A Nova Scotian now wears the crown for best barbeque chicken in the world.
Phillipe Gaudet of Clare, along with his team of five others, won the world championship title for barbequed chicken with a perfect score, while competing against more than 120 teams.
“We were jumping around pretty high and yeah, we were quite shocked and, you know, in disbelief,” says Gaudet.
They also took home a few other accolades, placing fourth in the best hot chicken wing competition. Initially, he says they tied for first but slid down a few notches during the tie-breaker round. They came sixth place in the seafood competition.
They nearly made the finals in the main event, which is cooking a whole hog, but they were off by just 0.06 points out of 1026, he says, which landed them at sixth place.
The competition was held in Memphis, Tennessee, as part of the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.
The main event title went to Health Riles BBQ, making him and his team back-to-back winners.
Gaudet says half of his team has never been to the world championship before. One team member, Gaudet’s mentor, is from Toronto, and they had people from Texas, Arkansas, as well as Mexico.
They have placed high up in the tournament in the last few years, landing at least in the top ten.
Sweet and savory for the win
They made chicken thighs, squared to look like delicious, tender pillows with Kansas City barbecue sauce, sweet and savory with tomato flavour, and they paired that with some sweet and savory barbecue rubs as well.
That gave them their edge, says Gaudet.
“I think the flavors we used, I mean, were really good. I’ve used it in the past and I’ve got pretty good results out of another major competition with that same sauce. So, you know, we ran it again,” says Gaudet.
He does not advertise it much, but he has a small barbecue catering company back home. He has done some major orders, including for the Michelin tire factory in Bridgewater, he says.
He hopes the win might net the team some more sponsors and to help launch some more products, as well. Landing more catering opportunities with the new title would also help cover some of their travel costs.
“When you can advertise that you’re a world champion, it doesn’t hurt.”
Any Nova Scotians out there who are not familiar with the barbecue world, he says they should know that the province has some great shops popping up, with premium barbecue rubs and sauces. He says most people would be surprised at how good they are.
More tournaments on the way
Being the world champion in chicken does not stop him, though. They have a competition coming up in the next few weeks in Montreal and another a week later in Truro.
“I’m going to stick to the same recipe for the chicken. I just have to execute the cook and hopefully we can do pretty good. We had good results in Truro last year, so hopefully we can do one better than last year there.”
And the team is already getting prepared to defend their title in Memphis at next year’s championship. Winning that title had a huge impact on their plans, says Gaudet.
“We went from, ‘Well, maybe this’ll be the last year,’ to, ‘All right, who’s coming next year?'”
