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Showdown in the PitsJan 16, 2013 (Messenger-Inquirer - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Owensboro barbecue will be featured on Destination America's "BBQ Pitmasters" television series at 8 p.m. Sunday. And Gambrinus Libation Emporium, 116 W. Second St., has scheduled a public viewing party from 5 to 10 p.m. Tickets are $10 and are available at Gambrinus and the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau, 215 E. Second St. Old Hickory Bar-B-Q, 338 Washington Ave., is having a private viewing party that night. The show can also be seen on Time Warner's Channel 167, DIRECTV's Channel 286 and DISH network's Channel 194. "Roy Henry, one of the contestants, is going to cook barbecue for us," said Karen Miller, executive director of the Owensboro-Daviess County Convention & Visitors Bureau, who helped organize the Gambrinus event. "It's a great way to highlight Owensboro's barbecue heritage." Henry is the owner of Henry's Boogalou BBQ Sauce. The episode features competition between Henry, John Foreman, owner of Owensboro's Old Hickory Bar-B-Q, and Mike Ramage from Louisville's Ole Hickory Pit Bar-B-Que. "It was great," Foreman said of the competition. "I've never been in a barbecue contest in my life, and I've been cooking for 30 years. I started when I was 10 years old. I didn't even have a pit. I had to go buy one." He said, "being selected was a pretty big honor. Thousands of people apply to be on the show, but they called me. I'm a big fan of the show." The one-hour episode was filmed at the Big Buffalo Crossing BBQ Cook-Off in downtown Munfordville last October, Henry said. "There are three judges," he said. "They give you two meats, one of which may be a curve ball. The judging is 50 percent on taste, 30 percent on tenderness and 20 percent on appearance." Henry said someone from the show "called me one day last year and started asking questions. They asked me to send a video application. I did and got a call back two weeks later." He and Foreman both said they couldn't talk about the results of the competition. "I signed a 15-page contract that says I can't discuss it at all," Henry said. Foreman said this was the second barbecue cooking show he taped in 2012. "Danielle Dimovski, who's known as 'Diva Q,' is one of the top barbecuers in Canada," he said. "She has a new reality show where she goes to legendary barbecue places around the country. She was here one day last summer filming all day." That show, "BBQ Crawl," will air on the Travel & Escape Channel this spring. Miller said food at the viewing party at Gambrinus will be served at 6 p.m. Wes Berry, an English professor at Western Kentucky University and author of "The Kentucky Barbecue Book," will speak at 6:30 p.m. and show footage from a television show he taped at last year's International Bar-B-Q Festival in Owensboro. Keith Lawrence, 691-7301, [email protected] ___ (c)2013 the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.) Visit the Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Ky.) at www.messenger-inquirer.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |