Meet the BBQ Contest Judges
Poultry Festival Barbecue Contest Judges includes elite foodies and local chefs.
This year marks the 18th annual Poultry Festival Barbecue Contest for The Poultry Federation. Touted as the most anticipated event of the association's Annual Poultry Festival, the contest has justifiably earned that description. In order to ensure the contest is judged fair and square, TPF must recruit a knowledgeable, and diverse professional team of judges.
Meet the 2012 Barbecue Contest Judges!
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Randy LannRandy Lann is the Executive Director of Arkansas Homefurnishings Association and the Official Grill Master of the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Cowboys Grilling Products. Also the winner of the World Champion Steak Cook-off, he has cooked over 175,000 rib eye steaks over the past 25 years. A native of Arkansas, Randy got his start cooking when he began grilling for President Bill Clinton’s fundraisers when Clinton was the governor of Arkansas. Randy routinely cooks for upwards of 300 people on weekends and has been doing events for Dallas Cowboys Grilling Products since fall of 2009. |
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Maudie SchmitMaudie Schmitt is the chef and owner of Cafe Rue Orleans in Fayetteville. Maudie was born and raised in New Orleans, attended Henderson State College in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and returned to New Orleans to begin her teaching career. After a few years, she relocated to Lafayette, Louisiana, where she taught special education for 23 years.... But she never stopped cooking! She catered special events throughout her teaching career and finally decided to retire from teaching and open a restaurant. She always loved Arkansas and chose to move to Fayetteville for an adventure. And what an adventure it has been! Cafe Rue Orleans opened on January 10, 2001, and has been blessed with much success. |
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Suzie StephensSuzie Stephens has been a chef for over 30 years, with a broad range of experience as a chef, restaurant consultant, caterer, and restaurateur. In the early part of her career, Suzie was an owner of the Palace Restaurant and a consultant to other local restaurant owners. In 1980, she launched the Nibbles brand, which would later become a well-known catering, food emporium, and product development company over the following 25 years. Suzie first opened Nibbles Catering in 1980, which grew to become Northwest Arkansas' largest upscale catering establishment, serving thousands of catering jobs in the five state area. Building on this success, Suzie opened the Nibbles Food Emporium in 1999, a gourmet retail store, wine bar, cooking classes and kitchenware with over 6,000 gourmet food items. The retail assortment developed by Suzie builds on extensive knowledge of the New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco gourmet products markets. In 2003, Suzie added Cafe Nibbles, a product development company, to the Nibbles brand. Through Cafe Nibbles, she developed more than 15 products including frozen hors d’oeuvres distributed nationwide at Sam’s Club. |
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Morgan StoutMorgan Stout is the Director of Operations at the University of Arkansas at Chartwells in the Higher Education Division in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He has a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Louisiana State University. |
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David MarshDavid Marsh is the owner of Vision Steel, specializing in Steel and Aluminum fabrication (including barbecue grills). Marsh has a BS in Microbiology form University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and earned earned a MS in Poultry Science from the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science, Univ. of Ark Fayetteville. |
- Poultry companies and / or complexes enter the annual barbecue contest and compete for the best cooked bone-in or boneless poultry.
- There are no cash prizes, so this is definitely just for the bragging rights!
- There are five judges and the teams provide each judge with their final cooked product for taste tasting. In addition, each barbecue team will cook up 100 pieces of their famous receipe for the Barbecue Dinner that night for all the Festival attendees.
- Booths are decorated and judged.
- Skits, which includes a full costume wardrobe, are cleverly and creatively written and judged.
- TPF Allied members are invited to join in the contest and serve their poultry dish that evening but are not expected to particpate in the skit or booth competitions.
The 18th Annual Poultry Festival Barbecue Contest & Fair will be held Saturday, June 16 at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers, AR.
Calendar of Events
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Deadline for Scholarship Auction Donation Forms »
05/24/13, 12:00 am
TPF -
Deadline to Pre-Register for Festival Events »
05/31/13, 11:00 pm
TPF -
Poultry Welfare Auditor Training Course »
06/04/13 - 06/06/13, 12:00 am
University of Arkansas - Fayetteville -
Deadline to Receive Festival SWAG Bag Items »
06/07/13, 12:00 am
TPF -
Festival SWAG Bag Stuffing »
06/12/13, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
John Q Hammons Convention Center, Rogers, AR