Fire the grills back up, the BBQ Battalion Armidale are back at the Big Chill Festival this year, holding its BBQ @ The Big Chill competition over the two days, including a new format never seen in Australia that will debut for the first time ever.
Brad Sauer from the BBQ Battalion Events Team told the New England Times there will be two individual events. As always, everyone is welcome to enter and compete for over $10,000 in cash and trophies across the two days.
The Barbeques Galore Armidale Australian Barbeque Alliance is on Sunday. However, the Saturday event, the Heat Beads BBQ Steak Cookoff Association will be especially worth a look because Brad says it’s the first time a competition of this type has ever been held in Australia.
“The Saturday competition will be very unique as it will be the first single day quad steak cook ever held in Australia,” he said.
“Individual cooks will be cooking some delicious steaks from Rangers Valley, John Dee and Jacks Creek to a specific criteria in the guidelines specified by the Steak Cookoff Association (SCA) based in the United States.”
According to Brad, the criteria calls for 3 centimetre thick steak cooked to a perfect medium, with an emphasis on appearance, taste, texture, and overall impression scoring.
Suppose you need more than the idea of perfectly cooked steak to pique your interest. In that case, competitors can also win a ‘golden ticket,’ which guarantees entry to the SCA World Championship in Fort Worth, Texas, the largest steak cookoff in the world.
Sunday will depart from the American rules and follow the Australian Barbeque Alliance (ABA) ruleset. Brad says the categories for Sunday’s competition will be chicken, pork ribs, lamb, and brisket.
“Teams will be competing to impress the judges to see who becomes the winner for each individual category and the Grand Champion for the day,” he said.
“Points are earned from our competition and other sanctioned competitions to compete for the national leaderboard for individual proteins and overall grand champion for the year.”
Teams coming from all over Australia and abroad
Last year plenty of BBQ battalions signed up, and Brad said he expects a good turnout this year as well. Registered cooks and teams are travelling from North Queensland, Melbourne, South Australia and even New Zealand.
“We encourage people of all walks of life to get involved in the competition as spectators, judges, or even try your hand at competitive barbecues as it helps grow what we all love,” he said.
“What’s better than some great barbeque?”
Aside from the competition, the BBQ Battalion will be holding interactive demo sessions. Chief butcher Darrell will be running butchering demos, and some of Australia’s most knowledgeable pitmasters will also give prep and cooking demonstrations on various barbecue appliances.
If you ever wanted to learn more about how to barbecue meat, then now is the time because Brad said questions from the public are welcome, all the competitors “love passing on hints and tips,” to help people take their barbecuing to the next level.
“Everybody from the average Joe backyard barbequer to the best chef can learn a thing or two from the competitors across our two days of competition,” Brad said.
“All of the competitors are a super supporting bunch of people, they would be more than happy to help provide some guidance to newcomers to competition barbecue, and answer general punters questions,” he added.
BBQ Battalion Armidale was formed in 2022 by Demi Lollback, Jeremy Pickham and Brad Sauer to take over the administration and running of the barbecue competition at The Big Chill Festival. Since 2022, the group has been involved with all barbecue related competitions in Armidale. For more information, visit the BBQ Battalion Armidale Facebook page.
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