Brits beat Aussies in BBQ contest

Related tags Barbecue Beef Ben bartlett Britain

Three pub chefs helped place Britain as the top international team in a world barbecue competition. Ben Bartlett, catering development manager of...

Three pub chefs helped place Britain as the top international team in a world barbecue competition.

Ben Bartlett, catering development manager of Union Pub Company, Mathew Shropshall, chef/patron of the Royal Oak in Kings Bromley, Staffordshire, and PubChef's Battle of the BBQ's competition winner David Wharton of the Royal Oak in Poynings, West Sussex, helped Britain to 10th place in the world in the Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational BBQ competition.

Britain came behind nine American teams, but was placed as the top overseas team.

Named the Major Players, the team, which also included Brian Eastment, development chef for Major International and consultant chef Colin Capon thrashed barbecue aces the Aussies and 45 other international teams and also took fourth place in the beef brisket category and fifth for the whole hog category.

The team was sponsored by the English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX). Team captain Ben Bartlett says: "I've never cooked a whole hog on a barbecue before and it took about 16 hours. It weighed 100lbs and took four of us to lift it."

More than 25,000 people attended the contest and the GB team's hog fed around 500 spectators.

David Wharton, who beat five other chefs in PubChef's Battle of the BBQs competition in July to win a place on the team, stayed up all night to test the temperature of the hog:

"Let's say it was a 'different' experience, but I had a couple of Jack Daniels to keep me company when all the oldies went to bed. I couldn't believe the size of the barbecue we used to cook the hog roast. It was enormous. Everyone was so sociable and I'm looking forward to doing more competitions out here. I really recommend it to other chefs."

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