Oink Oink!
This year’s Garlic Festival team is bringing an all-new cooking contest to the stage – the “Pigs in the Park with Garlic” barbecue rib cook-off at 10:30 a.m. on the festival’s opening day.
It’s all about getting those beloved pork morsels as tender and juicy and flavorful as possible. And of course, because this is the Gilroy Garlic Festival, it’s also about incorporating fresh cloves of garlic in innovative ways, Garlic Festival President Dennis Harrigan said.
Four professional barbecue groups will concoct their favorite rib recipe in front of a crowd. Then, a panel of three judges – two professional cooks and one amateur – will taste their rib masterpieces and decide on their favorite.
“This idea is three years in the making, and we’re finally doing it,” Harrigan said.
John Melone, son of pivotal Garlic Festival visionary and co-founder Rudy Melone is one of the cook-off’s judges and the “mastermind” behind the new event, Harrigan said.
Melone, who has been featured on The Learning Channel’s “Pitmasters,” brings barbecue expertise to the judging panel – Melone has his own recipe pork ribs he won’t share with anyone.
“This barbecue stuff is all very, very secretive,” Harrigan said. “It’s a whole type of art.”
The four contestants won’t divulge all of their cooking secrets on stage, but the cook-off’s audience will be privy to an insider’s tip or two, so Friday morning’s event is a must-see for festivalgoers looking to beef up their barbecuing skills.
The Pigs in the Park contestants include Big Ed’s Buzzard BBQ restaurant of San Jose, the Oakland Raiders-obsessed Bad Boyz of BBQ who cook in the parking lot of many Bay Area sports events, the traveling San Jose catering group Catering By Five and amateur Bay Area barbecue group Pig Night Run.
Melone joins two other judges – Jason Gronlund, vice president of nationwide barbecue chain Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill and amateur barbecue master Bill Cunningham of Salinas.
Harrigan said because of regulations from the county and state health departments, the cook-off’s audience will not be able to taste the gourmet meats.
“Maybe in the future we can implement a tasting of the ribs,” Harrigan said. “But this is just the first year. Hopefully it will become a fan favorite.”
