"This city's first barbecue festival has been over for more than a week, but the flames of controversy are still blazing.
The latest concerns allegations that something was amiss with the judging at BBQfest 2005.
Frank Edgar, owner of Fat Fred's BBQ and Creative Catering at 1001 First Ave. N in St. Petersburg, said the winner also happened to be a sponsor of the event. That's suspicious, Edgar said.
Also upset is Lee Rice of Desperado's BBQ & Rib Co. in Hinckley, Ohio.
Rice has been waging an e-mail war over the issue with festival organizer Frank Giglio, who classifies the charges as "ridiculous."
"Judging was just a total fraud," Rice wrote in an April 7 e- mail. He listed his reasons:
n There was no written set of rules.
n The judging took place only on Saturday rather than all three days.
n Ribs are generally judged cut, as they are sold to the public. But these ribs were taken in slabs to the judging tent and one vendor did the cutting. That person was a winner.
n The winner of the sauce award was a sponsor of the event.
Giglio denied that the judging was rigged. The judges were a professional chef, a lobbyist, a lawyer for the Florida Association of Broadcasters, a Florida teacher, a professional wrestler and a hotel concierge.
"There is NO WAY any of the judges knew whose ribs or sauce was whose and that's what makes the judging fair - just GREAT BBQ TASTE!!" Giglio wrote back.
Giglio repeated Tuesday that there was nothing wrong with the judging. The format, he said, was the same as that used in other competitions.
"As far as our blind ribbing competition was concerned, our judging was done fair and square," Giglio said. "This is the first time we've ever had a complaint."
Giglio put on a similar event last year in Brandon.
Pinellas Park, as a co-sponsor of the three-day competition, has received much of the e-mail and several calls about the event.
"It was bizarre," city spokesman Tim Caddell said. Caddell said he plans to respond to Rice's original e-mail, thanking the owner for the information but stressing that the city really had nothing to do with setting the rules for the event.
It is too soon to say whether Pinellas Park would hold another barbecue competition, Caddell said. He plans to meet next week with Giglio to discuss what worked and what did not.
If nothing else, the festival was instructive, he said. One lesson was that Pinellas Park can successfully hold a gated event and charge admission. Another is that it is frustrating when something happens and city officials have no control over rules, vendors or other details.
The most surprising lesson was that barbecue competitions are not casual affairs.
"These people take this stuff way seriously. I didn't realize," Caddell said. "I thought it was a kind of a friendly competition. Evidently I was mistaken."
