've been listening to The Mesh, an online media network of shows and programs ranging from business to arts, sports to entertainment, music to community.

[00:22:59] All programs are available on the website as well as through iTunes and YouTube. Check us out online at themesh.tv. Discover other network shows and give us feedback on what you just heard. Thank you.