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The Smoke on the Mountain barbecue competition has a flair for
singularity. With trophies awarded as handcrafted fiddles, banjoes, and
acoustic guitars, a dual-circuit competition, and beach music in the
evenings – this barbecue championship draws top-ranked competitors
from around the nation.
“We don’t have a hard time recruiting,” said Ron Passmore, the
contest’s founder. “2014 was the first year we’ve turned teams down.”
Passmore began researching barbecue competitions in 2003, shortly
after he opened his own barbecue restaurant, “The Galax Smokehouse.”
“It was the only professional barbecue house opened in the twin
counties,” Passmore explained. “Being a small business, we weren’t
able to get away on the weekends to compete, and in an effort to give
back to the community we thought it would be interesting to bring
professional barbecue competition to Galax.”
Competition in the world of professional barbecue is heated, and the
Smoke on the Mountain championship is no different. Teams
pull into the town on Thursday night and start cooking
early Friday morning. Judging begins on Saturday:
first with a blind delivery in a blind box. The
meat is tasted by a team of judges for awards
in categories like whole hog, chicken, ribs,
brisket, and “anything butt.”
“Then the team site will be visited
on site three times for an on site
presentation, and they have to show
how that meat gets from a raw state to
the cooked state,” explained Passmore.
“All four scores (one blind box score
and presentation scores from three
judges) are added together.”
Special finals judges judge the top
three teams. These four judges have not
tasted any barbecue the entire day.
The Smoke on the Mountain
competition holds a rare appeal for possible
teams: the Memphis Barbecue Network (MBN)
and Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) certify
the competition. This makes the contest a dual-circuit
competition, and for contestants, this means more money and
chances to compete in the larger MBN and KCBS competitions.
The contest has rapidly grown in popularity. In 2003, the MBN
contacted Virginia Governor Mark Warner and advised him to declare
Smoke on the Mountain as the State Barbecue Competition of Virginia.
MBN honored Smoke on the Mountain again in 2014.
“The World Food Championship awarded Memphis Barbecue
Network eight tickets to the championship,” Passmore explained.
“That network has more than 300 contests around the country. We’re
one of those three hundred. Only eight tickets were given to be able to
compete. MBN, unsolicited by us, chose ours to be one of those eight.
Our 2014 Grand Champion represented Virginia at the World Food
Championship.”
The Grand Champion? Food Network’s former reality television
barbecue stars, The Shed. The team comes from the restaurant, The
Shed, a barbecue and blues joint located in Mississippi.
In 2014, The Shed took home the title of Grand Champion from
Smoke on the Mountain and went on to compete in the World Food
Championship in Las Vegas. The Shed left that competition with first
place in the category of brisket.
The previous year, The Shed was featured on Food Network as they
competed in Smoke on the Mountain. More information on the show
can be found at
Bringing Competitive Barbecue to Galax, Virginia
By Lydia Freeman
The 2015 competition will take place on
July 17 and 18 in Galax, Va.
On Friday, July 17, the cooking gets
started. Onlookers are welcomed to come and
observe as competitors begin preparing their
hogs. The Wine and Beverage Garden will open at noon, and DJ Andy
Wright will be providing music in the afternoon.
“Friday everyone’s basically just getting started,” explained Keith
Andrews, who has worked with the competition for the past ten years.
Each night from 8:00-11:00 p.m. a sixties-style beach band will
perform. Friday will be The Land of Oz, and The Tams will follow on
Saturday night.
“Even though we’re eat up here with bluegrass, we do beach
music,” explained Andrews. “And we do have beverages. It gives
people a chance to get out and have a few drinks. The sixties. Beach
music. That’s basically what we do. It’s just feel-good music.
It’s a great time to come and see how people do a
competition, have barbecue, drink a cold beer, and
listen to good beach music.”
Although the Smoke on the Mountain
Competition includes entertainment,
Andrews stated that it is a competition, not
a festival.
“What we’re having trouble getting
people to remember is that it’s not
a barbecue festival, it’s a barbecue
championship cook-off,” Andrews
explained. “It’s a competition. It’s like
going to watch NASCAR. You can’t
drive the cars at a race, and you can’t
drive the cookers while they cook. You
can’t just walk up to someone who is
competing and get barbecue off of them.”
Even so, the competition does provide
spectators with many opportunities for
barbecue.
“Saturday we have the People’s Choice
Award when you can go and judge the barbecue,” said
Andrews. “You go in and donate so much money, and you get
a pinch of all the vendors and then you judge them. You can participate
in that.You have everybody’s number, and we just write down what you
like the best. That’s been a big hit and good money raiser. By the time
you go through and get a pinch of all these different kinds of barbecue
… well, you’ve gotten a good amount of barbecue.”
Smoke on the Mountain is even gaining popularity from unlikely
locals.
“I know this guy, and his wife is in a nursing home,” Andrews
explained. “Burke went and got his wife, Marlene, out of the nursing
home and wheeled her out and brought her down. They had the best
time. She just sat there in her wheelchair and listened to that good old
music from years and years ago.”
From top-of-the-line competitors like The Shed to couples like
Burke and Marlene, Smoke on the Mountain has become a major player
in the world of barbecue competition.
For more information on the Smoke on the Mountain barbecue
championship, visit the website at
Lydia Freeman is a graduate of Bluefield College and former Intern
at David Bailey Associates. Currently Teach for America fifth grade
teacher in Northampton County, NC.
Keith Sanders • 276-728-0540 Ext: 202
16 Virginia Capitol C onnections, Spring 2015
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