Dave Kay wins $500 prize for Backyard division
Two days of music, food and festivities wrapped up Sunday at Dusty’s with Judy Anderson of Olympia, Washington claiming the title of Canadian National BBQ Champion.
The victory, over six other sanctioned teams, earned Anderson automatic qualification for the Kansas City Royale, the world championship of barbeque competitions.
After being presented with the newly created Pat and David Valjesic Memorial Trophy, named after the recently deceased, longtime organizers of the Canadian National BBQ Championships, Anderson said: "To win the memorial, named in memory of very close friends of mine, means a lot."
The torrential rain kept some crowds away, but those that attended sampled beef, pork and chicken goodies from teams like Foxx BBQ of Anacortes, Washington, who took the Reserve Champions Award.
While the sanctioned teams spent all Saturday night creating the right smoke and cooking the various cuts of meet for judging, local Dave Kay scored big in the Bull’s-eye Backyard BBQ Burger Contest Sunday. Kay collected $500 for his burger.
The award was a nice capper to his anniversary this week with wife Karen.
"I was blown away that I won, absolutely flushed when I got up on stage," says Kay. "I’d hate to go down as the burger king in Whistler by any means – 90 per cent of what I do (at Whistler Kaytering) specializes in the finer things, but the secret recipe was going overboard in the fancy, with some carmelized onions, fresh stuff from my wife’s garden, a little Dijon."
Dusty’s manager Paul Street aims to grow the contest, which was held in Whistler for the first time this year.
"This is just the start, the competition is going to get bigger and better," said Street.
Some of the expected sanctioned teams missed the Canadian championships because of a conflicting event in Montana last weekend.
Some tasters were so keen they forgot to ask timeline. One keener passing by the promotional sampling kiosks picked up a half-done chicken breasts, then promptly scooted back to the bar, to the amazement of one of the BBQ’ers that had turned his back for a moment to grab some stock.
