EDINBURG — Fervor and flavor were on full display here at the annual Texas Cook’Em: High Steaks in Edinburg competition Saturday where barbecue enthusiasts gathered to show off their grilling skills.
The smoky aroma of fiery grills and smokers stretched across the field at the Ebony Hills Golf Course in Edinburg where people from across the Lone Star State gathered for a chance to score a spot at the American Royal competition. Winners also stood a chance at earning $25,000.
Competitors lined their grills along the field where they displayed their team names with pride.
Among the competitors was a team of firefighters from the Edinburg Fire Department, and 37-year-old Steve Mercado took on the role of head cook.
Although it was his first time competing for the fire department, it wasn’t his first time participating in a cook-off.
“My family started cooking competitively in the ’80s,” Mercado said, adding that he would attend cooking competitions with his father.
He recalled going to competitions across the Rio Grande Valley such as the Pan de Campo competition where he learned various cooking techniques.
“We’ve gone to all those competitions and it’s been instilled in me and my family that this is what we do,” Mercado said, adding that he plans to pass down this tradition to his kids.
Now after 12 years of competitive cooking, Mercado was excited to fire up his grill and take on the Texas Cook’Em competition for the seventh year, where he hopes to rank in the Top 10.
He stood attentive to his grill Saturday, cooking each meat to perfection.
“Competitive cooking — a lot of people think it is like backyard cooking but it’s totally different. People really take pride in competition cooking,” Mercado said, joking that recipes are never shared during these competitions.
Walking through the golf course, one could see the dedication of each cook as they withstood the heat of the grill on a hot Saturday morning.
Ruben Bereien and Danny Salas certainly showed their dedication to the competition as they drove six hours from Del Rio, Texas to compete in the cook’em.
“We’re passionate about this and it’s our hobby — that’s what keeps us going. The better you do in each cook-off the more you’re motivated to go on,” Salas said.
There’s a new wrinkle to this year’s competition thanks to inflation. With the cost of beef and poultry rising, it forces competitors at cook-offs like this one to buy conservatively, which means they have less room for error.
“We only bring what we’re gonna hand in so if we mess it up, we mess it up. We don’t have another spare ribs or brisket in the back. We try to keep our times and we help each other out a lot,” Bereien said.
“If you really love it, you’re gonna pay more to keep on doing it.”
The duo has been working on perfecting their system for four years, learning new techniques with each event. They hope to compete in 12 cook-offs each year with one competition every month.
A Waller, Texas native, Ronda Pfeiffer, 37, can attest to the desire to travel where the competitions are, and in Edinburg on Saturday, she shared her views on how to judge these hyper-competitive events.
Pfeiffer is a judge with the Champions Barbecue Alliance organization that participates in cook-off competitions statewide.
“In our scoring system, we do presentation, taste and texture and so they’ll (judges) score it from excellent to poor,” Pfeiffer explained, adding that each team is given four types of meat to cook — chicken, ribs, pork and brisket.
A judge has a maximum of 12 bites to judge each team’s entry in a single round. Pfeiffer said the Edinburg cook’em, where 75 teams competed Saturday, is classified as a state competition and a national qualifier for the American Royal event in Kansas City.
There are challenges these days affecting the pool of competitors, but not the competitiveness.
“The economy right now is affecting it,” she said. “Some of them (competitors) are staying more local. A lot of them will travel all over but with gas prices and everything right now they are kind of staying more local.”
Mercedes resident Roland Ruiz, 51, rented a hotel room in Edinburg because he needed to prepare to compete before dawn.
He’s been participating in cook-offs for 10 years and in the cook’em for six years. Now he’s developed his own method of cooking, which consists of a week’s worth of preparation — buying the supplies the week prior, seasoning the day before, and beginning to cook hours before the competition begins.
“The excitement and wanting to win the event” is what drives him to remain so competitive.
But there’s also a sense of camaraderie amid competition, Mercado added.
“Everyone here in the competition is like a family … It is a good Fourth of July gathering to celebrate the Fourth of July between everyone that has a passion for barbecue, cooking and food — a bunch of foodies,” Mercado said.
