GREELEY- —Regularly throughout the summer, Mark Shook packs up his belongings and arrives at barbecue competitions like the Clampetts.
He pulls in with his homemade tools of the trade in the increasingly competitive world of meat grilling and unpacks his pile, all to cook a few cuts of meat.
A relative newcomer with only three years of competition under his belt, Shook last weekend left the Colorado State BBQ Championship in Craig — cooking right alongside two-time world champion Johnny Trigg — with a whole lot of bubblin’ crude.
“I look like the Beverly Hillbillies when I show up,” Shook said Thursday, prepping for his trip to Dillon this weekend for the BBQ at the Summit competition, where he will compete against about 50 of the country’s best grillers. “My equipment is homemade. Johnny Trigg has a $15,000 jumbo pit. I have an old propane grill that I converted to pellets. It looks like junk, but it cooks fine. That’s all I care about.”
Shook took home the grand championship prize, earning himself a one in 10 shot at competing in the Jack Daniels World Invitational Championship.
Read more at:
