Chris Capell’s Historical Experience at Memphis in May

Chris Capell and Dr.BBQ cook and host the VIP program in the Big Green Egg® hospitality area.

After a dozen years on the professional BBQ competition circuit, I finally got a chance to experience the famous Memphis in May BBQ Festival. You meet a lot of people in 12 years on the competition circuit, and turns out a bunch of my friends would be in Memphis…a town I have driven through, but never visited.

Flash back a dozen or so years when Ray Lampe and I met at his roadside BBQ stand in Lakeland, Florida. I was down with the family on vacation at Disney, and decided to pay Ray a visit and shake his hand. We’ve been friends since.

Ray, also known as Drbbq, has written a bunch of cook books…eight if I remember correctly. His resume of TV appearances is lengthy and impressive, and he’s a straight shooter that really knows how to cook. He’s also a spokesman for the Big Green Egg® who are also good friends of Dizzy Pig. Ray and I have a lot in common, and when he mentioned he could use some help down in Memphis, I immediately started trying to find a way to make it work. All it really took was pencilling in the dates and making plane and rental car reservations!

Put together a couple veteran BBQers at Memphis in May and you’d think we were competing. Turns out, we cooked and hosted the Memphis in May VIP program in the Big Green Egg® hospitality area. Close to 100 folks paid good money to participate in the VIP program, and when they weren’t out touring the cooks’ sites, they were being cooked for in the Big Green Egg hospitality site by Ray, me and a great team that included Kevin Quigley (the Big Green Egg rep in Louisiana and Mississippi), his beautiful wife and crew. We taught a class on Saturday where we discussed in depth how to season and flavor food. Ray kicked it off, and I finished off talking about Dizzy Pig, why we are different, and how to get the most out of our products while cooking on the EGG. The group was almost entirely full-blown foodies, and they were totally into the food we served and the knowledge we had to share.

Dizzy Pig sponsored team Serial Grillers was there too! They had a huge site and were competing in the rib category, where they finished 29th of 120 rib teams. I got to meet Richard, Dave, Randy and everyone on this large team. They were amazing hosts, and are really doing a lot to spread the word of Dizzy Pig. They also have a bunch of fun!

While all this was going on, the teams had other things on their minds. Down in Big Bob Gibson’s camp, Chris Lilly, Ken Hess and crew were focused on being the first team in history to win 4 Memphis in May Grand Championships! I met Ken in 2004 and Chris not long after that, so I made it a point to walk down to their site every so often to see how they were doing. Meanwhile, about 1/3 mile to the North was another old friend, Tuffy Stone and the Cool Smoke Crew. A bare bones team of Tuffy and his Dad, George. Cool Smoke won the whole shoulder category last year, but this year they only had one pit, so they entered the rib category instead. I happened to be there visiting when they found out Cool Smoke had made finals in ribs!

Back at Big Bob Gibsons, they were about to find out they had made finals too! Ken texted me when the judges showed up, and I walked over to watch Chris Lilly’s presentation. After the judges left I was invited in to try the soon-to-be historically significant winning pork. Hard to describe the nirvana I experienced. Had a great chat with Chris, Ken and got to meet the rest of the team and family. Little did I know I would be back in the Big Bob Gibson camp a few hours later to help them celebrate their record breaking win. Congrats to Chris, Ken and team!!!

It’s hard to imagine a more rewarding and memorable weekend. I do believe I will be back!!

Chris

Cheers!