What’s cooking at the Grand Tasting?

Pete Daversa | Hill Country

What are you serving at the Grand Tasting?
Barbecue beef sliders with pickled okra and hot chili peppers. Our sliders have the distinctive taste of Hill Country barbecue—it's a wholesomely sweet-smoky flavor that will contrast nicely with pickled okra and chili peppers.

How do you prepare for a massive, multi-day tasting?
We start prepping two days ahead of time, starting with ordering all of the meat and making sure our task lists and prep sheers are solid.  Then the day before, we prep the meat-skinning the ribs, seasoning them with our dry rub, and making sure that our three pits are lined up and ready. Frankly, there's nothing fun about the prep, but the event makes it worthwhile.

Anybody you're looking forwarding to meeting at the festival?
I'd love to meet Morimoto—he's a rock star.

What's the most memorable festival/benefit tasting dish you have ever, well, tasted?
The Big Apple Block Party. This year, Chris Lilly's pork sandwich and Ed Mitchell's whole hog were standouts. There's nothing quite like eating smoked whole hog straight off the pits at 2 a.m.  One of the most memorable nights ever.