Cookoff in Apex, NC, Features Top Barbecue Teams Again

Finishing third overall was Blue & Gray BBQ, which placed first in the ribs category. Photo: Blue & Gray BBQ via Facebook.

Peak City Pig Fest continues to earn accolades for featuring some of the best barbecue cooking teams that compete in contests sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. In addition to being a fun event each year for the town of Apex, NC, the Pig Fest has a long history of supporting its community. 

The chicken entry by Swine ‘N’ Roses looks wonderful; however, the team managed just an eleventh-place finish in that meat category. Photo: Swine 'N' Roses via Facebook.

Organized by the Sunrise Rotary Club of Apex, the Pig Fest has contributed more than $500,000 to local charities; the primary one this year is Western Wake Crisis Ministries. 

Smokin Skullies BBQ won first place in the brisket category with a perfect score of 180

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At the start of the judges’ meeting, organizer Graham Wilson announced that 25 teams were competing — a few new ones but most were elite teams that had been competitors before. They were vying for the $10,800 in prize money.

The judges get organized before their meeting begins.

To judge the entries of all the cooking teams, four tables of judges with a table captain were needed. The table where I was assigned included judges with a wide range of experiences, including one who was participating in just his third cookoff.

In addition to the barbecue cookoff, the Pig Fest includes a two-day street scene with live entertainment, food trucks, beer garden, sponsor displays, and vendors.

Before the contest began, the favorite team to win was Mcadoo Heights, which had been the grand champion in the previous two years. However, this year they slipped to 10th place overall, although they did win first place in the pork category.

Mcadoo Heights won first prize in the brisket category. Photo: Mcadoo Heights via Facebook.

The winning team was Optimus Swine from Williamsburg, Va. Although they did not win in any meat category, they placed second in both ribs and chicken. Their lowest finish was fifth place in brisket, and overall they accumulated more points than any other team. 

Optimus Swine went home with the top cash prize, trophies as Grand Champion and winner of the People's Choice contest, and awards for three meat categories.

Apex has always been one of my favorite contest sites. Now that I live just 15 minutes away, it’s even more enjoyable to be a judge at the Pig Fest. I hope to be able to continue to participate in this event. It’s a worthwhile event for the local community.

Cooking teams set up in off-street locations in downtown Apex.

Another Pig Fest in Apex, NC

The Mcaddo Heights BBQ team celebrates being the grand champion of the 2023 Peak City Pig Fest. Photo: Peak City Pig Fest via Facebook.

Being in Apex, NC, again for barbecue judging means that another rendition of the Peak City Pig Fest is being held. The event is a great weekend for the local area to celebrate their community spirit and enjoy food and drink with barbecue as the unifying ingredient.

Crowds begin to congregate around the food vendors as lunchtime arrives.

Peak City Pig Fest

The first Pig Fest that I attended as a judge was in 2015. Since that year, the organizers have contributed more than $100,000 to charities. The 2023 event attracted another sizeable crowd as it did last year.

Before the crowds arrived, the cooking team area was extremely quiet early on Saturday morning as they prepared their meat entries.

For this event, I was a table captain and coordinated the scoring at a table of six judges where I presented samples of all four meat categories chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket initially for appearance scores. Then the judges scored them for taste and tenderness, which is the format of an event sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. Our table had some of the best ribs and pork entries. Because all judging at a KCBS event is “blind,” we don’t know which teams were judged at our table.

The critical part of the contest begins when the cooking teams turn in their meat samples.

The key to being a successful cooking team in Apex was finally disclosed by the town’s mayor in his welcoming remarks to the judges before their meeting began. He said that it’s important to take into account the town’s elevation (which he pointed out with pride is 499 feet above sea level). It has enjoyed in being known as the Peak City since its early days. The nickname derives from 1867 when a train depot was built on the highest point on the old Chatham Railroad. For that reason, Apex is known as the “Peak of Good Living.”

Apex Mayor Jacques K. Gilbert discloses how a cooking team can be successful in Apex

Top Teams at Pig Fest

With more than $10,000 in prize money, the event attracted 32 cooking teams. Throughout the weekend, crowds walked among the teams and watched them at work. Although most teams were from North Carolina, one traveled from as far away as Illinois. 

The crowds arrived early and were not eager to leave ... at least from the beer garden.

They included Hold Your Horses BBQ from Georgia, the top international team so far in 2023. Also competing was Uncle Pig's Barbecue of New Jersey that was the top team in 2022. In this year’s Pig Fest, it placed second and was edged out of first place by Mcadoo Heights of North Carolina by just 0.0116 points out of 720 possible points.

The top trophies await the winners.

With such a rich history and excellent organization, the Pig Fest will continue to attract top teams to its annual event, which means many judges will be eager to participate.

The beer garden stage featured five bands that played live music for seven hours.

Another Barbecue Cookoff in Apex, NC

A banner high over the historic downtown area welcomes visitors.

The Peak City Pigfest continues to attract top cooking teams, and when they compete you can find a room full of judges. With “Peak City” in the cookoff’s title, few people have to ask where it’s being held because Apex, NC, is known for being “The Peak of Good Living.” 

Live music plays continually during the festival.

Barbecue Traditions

The nickname derives from 1867 when a train depot was built on the highest point on the old Chatham Railroad. Just seven years later, the town (never a city as implied by the contest’s name) was incorporated and began waiting for its first barbecue cookoff. Although historical records shed little light on how barbecue traditions developed in Apex, we do know that the Peak City Pigfest now celebrates its 10th year of bringing teams together to compete. 

An early crowd on Saturday morning enjoys listening to music and eating food sold at the festival.

Prize Money

For a total of $12,000 in prize money, 35 teams competed, which was five more than at the cookout last year. The event, which is sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society, is organized by the Apex Sunrise Rotary Club, and proceeds from the event have provided $100,000 to local charities. 

Teams set up near the center of the historic downtown area.

Festival Activities

During the weekend, activities including a beer garden, live music, food trucks, and a kids' play zone make the event popular with the local community. The festival typically brings several thousand visitors to the downtown area. 

Food vendors started early and stayed late.

Cookoff Judging

For the event, out-of-state judges often attend, but several were as far away as Indiana and Florida. Many have judged extensively, and one judge was participating in his 100th cookoff. However, contests are always welcoming new judges, and the judge that I sat next to was at just her second cookoff. Judges usually wear an assortment of barbecue-related apparel. The best T-shirt worn by a judge says: “A chicken, pig, and cow walk into a KCBS contest…. The End.” 

Judges chat informally before their meeting begins. 

Next Year

The contest continues to be a favorite of the teams, judges, and local community. With a well-established tradition of being an outstanding festival and cookoff for 10 years, the Peak City Pigfest will be where the barbecue community will be next summer.

Celebrating in Apex, NC, with Barbecue

Winner of the pork category, Top Gun also scored high enough in the other categories to be the grand champion.

The Peak City Pig Fest has been a top community event in Apex, NC, each summer for bringing the community together over barbecue as well as attracting visitors to its downtown business district … until the coronavirus pandemic caused the ninth annual cookoff to be canceled in 2020. 

The beer garden is always a popular spot at the Pig Fest.

At the judges meeting, Mayor Jacques Gilbert heartily welcomed everyone and emphasized how important the event has been to the town since the inaugural cookoff was held in 2012. 

Judges await the arrival of the mayor to start the meeting.

The cookoff also important for cooking teams to showcase their talents as well as for judges who traveled this year from as far north as New Jersey and Ohio and south as Florida to participate in an event sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. 

The first turn-in of the contest is brought to Doug Reid (left), KCBS contest representative.

The Pig Fest continues to be one of my favorites, perhaps because it was where I cooked with one of the competition teams in 2016. It also attracts the top cookoff teams in the Southeast. For this year, 30 cooking teams competed. 

Banners promoting the Pig Fest adorn posts in downtown Apex...

The organizers couldn’t hold the usual street festival with a wide assortment of vendors and activities because they had decided very late to conduct the cookoff this year. Concerns about the pandemic and the new delta variant delayed the decision. 

... where streets are unusually quiet without any vendors,...

However, the weekend still featured a beer garden and barbecue plates for sale; both are important activities for the Apex Sunrise Rotary Club because the Pig Fest is its signature fund-raising event. Because so many people were interested in attending the event, lines for both beer and food sales were very long. 

... but the line for the beer garden was long.

Even with the disruptions of the pandemic over the last 18 months, the cooking teams were performing at a very high level. With a total score of 694.2516, Top Gun Barbecue squeaked out a win over the second-place team, Smoke N Brew Mafia, by only 0.046 points, less than a tenth of a point. 

Plates of BBQ were sold to contribute to the fund-raising efforts of the organizers.

Seeing the Pig Fest return to Apex is a hopeful sign and shows how important such community events are for everyone involved.

Cooking with a Team

The thrill for some barbecue fans is being a judge at a cookoff. For others, it’s taking on the challenging work of a cooking team. Sometimes the interests combine, and a cook wants to be certified as a judge, or a judge joins a cooking team to experience a cookoff from a different perspective.

Amanda Reed, her husband Jim, and best friend Kendra Battasta (left to right) show me the cookoff from a team's perspective.

In Apex, NC at the Peak City Pig Fest, I had the opportunity to join Coastal Smoke, a team from Wilmington, NC. It has competed at events sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbeque Society for about three years and successfully competed even earlier at community cookoffs.

Amanda and Kendra continue setup activities by placing a cooker in position.

Last year at the Smoke on the Harbor BBQ Throwdown in Mount Pleasant, SC, I met Amanda Reed, the head cook for Coastal Smoke. When I asked if I could join her team at an event in 2016, she was more than gracious and agreed that I could join her at the Pig Fest. Cooking with a team is a KCBS requirement for certification as a master judge, which I hope to gain when I have completed other requirements.

Amanda injects a pork butt with a solution of apple juice and vinegar.

For the Pig Fest, Amanda arrived about noon to set up and begin preparations. Because I wanted to see the cooking team in action from start to finish, I also arrived at noon. I was amazed at the constant motion of the team on the first day. So many steps – setup, meat inspection, cooks’ meeting, meat preparations -- have to be completed early to be ready for the quick pace of simultaneous actions on Saturday.

Pork butts are checked on a cooker.

After spending nine hours on site on Friday, I left for the evening (and a comfortable, uninterrupted sleep). Amanda with her husband Jimmy and best friend Kendra Baratta continued with other activities that shortened their sleep considerably. (Although I briefly thought about staying with them, I long ago gave up “all nighters” and don’t get up in the middle of the night for anything.) 

Kendra watches as Amanda puts chicken pieces on a cooker.

Amanda, on the other hand, slept very little. Around 3 a.m., she started the fire so that the charcoals would be ready to smoke and provide residual heat when she placed the meats on the cookers. The brisket and two of four pork butts went on the cookers at 5 a.m. At 7 a.m., the other two pork butts were placed on the cookers. These two would provide the “money muscle” (a small strip of loin meat opposite the blade bone side that is very tender) for the pork entry.

After slow cooking for several hours, the ribs are sliced for the turn-in box.

On Saturday I returned to the team site just before 8 a.m. (I could tell that Amanda and the others hadn’t enjoyed much sleep.) I watched most of the preparations for the two remaining meat categories: ribs and chicken. The ribs went on the cooker at 8 a.m. and finally the chicken at 10 a.m.

The chicken looks so good as it is arranged in the turn-in box.

So that the meats would be ready at the contest turn-in times (beginning at noon for chicken and continuing to 1:30 p.m. for brisket, the last one), each was prepared in advance – liquid injections, sauces, rubs. For example, the pork butts were injected with a solution of 3 parts apple juice and 1 part vinegar with a little sugar and salt. Even before arriving at the contest site, Amanda had prepped the chicken pieces by removing the bones, some skin and fat.

Kendra turns in chicken, the first entry, exactly at noon to Doug Reid, the KCBS rep.

When the turn-in times arrived, I was surprised how calm the team was. Everything was going just like clockwork. Kendra was the “runner” and took each entry for turn-in at the designated time after Amanda had completed the final stages. Before a turn-in was ready, she had picked the best pieces, cuts, or slices from everything that had been cooked, which was three or four times what was needed for turn-in. For example, to select at least 6 pieces of chicken for the entry, 19 had been cooked.

Rib are perfectly placed in the turn-in box for a high appearance score.

When the last entry was turned in, there was a brief sigh of relief before starting the final actions: cleaning and packing for the journey home – and waiting (more than 3 hours) for the awards ceremony. The results were bittersweet. The scores for chicken, ribs, and brisket were lower than hoped for, but Coastal Smoke placed among the top 10 teams in the pork category (even at turn-in, we thought that the pork was the best of the four entries submitted).

The pork entry, with money muscle lining the center, is ready for turn-in.

Looking back on the weekend activities, I have much more appreciation for a cooking team. The investment of time, money, and effort is substantial. Few people, particularly the public that arrives mid-day on Saturday, realize the amount of work involved. For me, the weekend was great. Because I had judged at the Peak City Pig Fest last year, seeing the event from the perspective of a cooking team was rewarding. If I ever spend time with a cooking team again, I can only hope that they are as congenial as Coastal Smoke. 

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Note: To see an album with more pictures of my cooking experience with Coastal Smoke, click here.

The Peak of Good Judging

Judging at the Peak City Pig Fest in Apex, NC, has been a goal since I was first certified as a judge. The classes that I attended for being both a judge and table captain were conducted by the Apex Sunrise Rotary Club, the organization that organizes the Pig Fest, and I wanted to participate in the club’s signature event.

Even though the Pig Fest was established as recently as 2012, it has quickly become one of the popular barbecue competitions on the East Coast. The Rotary Club, which has only 28 members, takes barbecue seriously — half the members are certified judges — and considers the Pig Fest as its signature event for good reason. It raises about $20,000 annually for local charities, which is usually donated to two worthy causes such as Western Wake Crisis Ministry (which provides emergency financial aid and food to families in a crisis) and Operation Coming Home (which builds homes for disabled veterans).

The grand champion wins $2,000.

The cooking teams were vying for a first place prize of $2,000 and competing for $9,000 in total prize money. The Pig Fest also has been proclaimed a N.C. state championship by the governor (although more than one state championship may be held). Because the Pig Fest doesn’t charge for parking or admission and is held in the historic downtown section of Apex, it’s very popular. More than 20,000 visitors attend. Most adults are interested in the pork barbecue prepared by the cooking teams that is sold by the plate with slaw and bread, but the kids are also interested in pig races that are held every two hours on Saturday.

More than 1,200 platters (200 more than last year) of pork barbecue are sold.

The Pig Fest is named for Apex, which has a nickname of Peak City and is known as the “peak of good living.” When the railroad station at Apex was chartered in 1854, it was the highest point on the route between Richmond, Va., and Jacksonville, Fla. Proof of its high point (although only 499 feet above sea level) occurs when it rains. Water on one side of Salem Street (the main street) flows to the Neuse River, and water on the other side to a different river basin, the Cape Fear River.

Salem Street (the main street of Apex), known historically for its elevation, is now legendary for its Pig Fest.

At the Pig Fest, I met Bill Jones of Richmond, Va., who may set the record for judging contests in one year. Jones is a master judge — meaning that he has judged at 30 contests, cooked with a competition team, and passed a qualifying exam. He told me that he had applied to 38 events in 2015 and has been accepted so far at 28. Jones enjoys picking locations outside of his home state — Wisconsin, Vermont, Mississippi — and making an adventure of visiting new areas. He is inspiring for how much he enjoys being a judge.

Judges relax before the cooking teams begin to turn in their best barbecue.

The number of cooking teams was capped at 48 because the space available could not accommodate more. Typically, a contest needs a similar number of judges. However, more than 150 applied to the Pig Fest that needed 48 judges and 8 table captains. Terry Winebrenner, Chairman of Judging, culled through the applications to select a range of experience and background.

Cooking teams set up in 'Hog Heaven" in a parking lot on the west side of Salem Street.

For each table, which consists of a table captain and six judges, Winebrenner selected a master judge, a judge from out-of-state, and a newly certified judge. Letting new judges participate is important to the Kansas City Barbeque Society so that they can gain experience. As planned by Winebrenner, new judges have a chance to ask questions and work with experienced judges, such as Bill Jones.

Trophies await the judges' scores for best chicken, ribs, pork, and brisket.

In the two previous years, I had applied to judge but wasn’t selected (too many applications). In fact, the first event that I applied to judge after I had completed the judges’ class (with almost 100 others) was the Peak Fest, which was overwhelmed with more applications than it could accept. Fortunately this year my application was accepted, and I enjoyed sitting at the table where Winebrenner was the captain.

The Pig Fest was a great experience — the barbecue was excellent, the event is expertly run, and the setting in an old historic downtown is picturesque. Because the event was organized by the club that conducted my initial training, being a judge was even more special. Being in the Peak City is the peak of good judging.