Whole Hog Cookoff Makes a Festival Popular in Rolesville, NC

The winning pig was cooked by pitmaster Kevin Peterson, a past state champion.

Rolesville, NC, is a small town of only 6,074 residents in northeastern Wake County and is known for being a quiet but rapidly growing suburb of Raleigh, the state capital. In mid-September, it is also the scene a very competitive whole hog cookoff sanctioned by the North Carolina Pork Council.

Whole Hog Cookoff

Sponsored by the Rolesville Chamber of Commerce, the Rolesville BBQ and Bands Festival is part of the Whole Hog Barbecue Series conducted by the Pork Council. The festival occurs only a few days before the state championship is held in Raleigh to determine the Whole Hog Barbecue Champion, who has been crowned annually since the first championship was held in 1985.

Second place went to Kevin Wooten, who has already been a finalist in three contests this year.

Being in the top three of a contest is important because it qualifies a pitmaster to compete in the state championship. The top three finishers in Rolesville are:

1. Kevin Peterson, the 2017 state champion and a top-three finalist already this year (in Kenansville, Fair Bluff, Knightdale, Selma, and Raleigh)
2. Kevin Wooten, also a top-three finalist this year in Burlington, Burgaw, and Raleigh 
3. D.J. Stox, another top-three finalist this year in Goldsboro, Fair Bluff, and Smithfield 

A.J. Stox won third place in the whole hog cookoff.

Because I had also been a judge earlier this year in Burlington, Goldsboro, and Knightdale, I wasn’t surprised that these three pitmasters were successful in the Rolesville contest. Neither were the other judges—Charlie Martin, Tim Croom, and Paul Derrick.

Cooking teams set up along the perimeter of the festival grounds.

Festival Activities

After the judging was completed, the barbecue was chopped for sale to the public. Advance tickets for plates—at only $5 each—typically guarantee that the BBQ is sold out before the festival ends. On the day of the festival, plates with two sides and a drink are sold for $10 each or $15 for two. Although the festival continued until 5 p.m., the barbecue sold out around 2:30 p.m., so advance purchases were indeed important.

Festival grounds begin to show activity as vendors arrive early on Saturday morning.

Food, vendors, children activities, music and other activities also make the trip to the festival worthwhile after all the whole hog judging has been completed. Although the main contest of the festival is the whole hog competition, the event also included a separate competition for cooking chicken and ribs. What is impressive about the festival is that it is entirely conducted by volunteers. Several local community organizations also help to sponsor the event.

The festival stage is quiet until the first group—the Jimi King Trio—begins at 11:15 a.m.

The Rolesville cookoff was the 24th competition (on 14 weekends) so far this year sanctioned by the N.C. Pork Council. That’s a lot of cookoffs to determine the best of the best, and the cooking teams and judges keep a busy schedule when the series is underway.

The Biggest Cookoff of All

The tunnel entrance to the infield proclaims, "World's Largest Barbecue."

Would you drive halfway across the country to judge at a barbecue contest? Perhaps you would for the American Royal World Series of Barbecue, which has been held annually since 1980 and bills itself as “the world’s largest barbecue and Kansas City’s biggest party.”

Cooking teams set up in the infield of the speedway.

Many cooking teams drive that far, so it’s only reasonable that judges would make the trip too. What began modestly with 10 cooking teams has far surpassed the greatest expectations of the initial organizers. Now held in the infield of Kansas Speedway, the contest attracts more than 450 cooking teams and needs more judges than any other contest to conduct the competition.

Finding one of the 458 cooking teams is difficult without using the festival map.

The four-day event marks the end of summer with live music, food vendors, a car show, a vendor fair, and kid activities in addition to two very competitive cookoffs on consecutive days. Teams from ten countries compete for the largest prize fund on the BBQ circuit. The 135 teams in the invitational cookoff competed for $37,965 in prizes. On the next day, the open contest offered an additional $68,425 for the 468 teams competing in it. In addition to the four categories—chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket—judged in a competition sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, the open contest had two more meat categories: smoked turkey and sausage.

Judges check in for their table assignments.

Mudville BBQ won the
invitational contest.

To be eligible for the invitational contest, a team has to win a grand championship in a qualifying event. (An alternate cannot represent a grand champion.) Teams that compete in the invitational also compete in the open contest. The winner of the invitational was Mudville BBQ of Stockton, California, that begin competing in 2015. Rio Valley Meat BBQ of Weslaco, Texas, was grand champion of the open contest.

The judges assembled in Garage D in the infield of the speedway. I’d never seen so many slender judges at a BBQ contest. Of course, with so many judges, a few had to be slender. Of the 450+ judges (77 tables of 7 each were needed), I recognized only three familiar faces—two from Virginia and one from North Carolina.

Such a large contest required a lot of advance planning.

Most judges seemed to be from the Midwest (although the cooking teams came from across the country). I was surprised by how many “local” judges were at the table where I was seated—more than half were from the Kansas City area as was my table captain, age 82, who was certified in the second training class of judges decades ago when KCBS was first organized. Being from North Carolina made me a “novelty,” and a few judges from other tables even came over to ask me where I lived.

Judges settle into their assigned seats in Garage D before their meeting begins.

The American Royal Association, the organizer, is a nonprofit organization that supports agricultural education programs and provides competition opportunities and scholarships. It began in 1899 as the National Hereford Show, the first nationwide show for purebred cattle. Not surprising, about 55,000 attended that event, which was held in the agricultural hub of the Midwest, the Kansas City Stockyards. That effort expanded to include horse shows and rodeos, and then the first barbecue contest, which now is American Royal’s largest annual fundraiser, was held in 1980, five years before KCBS itself was formed.

The turn-in area is quiet before the teams bring their first entries. 

Seeing so many teams in head-to-head competition was incredible. The winners and top finishers clearly go home with great satisfaction and confirmation of their cooking skills. Judging at this event also gives me bragging rights with other judges who haven’t attended. The American Royal is the place to be in September.

The crew of a Southwest Airlines flight takes a picture of the competition at the speedway as they approach the Kansas City airport. Via KCBS Twitter account.