I have been to a couple of cooking schools sponsored by the experts. We sat, listened, took copious notes and got to try our hand at some of the techniques these guys use to win contests. That's fine as far as it goes but basically, you leave with the general feeling that they are saying "this is how I do it. Do it the same way and you'll do fine." I don't want to do fine in competition, I want to stand out and be better than fine. I think that's what you need to do to cook championship Q.
Has anyone considered doing a cook-off school whre the students bring their own equipment, meat, rubs, sauces, etc just like a real KCBS cook-off and then have a panel of experienced KCBS judges critique each cookers entry and explain why they gave each individual score they gave? I would think that this "reality show" approach would be far more beneficial.
I've cooked my first two KCBS events and, yes, I like the feedback I got in the way of raw and weighted scores but, they are just numbers. I would like to know why judge 3 gave me a 9 for taste and texture in butts and judge 4 gave me a 6.
Any thoughts?
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