How to watch barbecue teams from Columbus area schools compete for Future Pitmaster title
If you go Saturday to the Harris County Ag Center, you can watch a barbecue competition for high school students in the Columbus area, taste their culinary creations, meet a world champion’s team and support a scholarship program — all at the same event.
Harris County High School’s inaugural Future Pitmaster Competition will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the center, also known as Mike Tracy Arena, 10640 Georgia Highway 116 East in Hamilton.
Parking and admission are free. Money to benefit the HCHS Work-Based Learning program will be raised from tickets purchased for sampling the food and voting for the People’s Choice Award in three categories. Live music and children’s activities, such as pony rides and a petting zoo, also will be at the event.
Eight teams of 2-5 students from six Chattahoochee Valley high schools have registered to participate: Two teams from Harris County and Central-Phenix City, and one from Jordan, Taylor County, Auburn and Opelika.
They will compete for trophies that are working mini grills made by Columbus Technical College students, who also made knives for the competition.
Five-time world barbecue champion Myron Mixon’s team and his products are scheduled to be at the event. Barbecue from Harris County restaurant 219 Food & Spirits also will be available for purchase.
Char-Broil donated its Oklahoma Joe’s smokers for the competition.
Work-Based Learning allows high school juniors and seniors to earn academic credit and sometimes money in internships. Gary Johannes, the HCHS Work-Based Learning coordinator, was motivated to organize this Future Pitmaster competition to benefit the program after attending one of Mixon’s cooking classes.
Proceeds from the event will help fund college scholarships for students in the program, Johannes said. He hopes the competition becomes an annual event and expands to include teams from middle schools and colleges. But for the first year, he is pleased to see eight teams registered from the 50 high schools that were invited.
“The students will have a fun time competing in an event that requires them to have teamwork, problem-solving, timing, being organize and structured,” he told the Ledger-Enquirer.
HCHS senior Isabella Rachel, 17, will be one of the competitors on the five-student Harris County team named Notorious P.I.G.
“I hope to have fun with my friends that are also on my team and maybe win something,” she told the L-E.
Whether the category is ribeye steak, pork or chicken, Isabella said, the key will be “following directions from the pitmaster and just paying attention to all the different parts that have to do with barbecue.”
Isabella attends the Work-Based Learning program as a graphic design intern for HCHS. She designed the competition’s logo in collaboration with graphic design teacher Kennis Thomas, who did the illustration.
Work-Based Learning, she said, “gives kids the chance to work and get that experience and explore their career options — all while doing school at the same time.”
This story was originally published October 19, 2022 at 9:00 AM.
