Kincaid takes ‘Big-Bee’ to Memphis
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, May 14, 2003
Carol Kincaid and Dr. Nancy Travis, otherwise known as the the Big Bee Que cooking team, were named grand champion among 42 teams at the International CityFest barbeque cooking contest held May 2 and 3.
The team was getting ready to travel today to the annual Memphis in May contest, May 15-17, "the Superbowl of Swine,"the world championship of barbeque cooking.
The team will be representing CityFest for a "ribs" award they won last year. The recent CityFest victory will entitle the team to represent Tuscaloosa at the 2004 Memphis in May competition.
The local team competed in seven competitions in 2002 and were fourth overall in the United States, said Kincaid. A year before they competed in 22 contests and were the number one "rib" team in the nation and number two overall.
A native of California, Kincaid has been a resident of Demopolis since 1995. She got into cooking through her friend Dr. Travis.
First, blind entries are sent in the categories of "hog," shoulder" and "rib" Then three judges visit on-site for each category. "Three teams make finals out of each category," she said. The team are visited on-site again. Champions are chosen in each category, and the grand champion title is earned from "the highest score out of the finals of all three categories." The finalist in either rib, shoulder or hog categories could win.
Kincaid said the annual BBQ championship during the Christmas on the River (COTR) festival helps spur on the interest in cooking teams from Demopolis. The CityFest and COTR competition remain some of the most successful cook-offs in the nation, she said.
Dr. Travis has a lot of friends on the circuit, Kincaid said. They get a lot of visitors to their site wherever they go.
She also has discovered how special Demopolis is in their travels on the cooking circuit. "There’s not one cooking (competition) that at least five people don’t’ come tell us – we could be clear in Missouri and somebody would tell us – oh, we were born in Demopolis or our best buddy in college runs a plant in Demopolis.
