In early August we were told that we had been invited to cook at the Jack, the world championship invitational barbecue.
What follows is an account of what it was for me and what it has become since then.

Match no. 4 in Meetjesland changed everything for the first time. We became best Belgian that day and with that we got our 2nd bun after Ninove and increased our chance of the Jack. Moreover, we jumped to the first place in the ranking. A dream.

Then that message: 'you're in!'
Tom Raes from Southern Dutch sent me that. They were there too. That's going to be fun, I thought then. Little did we know.

I have often been asked if we have to ship all the barbecues, but fortunately that is not the case. Every international team got an ambassador this year who helps you on the spot, especially with hosting and material.
Byron, from the Butt Rub, has a domain 10 minutes from Jack Daniels called the butt ranch. An exceptional bbq paradise (see photos) with everything you can think of, with enough guesthouses and rv hookups to accommodate 5 or 6 teams.

What Byron has done for us and the other teams has been immensely important. Without his support, participating would probably not have been possible. What he himself does not have, he has arranged through his bbq buddies. Smokers, trailers, rv's, meat, material. Everything was there. The only thing we brought was our small material, clothing and herbs and sauces.
Once again a shout out to Byron for letting us stay at the Buttranch

We were allowed to use the outlaw smoker and trailer of Scott Burton, from the South Pork team. Scott is not just anyone but about 15 years ago he invented the 707 together with someone else!

At many matches, a shot of Jack is drunk at 7:07 am, as a moment to wish all other teams good luck
In our country that is often Jack, but in Us that is also often beer or bourbon, depending on the region. Such a cool story again. This 707 moment has grown from the teams themselves!

To get the outlaw smoker under control We prepared something every day to practice on. Every smoker works a little differently so we wanted to get this under control for sure.
And that must have been what the maker of the smoker thought because suddenly he was at our trailer asking if everything was ok and if we could use some help! And so we got some golden tips about fire management. Outlaw smokers are real competition animals, because they had 9 of them on the field this weekend. That's more than 10% of all smokers at this WC. Yes, then you're doing well!

Every day at the butt ranch it got busier and busier and people came by. That's how we got talking to Mark Lambert, 7-time world champion (especially pork). His team and products are Sweet swine o mine. And he would stay for a few days. Ok, so he gave us tips and herbs and cooked for the attendees. Yes, we had a great meal there for a whole week.
When Mark came to taste our pork he looked up in surprise and said: 'oh this is great! So delicious! '
No way he just said that. But yes he did.

On Thursday Byron organized a party, mainly for the international teams, the ambassadors, people from the kcbs and some other people

Among these people were also 2 pitmasters from the Hall of Fame.
Namely, Lee Ann Whippon and Dr Bbq himself
It turned out to be a fleeting encounter that evening.

Friday, day before matchday.
A final test run on the outlaw, with chickenwings. Just as they came off the smoker and were sauced, Lee Ann and dr bbq passed our trailer and came towards us like a hungry tiger: what's that? I wanna taste that!
'Uh yeah, but we haven't tasted it ourselves yet', -' no worries, we'll tell you what we think'
And then came the verdict: 'yes this is good, tender, great taste, moister, perfectly cooked.'
Dimi and I looked at each other and then tasted it ourselves and it was indeed the best wing we could have made. Unfortunately, the day after it was a little less successful.

Traditionally, on Friday there is another dinner, organized by Jack Daniels, on the Hill. That is a mountain that lies on their domain. What I did not know that on that mountain there is an incredibly impressive barn where about 400 people can eat. The sun was just setting. A band was playing.
You could even go to a pop up barbershop, which I did right away. It was great. Again.

Match day.
Get up very early and start cooking.
We participated in 5 categories: sauce, chicken, ribs, pork and brisket.
When Dimi went to hand in the sauce he heard someone say: 'Good Luck Barbecoa'
The man who said this was Tuffy Stone.
Tuffy is a legend and probably the most famous bbqer in the world. It does something to a person, I say.

Everything neatly handed in and then it's waiting for the points. There you are. Among 83 teams, all big teams and champions. Winning something seemed totally unachievable to us and the goal beforehand was to get a decent result somewhere. We have achieved the average points in most categories that we also have in Belgium, but they are too low in this field of participants to compete. We still have to practice a bit for that
But you never know, so we waited with bated breath for the results

Sauce Category: First Entry. Make a sauce with Jack Daniels.
Place no. 6: Barbecoa bbq team!
It can't be true! We take 6th place, out of more than 50 teams that participated!
Afterwards it turned out that we have the same number of points as number 4, so we currently have the 4th best sauce in the world :-)
There we are. Laughing and enjoying! A walk on the Jack.
More than a dream!

For us that was the highlight that we can enjoy for a while, but the best was yet to come.

The Jack 2022 was the last match of Southern Dutch, our Dutch colleagues, big winners, European champions. My bbq adventure started with them. They were not yet mentioned in the points. Only 3 names to go and then it's over.
No. 3: brisket. Southern Dutch!
The joy they and all of us had was unbelievable! Europe United and happy that SD of all people got to experience it on their last match.
It turned out that they also ended up in 10th place overall. What a world-class performance!

We celebrated at the bar of Buttranch, and then the Jack was all over.

It was an insane week. Being immersed in the Mecca of the bbq. At the time I didn't realize it all, but while writing this report, the pieces of the puzzle are starting to fall into place.

I hoped I could come back inspired but it's much more than this.
It is next level. The areas of improvement have been exposed but also potential solutions. This was a masterclass in so many ways that we will take with us on all levels.

Thank you Jack, thank you bbq, which turns a hobby into an enrichment in my life.
The emotions that all this unleashes are unprecedented.

And just when you had everything, something completely unexpected happened…

To be continued