World Food Championships Founder Mike McCloud

[00:00:02] What you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is The MESH.

[00:00:09] Hey guys, Chigger here. Most of you probably know our podcast is based in the western part of North Carolina and we typically focus our attention on people, places and barbecue in the Carolinas.

[00:00:21] And you probably know that many people across the Carolinas are really hurting in the wake of Helene, especially in the high country.

[00:00:28] I live in the Hickory Metro in Catawba County. While my people and I were all safe and well, we avoided real calamity, but we're extremely fortunate.

[00:00:38] Quite literally everything north and west of Catawba County is a disaster zone, all the way into East Tennessee.

[00:00:46] And there's a lot of people working hard on rescue, recovery and relief.

[00:00:50] And a lot of the pitmasters who've appeared on this podcast have been an important part of that effort.

[00:00:56] Ben's Backdraft Barbecue is in Waynesville preparing food for Duke Energy linemen and the people living in and around Haywood County.

[00:01:03] Matthew Register down east in Garland at Southern Smoke Barbecue of North Carolina.

[00:01:08] He's donating a portion of their proceeds for the entire month of October toward relief efforts.

[00:01:14] Lawrence Barbecue in Raleigh, Black Powder Smokehouse, Sweet Lose, the Carolina Barbecue Festival.

[00:01:19] They're all collecting supplies and donations to help the cause.

[00:01:24] From the east, Smoke Pickle Barbecue in Knoxville is donating food and bringing it toward the disaster zones for teams to prepare and feed the hunger.

[00:01:33] Of course, Stan Hayes and his Operation Barbecue Relief team are providing critical relief in the disaster zones across the Florida Gulf Coast.

[00:01:40] And that's just scratching the surface. I'm sure you know there's lots of other work happening, a lot of it in the dark.

[00:01:47] That's been created by a lack of power and communications.

[00:01:51] Volunteers are working with no expectation of recognition or spotlight.

[00:01:55] Folks, this is neighbors helping neighbors.

[00:01:57] And it's what being a Carolinian is all about.

[00:02:00] It's what being an American is all about.

[00:02:02] Helping the least of our brothers and sisters in their time of the greatest need.

[00:02:07] That's what being a Christian is about.

[00:02:09] Today, we know that it's going to be a long road for the mountain counties.

[00:02:13] Many places will never be the same.

[00:02:16] Others are gone completely.

[00:02:18] The true debt to the loss of life is still being determined.

[00:02:22] It's heartbreaking.

[00:02:24] That's why I want to take a moment to invite you to support the people of the Carolinas as they try to recover from this horrible catastrophe.

[00:02:30] Please consider donating to the American Red Cross.

[00:02:34] Find the Carolina Emergency Response Team on social media.

[00:02:38] Choose a way that you can help with donations or volunteer efforts.

[00:02:42] Donate supplies or money to Operation Airdrop, Salvation Army of the Carolinas, United Way agencies all across the state.

[00:02:50] Everybody's providing critical support.

[00:02:52] And of course, again, these are just a few of the ways that you can help.

[00:02:55] I'll be continuing to promote relief efforts with the Low and Slow Barbecue Show Instagram page.

[00:03:01] If you feel moved to provide donations or support, please do.

[00:03:06] Every little bit helps.

[00:03:08] We're all in this life together.

[00:03:10] And right now, so many people in our region are hurting all across the Southeast.

[00:03:15] But the community spirit that we're seeing around our state fuels the confidence that Carolina will recover.

[00:03:23] Thank you for everything you can do to make sure that happens.

[00:03:30] All across the Carolinas, athletic competition attracts thousands of fans to football, basketball, baseball, plenty of other endeavors.

[00:03:39] But for barbecue enthusiasts and food lovers, there's another sport that's just as savory and sweet.

[00:03:45] Today, we're talking and taking another dive into the food sports as we meet Mike McLeod, the founder of the World Food Championships, which is getting ready to renew its annual culinary showdown.

[00:03:57] Mike, welcome to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show.

[00:04:00] Hi, good to be with you.

[00:04:02] Always a lot of fun to talk about food sport or any other sport.

[00:04:05] Yeah, for sure.

[00:04:06] Yeah.

[00:04:06] So we're going to do that in this episode.

[00:04:08] We're going to find out all about this year's event and in particular, talk about the barbecue piece of the competition.

[00:04:13] But first, a quick reminder.

[00:04:15] You can find all our podcasts, blogs, recipes and more at our website, lowslowbbqshow.com.

[00:04:22] Visit and you can subscribe to our newsletter, The Lowdown.

[00:04:25] And don't forget to follow the Low and Slow Barbecue Show on Instagram.

[00:04:28] That's where you'll see pictures and videos from some of our food adventures or conversations with pitmasters and food aficionados like Mike McLeod, who's going to tell us about the ultimate food fight, the World Food Championships coming up November 8th through 12th.

[00:04:42] So, Mike, what is the World Food Championships?

[00:04:47] Well, imagine if March Madness met the biggest barbecue frenzy or food competition you've ever imagined.

[00:04:56] That's essentially what we are.

[00:04:58] It is a Rubik's Cube of food culinary specialists trying to win their piece of a $450,000 prize purse.

[00:05:09] They have a chance to do it in 12 categories.

[00:05:12] And we've even added mixology this year as a 13th category.

[00:05:17] So, it's a lot of fun.

[00:05:19] It's four days of intense action.

[00:05:23] So, if you can't stand the heat in the kitchen, you just don't want to get into this racket because it will test your mettle every step of the way.

[00:05:30] Yeah, sure.

[00:05:31] Well, take us out.

[00:05:31] How did you get started doing this?

[00:05:33] I guess about 12 years ago or so.

[00:05:35] Yeah, so I got involved in Competition Barbecue about 17 years ago with Kansas City Barbecue Society.

[00:05:43] It became their marketing agency and director, kind of, so to speak.

[00:05:50] And really harnessed every bit of the agency background that I had, whether it's public relations, advertising, marketing, brand development, etc.

[00:06:02] And trying to make KCBS the premier sanctioning body at barbecue.

[00:06:07] And we had a pretty good run at that.

[00:06:09] Yeah, we spent about 12 years helping them build out their international programs, develop retail consumer facing programs.

[00:06:18] We created the Sam's Club National Barbecue Tour, the first of its kind.

[00:06:23] At that time, it ran for seven years.

[00:06:25] We created the Great American Barbecue Tour, which ran about 16 years.

[00:06:30] So we really got to know barbecue guys and gals and low and slow and even hot and fast competitors as the years progressed pretty well.

[00:06:44] And we understood a couple of things.

[00:06:46] One, Americans love competition.

[00:06:50] Two, they are very aspirational.

[00:06:53] And three, that the sport of barbecue, which we ultimately coined as food sport, was growing by leaps and bounds because people could find that they could participate.

[00:07:08] Right.

[00:07:08] They could get involved.

[00:07:09] They can go to a local competition, whether it's in their hometown or a big city across the state.

[00:07:17] And burger bashes and sandwich slams and Food Network, all that stuff was kind of popping up at the same time.

[00:07:23] And while we're in the thick of it, sometimes we would zoom out and we would ask ourselves, well, who really is the world champion?

[00:07:33] Is it the person who wins in Memphis?

[00:07:35] Is it the person who wins at the Royal?

[00:07:37] Is it the person who wins at the Jack?

[00:07:39] Is it the person who wins at the Houston Livestock?

[00:07:43] And as my team got deeper and more passionate about food sport, we just kept asking ourselves, why is there not a Super Bowl for this?

[00:07:57] Right.

[00:07:57] And the more we talked about it, the more we thought, OK, there needs to be one.

[00:08:02] And, OK, we think we might be able to pull that off.

[00:08:05] So in 2010, we started framing up what that might look like and started figuring out what the tough components were on how you know, how do you judge a great juicy bacon Jack Daniels flavored burger versus a rack of ribs or a dessert that's loaded with icing.

[00:08:31] And carry all my nuts, etc.

[00:08:33] So we came up with our own judging formula.

[00:08:38] We called it the EAT methodology for execution, appearance and taste.

[00:08:41] And we went to Vegas and we found a partner to help us launch this thing in the loudest, craziest, most bodacious city in the world.

[00:08:54] And luckily, we got by with the skin of our teeth and no one got killed or maimed too seriously in the process.

[00:09:06] And and we were off.

[00:09:08] It was a resounding success.

[00:09:12] Strategically, operationally, we had a gazillion things that we had to work on.

[00:09:16] Financially, we knew we had to raise some more money.

[00:09:19] But we we found kind of lightning in a bottle.

[00:09:24] And and that was 2012.

[00:09:27] And that was the first WFC.

[00:09:29] And we've been at it ever since.

[00:09:30] The only year that we missed was COVID year in 2020.

[00:09:33] And we even did a virtual competition that year to keep everyone motivated and keep everyone's spirits high as we tried to find our way through that year.

[00:09:43] So. But, yeah, it's it's grown tremendously since then.

[00:09:46] And the rules have gotten better.

[00:09:48] The operations have gotten better.

[00:09:49] And we recently merged and brought on a partner like IMG, a world leader in food support programming and development.

[00:09:59] And we're running faster than we ever have right now.

[00:10:03] And and looking at some of the most interesting developments that that I could have ever imagined back in 2010 when we thought there ought to be a Super Bowl of food.

[00:10:13] So that's that's kind of the short story on the whole whole development side.

[00:10:18] Yeah, that's great.

[00:10:18] And I want to talk a little bit more about the barbecue in just a few minutes.

[00:10:21] But let's let's stick with the competition now.

[00:10:23] It's a Super Bowl of food, you know, in the in the in the pro football world, you've got a tournament of champions and all these conferences come head to head.

[00:10:31] But how do people qualify for the tournament of champions in the World Food Championship?

[00:10:37] So the first premise is you've got to win your way in.

[00:10:40] And what that forced us to do is is make sure that we developed a league behind this food Super Bowl.

[00:10:47] Correct.

[00:10:47] And we went out there and we found that there were about 2000 events that existed that had some kind of fair adjudication process, meaning that it wasn't just you and three other buddies in the backyard claiming the rib championship of your neighborhood.

[00:11:03] So once we found those contests and felt like there's enough qualifier events out there, we started a golden ticket process and we worked out relationships with about 800 of them.

[00:11:18] And those events currently have golden tickets so that the winners locally or regionally, depending on what their their strategy is, they get a berth into our championship.

[00:11:32] And some of those events are premier qualifiers, meaning that the golden ticket comes with basically an expense paid entry.

[00:11:41] So you have to pay to enter our contest.

[00:11:44] And so so that was the first or actually the second big leg under the stool.

[00:11:51] And and then we we went about talking with sponsors and integrating them into our tournament.

[00:11:56] And then we we developed a double elimination type tournament where you had to make it past the first round and then you had to make it into the finals.

[00:12:05] And and you had to do do another challenge and you had to present it to judges while you're there.

[00:12:11] So today the formatting is is a lot more mature than what it was in in years one through five.

[00:12:20] And we we currently have, I think, the most unique judging process in the industry, always trying to push the envelope, always trying to make this a a world class event, but also an extremely tough challenge because we've got a lot of money on the line.

[00:12:38] If you win your category, whether it's vegetarian, barbecue, burger, dessert, bacon, sandwich, seafood, et cetera, you win ten thousand dollars in that vertical.

[00:12:49] And then those twelve champions get invited to another event, which we call the final table.

[00:12:55] We do that in Bentonville with our partners at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club.

[00:12:59] And we have one hundred fifty thousand dollar grand prize at that table, bonus money for those twelve champions.

[00:13:06] So that's a lot. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of challenges.

[00:13:11] If it were if it were easy, it might not be worthy.

[00:13:16] So we we have to make sure that every year our tournament has a solid foundation for competition.

[00:13:24] It has a solid set of rules and it has some challenging infusions from an ingredient standpoint, our sponsors usually so that we can, A, have a great tournament.

[00:13:38] Then B, have some entertainment involved for the consumers come out.

[00:13:42] And that's been probably the other big leg that we focus on is how do you turn a comp food competition into something that's compelling to attend?

[00:13:54] Mm hmm.

[00:13:55] Whether it's whether it's to watch it, to take a bite out of it, to be entertained while you're waiting for the results, to bring the kids to for a kid zone, to to bring your notepad and bring your curious mind, because we have great demos like Al Fragoni, who's doing our live fire experience this year for three days.

[00:14:15] Um, that's those are the things that that we have been working on year in year out, making sure that we we have one of the most interesting, provocative, rewarding and worthy events that exists in food sport.

[00:14:34] Yeah. So it's a it's a spectator event to like any other sport.

[00:14:38] It's not just for the competitors. But if I go if I go to the big event there in Indianapolis in November, it's something I'm going to want to see. Right.

[00:14:46] That's exactly right. And what you're going to see in Indianapolis for the first time in all of food sport, I think, is that our competition really is the football field and everything that's going on that's not competition oriented.

[00:15:05] It happens around that football field. So it's almost it's hard to explain.

[00:15:12] But when you when you go to a sporting, say you go to a hockey game or you go to a football game or basketball game. Right.

[00:15:18] Everyone's in the stands circling the contestants and in barbecue contests, it's usually not that way.

[00:15:25] Usually you push them against the wall or against the back 40 and you see the front of them and you don't see the back of them and you see them next to each other.

[00:15:33] You don't see them all huddled in the middle. So we've constructed a whole new playing field and we've done three.

[00:15:42] We've put three things forward. One is the competitors are are right smack dab in the middle with our 40 kitchenettes, world's largest indoor kitchen arena.

[00:15:52] We have a massive stage with audio video and around stage right between them so that we can talk to them and give them rules and bring them up to the stage and interfere with them if we want to.

[00:16:03] Hopefully we don't do too much of that. But but then we have a red carpet walking turn in process that if you're a consumer walking through the arena, you're going to have to watch out because we're going to make our contestants walk right through the middle of the arena and get to the other side of the arena where our judging is.

[00:16:23] And in one of the rare, unique situations of food sport, you'll be able to watch all of our judging occur because we are not going to put it behind closed doors.

[00:16:36] Wow. We are going to going to expose the judges. You're going to see our master judges from ACF, American Culinary Federation, directing our certified eat judges on what they're about to taste and score.

[00:16:54] And you're going to see the whole mechanics of it and you're going to see the whole mechanics of the judging process.

[00:16:57] It being random, but also methodical occur right in front of you.

[00:17:02] And we think this is important because there's a lot of mystery behind blind judging.

[00:17:08] I like blind judging. I like for the judges just to to look at the dish and not be thinking about a personality and scoring the dish based on the execution and the flavors of that dish.

[00:17:21] Number one. But there's a lot of mystery behind that. Right.

[00:17:25] If you're if you're a team and you've not if you're not allowed to see that going on and you lose.

[00:17:32] One of the first things you want to start thinking about is what did those judges do?

[00:17:38] Right. What what who were the judges and and did they treat my dish fairly?

[00:17:44] So we're going to expose it and we're going to let people realize how serious we take it.

[00:17:50] And you're going to sit there and be able to stand 15 feet away from the judges and you're not allowed to interrupt them,

[00:17:58] but you're allowed to watch them and understand how serious they take this.

[00:18:02] So I'll add to the judging mystique a little bit by saying that's layer one.

[00:18:10] That's what we call our blind judging.

[00:18:12] They don't see the teams turning in, but the teams can see them if they walk around the blind wall.

[00:18:19] So our certification is our first layer.

[00:18:22] The second layer of judging.

[00:18:24] We take master judges and we put them right in the in the mix of the cooking.

[00:18:31] We let them put their eyes and their nose and their ears on the process.

[00:18:34] They talk to the teams.

[00:18:36] They understand what the teams are doing.

[00:18:38] They make notes on anything that's really complex as far as a process or a technique.

[00:18:43] And they make recommendations to me as to regardless of what their score is, what two teams they think should move forward to the finals

[00:18:57] because they're trying to pull off something that's miraculous or something that is extremely complex in an hour and a half cook time.

[00:19:06] So we call that the master judging component.

[00:19:09] So we've got we've got the blind judging and we've got the eyes on judging and those who make it past this moment and they get to the final seven and go to the final panel.

[00:19:20] Those seven contestants have to present their dish to a live panel of five experts and defend their dish.

[00:19:30] So you've got TV judging with experts.

[00:19:34] You've got master judging with experts.

[00:19:37] And then you've got certified blind judging with with judges who have been certified.

[00:19:43] I don't know of any other event that has that many layers of judging to to try to determine who the champion is.

[00:19:49] And that's one of the reasons we call it the culinary gauntlet.

[00:19:53] But we also have a three dimensional judging process that I believe brings forward the best in the tournament.

[00:20:00] And that definitely sounds like a unique process.

[00:20:02] The gauntlet was the exact word that I was thinking.

[00:20:05] You've got to really kind of clear a gauntlet to get there.

[00:20:07] Let me ask you this.

[00:20:08] I'm looking at the website at worldfoodchampionships.com.

[00:20:11] You know, and I see you get all kinds of categories.

[00:20:13] You've got barbecue and burger and chef, seafood, sandwich, dessert.

[00:20:18] All these people are a little bit different.

[00:20:20] You know, barbecue and dessert are two different things.

[00:20:22] How are the judges judging all these variety of things and saying, yeah, this is the best of the food that we've got here, even though it's something completely different.

[00:20:32] The dishes are completely different.

[00:20:35] So the first and foremost important thing is that we're judging each dish on its own merits.

[00:20:41] The second important component there is that we allow our contestants to tell us exactly what it is that they served us.

[00:20:49] So they have to give us a title and they have to give us a description.

[00:20:53] So it's a lot like going into a restaurant, right?

[00:20:56] You don't go into a restaurant and just say to the waiter or waitress, bring me some barbecue.

[00:21:03] And just take your chances.

[00:21:05] Right.

[00:21:05] It's going to be great barbecue, right?

[00:21:08] If you do that, if a restaurant is designed that way, then you've got someone in the back trying to guess.

[00:21:14] Tonight's going to be sweet and tangy night or tonight's going to be smoky night or tomorrow night's going to be something else.

[00:21:23] You know, that's I think the Achilles heel of the general barbecue industry by not having a title and not describing what you're trying to make for the judges.

[00:21:35] To me, that's that's the weakness of the industry.

[00:21:38] Hmm.

[00:21:38] So so we started out with that thinking and we said it's important for the for the cook to tell the judge what it is.

[00:21:47] So if you tell me you're making a.

[00:21:53] Bourbon glazed.

[00:21:55] Bacon.

[00:21:57] All American cheeseburger.

[00:22:00] Well, if I'm a judge, all of a sudden I'm looking for bourbon, right?

[00:22:05] Um, I'm looking for cheese.

[00:22:08] I'm looking for bacon.

[00:22:09] I know what I'm expecting.

[00:22:11] And I and all of a sudden I can judge you on execution and flavors and whether or not you overdid it with the flavors.

[00:22:18] If you added too much or if you have it just spot on perfect with balance of flavor.

[00:22:23] So that's the critical core element of our judging.

[00:22:29] Whether you're in dessert, seafood, barbecue, burger, sandwich, it doesn't matter.

[00:22:36] Our judges in the eat certification can't judge every category.

[00:22:41] What they have to judge is objectively and fairly.

[00:22:44] And they do it with the information that's given to them by the cook or given to them by our table captains because it's all fed into a system that we're able to tell them digitally.

[00:22:57] So that's how we do it.

[00:22:59] And every every dish, no matter what category is being judged, can be judged on execution based on that title and that description.

[00:23:09] The appearance.

[00:23:10] Does it look messy?

[00:23:11] Does it look fantastic?

[00:23:12] Do I want to eat it immediately or do I not know what the heck it is?

[00:23:18] And then taste.

[00:23:19] Does it work well together?

[00:23:21] Do those flavors come together or was it overcooked, undercooked, et cetera?

[00:23:28] And if you take it from that perspective, then it doesn't matter what category you're in.

[00:23:33] Right.

[00:23:33] We we have a we have a consistency in our approach and we have consistency in the training of our judges.

[00:23:41] And then we have a consistency in developing or delivering data that matters to the judges.

[00:23:47] So that's how we do it.

[00:23:48] OK.

[00:23:49] Moments ago, you mentioned something else I want to talk about, too, and it's that challenge piece, injecting the challenge.

[00:23:54] What do you mean by that?

[00:23:55] Are you talking about ingredients?

[00:23:56] How do you add challenge to something that's already probably pretty challenging?

[00:24:01] So it's actually pretty easy most of the time.

[00:24:05] For example, in in barbecue, Tyson is one of our sponsors.

[00:24:12] So when we get to the finals in barbecue, the seven contestants will have to work with a Tyson product.

[00:24:20] And this year it's going to be Cornish hens.

[00:24:23] So they have to find a great way, great recipe, great concept to to do their Cornish hen dish.

[00:24:32] And that's how we level the playing field.

[00:24:34] Everyone's using the same base ingredient.

[00:24:36] But how you treat it and how you flavor it versus how I flavor it can be completely two different things.

[00:24:43] The spectrum could be wide.

[00:24:45] So that's one example.

[00:24:48] Another example is we will have, oh, let's see, I think right brand bacon in our bacon category.

[00:24:56] Right.

[00:24:57] So when you get to the finals, in the opening round, you can bring any bacon you want.

[00:25:01] If you like Benton's bacon out of Tennessee, then use Benton's bacon.

[00:25:05] If you like Oscar Mayer bacon, use or Jimmy Dean or whatever, just use those.

[00:25:11] But when you get to the finals, you'll have to use right brand bacon, thick cut slab bacon.

[00:25:16] And you'll have to do something unique with that.

[00:25:19] So that's how we basically create the prize purse for the tournament.

[00:25:23] We work with key sponsors and key brands.

[00:25:28] And then we infuse them and guarantee them utilization in the finals.

[00:25:35] And that gives them content.

[00:25:37] And it gives them also great imagery because they know that one of the seven contestants in the finals is going to win, has to use their product.

[00:25:49] So they're able to go to market after our event saying that they have an award-winning bacon or they have an award-winning X kind of product.

[00:26:00] And it's very important to the overall tournament strategy.

[00:26:04] Sometimes in the opening rounds of our tournament, we'll do what's called a bonus bucks program.

[00:26:11] So Tabasco may come to us and basically say, we don't care what the category of food is.

[00:26:19] We're going to put $5,000 up for grabs.

[00:26:22] And the top three recipes that score the highest across the tournament in the opening round using Tabasco will win $2,500, $1,500, and $500.

[00:26:36] Right?

[00:26:37] So that's another way that we use key ingredients through our sponsorship programming and make the tournament interesting but also rewarding to the contestants.

[00:26:48] And again, like you said, adds a little bit of that challenge in there as well.

[00:26:52] That's cool.

[00:26:53] Now, I want to talk about the barbecue in just a moment.

[00:26:55] But first, I want to ask you, these guys and gals, these champions, where do they go from here?

[00:27:02] Obviously, they get a big prize purse.

[00:27:04] But does this lead them or launch them on to other success that you found in the past?

[00:27:09] That's a great question because unlike any other event that exists, we are very focused on the long tail aspect of marketing after our event.

[00:27:21] We work 365 days a year on the World Food Championship.

[00:27:26] So going into it, we're constantly working with contestants coming out of it.

[00:27:31] We're working with champions and trying to help them get their next gig, their next opportunity on TV, some kind of brand ambassadorship, et cetera.

[00:27:40] We're currently under development with one of the three major networks trying to create a compelling TV perspective on what the World Food Championships is.

[00:27:54] So you'll see more about that and hear more about that next year when we go to market with that strategy.

[00:28:00] But one of the other examples that we've been able to put in play that basically rewards cooks and barbecue guys and gals on this thing that they find very appealing,

[00:28:15] we work with Sam's Club and Walmart in doing retail demonstrations.

[00:28:21] We call it retail attainment.

[00:28:23] Yeah.

[00:28:23] And right now we do about 3,000 activation retail attainment days a year.

[00:28:30] And we'll take someone who's done really well in the tournament and wants to pursue cooking more and make it either a serious second job or make it their primary job.

[00:28:41] And we'll put them into their local Sam's Club or their local Walmart on a weekly basis doing demonstrations.

[00:28:50] And not only do they get to interact with consumers and share their knowledge and have fun with ingredients, but they get to make money on the process.

[00:29:00] So that extension from WFC is one of the really unique and bonus features to being involved at and being seen at WFC, whether you win or not.

[00:29:14] You don't have to be a champion.

[00:29:15] You might have a great personality.

[00:29:17] And you may have had a bad execution day, right?

[00:29:21] Any given day, it's just like any other sport.

[00:29:25] Any team can beat any team.

[00:29:27] And so you don't have to win.

[00:29:30] But you do have to have a passion and you do have to have a desire to work with brands and take direction from us on how to create a second career for yourself.

[00:29:44] And I think that really is one of the unique parameters of WFC.

[00:29:49] Yeah.

[00:29:49] And so that gets us into the barbecue piece of it.

[00:29:52] If I'm just a barbecue guy out in the back world that catches an interest in this, can I get into that network and that circuit?

[00:29:59] And what's some advice for me doing that?

[00:30:02] Yes, you can.

[00:30:03] We currently do tailgate programming in some of our retail relationships.

[00:30:10] We do every year, we do a Smoktober strategy.

[00:30:14] We just kicked that off.

[00:30:16] It's going throughout this month at a Walmart or a Santa's Club near you.

[00:30:21] We do brisket month in Texas.

[00:30:24] And we're trying to get that expanded a little bit more outside of the southeast or in the southeast.

[00:30:30] So there's plenty of room for barbecue teams to participate in what we're doing.

[00:30:34] Same goes for SCA, the steak guys out there.

[00:30:40] We have a lot of need for grilling great steaks, whether it's using Kinder's or McCormick spices and things of that nature,

[00:30:50] to do retail demo programming and make people feel great when they walk into a retail environment and hopefully buy some of those products.

[00:30:58] So we call it an ambassador program.

[00:31:03] We do a Food Champ University the first day at WFC.

[00:31:07] So we'll be talking more about the specifics of this and how much money you can make and what's required.

[00:31:14] Anybody who wants to come and participate, even if they're not a competitor or at the event,

[00:31:20] but they are a competitor in the industry, they're welcome to come see us and we'll be happy to talk to them.

[00:31:25] Great. Well, that's encouraging for folks that might be getting interested in and certainly talking about those prize purses and those professional opportunities.

[00:31:32] And heck, the competition certainly is enticing.

[00:31:34] And I'm sure it will be some of our competition folks out there in the world.

[00:31:38] So, you know, in the barbecue realm and you've again, you've been doing this for, I guess, since 2012, 12 years or so.

[00:31:43] So for barbecue, what does it take to be a championship barbecue?

[00:31:48] And I know your eat formula there, but is there a variety of barbecue that you find is more successful than others?

[00:31:55] I mean, you know, is it Carolina Whole Hog?

[00:31:57] Is it Texas Brisket?

[00:31:58] Is it KC Ribs?

[00:32:00] And what does it take to be successful?

[00:32:02] What barbecue is the best at the championships?

[00:32:06] So that's a loaded question.

[00:32:08] It's like trying to say which one is your favorite child.

[00:32:12] Right.

[00:32:14] You know, I have a lot of personal flavors that I love to see pop up in the tournament.

[00:32:20] But the truth of the matter is it really comes down to executing a great idea.

[00:32:27] So the way we structure our judging and the way that we deliver information to the judges, you simply have to make sure you're great at creating whatever it is you said you're going to create.

[00:32:43] We've had everything from burnt ends to pork bites to rack of lamb to surf and turf.

[00:32:58] It's really all over the map when it comes to barbecue.

[00:33:02] And I think that's one of the reasons barbecue teams love our program so much.

[00:33:06] Let's say you're just really good at making a lobster tail and then you want to surround that with some barbecue ribs to have a multi-pronged flavor strategy.

[00:33:21] Well, we give you the chance to do that.

[00:33:23] We don't put limits on it.

[00:33:24] Just as long as you're using the low and slow barbecue approach for your barbecue, you can do anything you want to.

[00:33:31] In fact, one of our categories in barbecue is called wild card.

[00:33:37] And that came about through our relationship with Famous Dave's.

[00:33:41] We've just completed our second season of a Famous Dave's All-Star Barbecue Tour.

[00:33:47] We did 13 events this year and we qualified about 30 teams into our championship.

[00:33:53] And those teams had to be great at doing ribs.

[00:33:57] They had to be great at doing chicken.

[00:34:00] And then they had to be great at wowing us with a wild card dish.

[00:34:05] It could be anything.

[00:34:06] Sometimes it was dessert.

[00:34:08] And so the key is to have a great idea on what will delight the taste buds of a judge, but then to describe it and make sure that you execute it perfectly.

[00:34:21] So the wild card category of our division is going to be super interesting.

[00:34:29] I'll give you a little formatting insight.

[00:34:31] The first day of barbecue, which will have about 50 barbecue teams, will yield 20 winners.

[00:34:42] They'll have to make ribs, brisket, and chicken in that first day.

[00:34:46] And the top 20 scores move on in the tournament.

[00:34:50] From that moment, the top 20 teams get reset and they enter the wild card category and they have a turn-in time of their own.

[00:35:02] Every 10 minutes, there's a barbecue team turning in their dish to a panel of famous Dave's judges.

[00:35:09] And they have to turn it in.

[00:35:11] They have to explain what it is.

[00:35:13] And they have to answer questions about what it is.

[00:35:16] So for about three hours, we will, three and a half hours, we'll be watching barbecue turn-ins every 10 minutes.

[00:35:22] And it's going to be wild.

[00:35:25] It will be anything and everything that you can imagine.

[00:35:28] And it's always a showstopper.

[00:35:31] So we look forward to that.

[00:35:32] Out of that 20, seven contestants will move on to the finals.

[00:35:38] And that's where they'll have to use the Cornish hen to create their final dish.

[00:35:44] Sounds like a great format.

[00:35:45] Again, that's the World Food Championships.

[00:35:47] Indianapolis, Indiana, November 8th through 12th.

[00:35:50] You can get all the details at worldfoodchampionships.com, including tickets, how to get involved if you want to be a competitor this year or next year on down the line.

[00:35:58] Get all the information there.

[00:35:59] And we're kind of coming to the end of our time.

[00:36:01] And we'll take you into the low and slow showdown here in just a minute, Mike.

[00:36:04] But, you know, I know this is your business.

[00:36:06] And I can tell kind of in your conversation, you got a little bit of passion about it.

[00:36:10] But, you know, you've been doing this since 2012.

[00:36:12] And even before that with the KC, you know, the Kansas City Barbecue Championships.

[00:36:18] What keeps you in it?

[00:36:19] What do you find in joy?

[00:36:20] Where are you finding joy that keeps you involved and keeps you wanting to do this year after year for going on 20 years now?

[00:36:28] I love seeing teams bring their passion to the table and then excel at their game plan.

[00:36:37] And it's just wonderful to, especially when it's a big, burly, 300-pound, 6'4", kind of barbecue guy who might tear up when he finds out that he won.

[00:36:51] Or if it's Robert Smith out of Texas, try to break my back because he's picking me up in a bear hug.

[00:36:56] But I just love the thrill of, I guess, vicarious victory.

[00:37:04] It's like watching my son play t-ball at six years of age.

[00:37:08] I'm just as engaged as if I were holding the bat or catching the ball in his position.

[00:37:13] I love to see him be successful.

[00:37:16] And I just love to see these teams be successful.

[00:37:19] They all have this extreme passion.

[00:37:22] And they have incredible talents.

[00:37:24] They're just like any other athlete out there.

[00:37:26] It just happens to be in food.

[00:37:28] And so to provide a platform that we created from scratch, which was amazing, and watch them step into that and then be successful with it and then go on to even bigger, better things.

[00:37:44] It's just a source of pride and it is a very fulfilling situation that every year it just recharges me even more.

[00:37:56] My entire team gets fueled by that fire and it just propels us to the next event.

[00:38:03] That's great.

[00:38:04] Well, all right, I'm going to throw you into the other fire now.

[00:38:05] It's our low and slow showdown.

[00:38:07] The kind of one-word answers, easy stuff for a guy like you.

[00:38:11] Just hit whatever.

[00:38:12] Give us a response that comes to your mind.

[00:38:15] So first of all, easy peasy.

[00:38:16] What is the name of the barbecue joint that you grew up on?

[00:38:21] Barbecues.

[00:38:22] In Cookville, Tennessee, it was mostly pork sandwiches.

[00:38:28] It was called Bobby Q's, named after a lady in town.

[00:38:32] And it was always a treat to go there, eat their barbecue chopped up pork and slather it with sweet barbecue sauce.

[00:38:43] Oh, okay.

[00:38:44] That kind of steals another upcoming question.

[00:38:46] But let's stick back to this.

[00:38:48] What is your current go-to barbecue joint?

[00:38:52] If I can get there, it's Q39 in Kansas City.

[00:38:57] Whenever I go through Kansas City, what the late, great Rob McGee did with his barbecue passion in creating a barbecue restaurant was just amazing.

[00:39:10] They're still going strong.

[00:39:12] They create what's called the champion plates and the judges plates.

[00:39:17] So they're really utilizing the food sport industry in their consumer offerings.

[00:39:22] I love it.

[00:39:22] Your favorite protein to eat, is it pork, beef, chicken, turkey, or something else?

[00:39:29] I eat a lot of turkey.

[00:39:31] I have to admit it.

[00:39:33] And I love to get smoked turkey, Cajun turkey, spice, any kind of flavored up turkey.

[00:39:39] I eat a lot of it.

[00:39:41] But if I was always at a barbecue contest, it would be brisket.

[00:39:46] Your favorite side?

[00:39:49] Mac and cheese.

[00:39:50] Favorite dessert?

[00:39:53] Pecan pie.

[00:39:55] Oh, that's interesting.

[00:39:56] I don't know that we've had a pecan pie, but I love a pecan pie.

[00:39:59] So if you're smoking it up yourself, Mike, what is the wood that you prefer to use?

[00:40:05] Oh, I'm not that well-versed at using wood.

[00:40:11] I'd probably use white oak or hickory.

[00:40:16] But I'm really a simple grilling guy.

[00:40:20] I'm not a big barbecue guy.

[00:40:22] Nothing wrong with Kingsford Piquets.

[00:40:23] I would probably burn a house down if I were trying to use wood.

[00:40:28] Okay.

[00:40:29] Here's an easier question for you.

[00:40:31] What is the best state in these United States for barbecue?

[00:40:36] Oh, my gosh.

[00:40:39] That's tough.

[00:40:42] I tell you, I'm going to have to go back to my Kansas City roots and say Missouri.

[00:40:50] I think it's the melting pot.

[00:40:52] But I love Carolina sauce and vinegar and mustard.

[00:40:58] And I love brisket from Texas.

[00:40:59] I love pulled pork from Tennessee.

[00:41:02] I love St. Louis ribs.

[00:41:03] But, man, I get most excited about eating barbecue in Kansas City, Missouri.

[00:41:10] You're leading me into that next question.

[00:41:12] We are a Carolina barbecue podcast.

[00:41:14] What is your favorite Carolina barbecue style?

[00:41:17] Is it Eastern, Piedmont, or Lexington, or that mustard stuff they do in the South?

[00:41:24] I have to say it's the mustard stuff.

[00:41:27] I don't know if my taste buds are just getting a little wonky as I get older.

[00:41:32] But when I first tasted the mustard-style barbecue, I was like, what the heck is this?

[00:41:38] But now I find myself loving it.

[00:41:41] I even like that mustard flavor on those dots pretzels and stuff now.

[00:41:47] I think it's just probably in my head and my taste buds at this moment in my life.

[00:41:51] Hey, it's an acquired taste.

[00:41:52] I think as we get older, our taste matures.

[00:41:55] And I'm with you.

[00:41:55] I didn't used to, but I'm on some mustard now.

[00:41:57] So do you want it with or without the sauce?

[00:42:02] I always like to try it without the sauce first,

[00:42:05] just to get the smokiness and the barbecue flavor out of something.

[00:42:09] But then I'll add this.

[00:42:11] I'll dip it in the sauce.

[00:42:12] Good answer.

[00:42:13] What's your favorite non-barbecue meal?

[00:42:18] It'd be seafood.

[00:42:19] I love scallops and shrimp.

[00:42:24] So anywhere I can eat great scallops and shrimp, I'll do that.

[00:42:27] Last question, save the best for last.

[00:42:29] Is barbecue a verb or a noun?

[00:42:32] Lowdown.

[00:42:33] Yes.

[00:42:35] And that, my friends, is the Lowdown from the founder of the World Food Championships, Mike McLeod.

[00:42:42] Mike, thanks so much for joining the Low and Slow Barbecue Show.

[00:42:45] Had a great time.

[00:42:46] I appreciate your time.

[00:42:47] You've been listening to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show on the Mesh.tv network, a podcast.

[00:42:52] Be sure to visit us online at lowslowbbqshow.com.

[00:42:56] You'll find the blog.

[00:42:57] You'll hear other podcast episodes.

[00:42:58] You can also subscribe to the Lowdown, our weekly newsletter.

[00:43:02] Please be sure to give us a five-star rating if you're enjoying what you're hearing on our podcast.

[00:43:06] Of course, that helps other people find us there as well.

[00:43:09] Special thanks to our guest, Mr. Mike McLeod.

[00:43:12] Thanks as well to our producer, Andrew Moose, and the whole team at the Mesh.tv network, a podcast.

[00:43:17] Most especially, thank you for listening to the Low and Slow Barbecue Show.

[00:43:21] Remember, for the best barbecue and the best barbecue podcast, make it low and slow.

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