In the world of competitive barbecue the most prestigious contest is the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue or The Jack as we all call it. It’s an invitational for the world’s best teams. Since this year Europe has it’s own invitational barbecue contest, the Prime Uve Invitational Barbecue Championship or Prime Uve for short which is actually the name of the grape distillate the contest is named after.
The Best of Their Country
This year the teams that got an invitation for the Prime Uve Invitational Barbecue Championship were the best of their country. My barbecue team, the Sea Side Smokers, were among the lucky ones. Not knowing what to expect we headed down to Gaiarini, Italy. Anna and Andrea the proud owners of the Bonaventura Maschio distillery had hooked up with the Italian BBQ4All people to organise this event. They blew us away! Everything was taken care of, tents, tables, sinks with running water behind our tents, a cooling van, free meat, no entrance fee, pizza during the welcoming party and during the weekend, great coffee, free cocktails, beer, wine, water etc. We had the best time ever competing!
This year we ended pretty high in the European ranking with a ninth place, but there are a lot of Dutch teams in the top ten. So if only the three best would get an invitation we wouldn’t make the cut. Imagine our surprise when we got an invitation for the Prime Uve Invitational Barbecue Championship 2016 after all! The organization changed the rules and invited the 15 best European teams! There are some extra places left so some teams will be able to score a wildcard and get an invitation to the best EU BBQ Contest next year.
We registered right away so our place in the contest is secure. It’s going to be a fun road trip, adventure, contest with my barbecue buddies and there will be some nice tales to tell afterwards!
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