Here’s the skinny: “The National Cuisine of Texas meets the Dietary Laws of the Bible in the Third Annual Dallas Kosher BBQ Championship, a daylong festival for the entire community, on Sunday, October 29.” The event, put on by the Congregation Beth Torah Men’s Club, is sanctioned and certified to adhere to Jewish dietary law by Dallas Kosher.
Radio personality Jody Dean returns to host the competition to be judged by local experts John Tesar (Knife), Tim Byres (Smoke, Theodore), Kent Rathbun (Lovers Seafood, Chelsea Corner), and Jill Grobowsky Bergus (Lockhart Smokehouse).
Only in its third year, the competition attracts competitors from all over the country. Last year, over 1,600 people attended. “We’ve put Dallas on the kosher barbecue map, and we’re drawing interest from all over,” Brian Rubenstein, co-chair of the championship said. “And we’re proud to bring the joy of kosher barbecue to the community as a whole.”
The competition will be held Sunday, October 29, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the parking lot of Sunnyland Patio Furniture, at the corner of Spring Valley and Coit roads in Dallas. The festivities will include music, cooking demonstrations, silent auctions, a kids play area, hot dog and pickle eating contests–and, of course, barbecue. Admission is free, with plenty of free parking on site. Kosher barbecue competitions have one obvious difference–no pork–but there are other distinctions. To ensure adherence to dietary laws, the Men’s Club provides all grills, smokers, utensils, condiments and spices–as well as the four meats in competition: chicken, turkey, beef brisket and beef ribs.
Because no work can be done or fires lit on the Jewish Sabbath, teams prepare the meats on Thursday night, then start cooking after sundown on Saturday.
As in all KCBS competitions, the society’s judges will award official trophies for all four meats, as well as crown the grand champion and reserve grand champion, who will share $500 in cash. But on the main stage, the celebrity judge panel will award its own set of prizes. Click here for more information.
