Food Sport Report

from Discover Coastal Alabama Magazine - Winter 2020

Food Sport Report

Alabama Coasting’s WFC Team Alabama competing under the banner of “This Ain’t Our First Rodeo” crushed it at the 2019 World Food Championships in Dallas Texas. World Champion Morgan and Vanna Cheek of Team Sweet Cheeks took home the gold in Burger, while World Champion Matthew Statham’s Team Statham with Dan and D3 Navarro captured top honors in Chef.

It was indeed a banner year for our Alabama culinary warriors as nineteen cook teams reported for duty in Dallas for the greatest food sport event on the planet. Competing against some 450 teams from 42 states and a dozen foreign countries, nine of our teams advanced past the grueling first round into the top ten competition. In addition to our two world champions, Team Alabama made a statement across the board: Suzanne Burton finished fifth in Burger and Tim Van Doren hit the same mark in Steak; Clementine De Roode took sixth in Chef; Darren Harbison claimed the eighth spot in Seafood; Paul Kerr and Roy Seewer

finished ninth and tenth respectively in Sandwich while Tim Bentley was tenth in BBQ. We wrapped up the winning with Chad Worthington and Team Maggie’s Farm taking second place in the Super Qualifier while Dan Navarro III (D3) was recognized as the WFC Jr. Sous Chef of the year.

Our two Champions will now travel to Indianapolis in May to compete at the WFC Top Ten Final Table where one competitor will take home the title of WFC Grand Champion and $100,000.

In addition to supporting our Team Alabama competitors, Alabama Coasting served as ambassador to our home

state – spreading the word about Sweet Home Alabama! Shout out to our partners for WFC Dallas – the Caribbean Food Championships, Dauphin Island, Hall’s Sausage, Visit Gadsden, BAMA-Q TV, Spoony Radio, and especially Jaima Schiffer of the Innovative Group.

Planning as begun in earnest for WFC Team Alabama 2020 – and more. We’ve got some exciting new events and concepts to introduce the world to Alabama’s culinary culture and food sport warriors. Go to www.wfcteamalabama.com and subscribe to our newsletter to insure you don’t miss out on any of the foodie fun.

Team Statham winning dish - WFC Chef. WFC 2019 - Team Sweet Cheeks - Grand Chmpion Burger.

Cheeks World Burger group photo.

World Chef Champions - Team Statham

Members of WFC Team Puerto Rico plus one.

D3 wins WFC Junrior Sous Chef of 2019.

SWEET SUCCESS BAMA-Q STYLE

Cooking up award winning barbecue takes skills, practice, planning and execution. For Sweet Cheeks Pit BBQ it’s also about being competitive…setting goals and achieving them…even beating them. It’s a part of their recipe for sweet success. Morgan and Vannah Cheek first met while competing…at the gym. They both were amateur body builders and are only children. It was a competition then and it’s been a competition ever since.

The Cheeks started competing in backyard barbecue in 2016 after a friend suggested they give it a try. They started with a couple of competitions close to home. Then they caught the BBQ bug. So far, they’ve racked up 11 Grand Champions and 5 Reserve Grand Champion wins.

Koa, the couple’s red Doberman Pincer, is their Quality Assurance Inspector. If he cleans the bone, they know their BBQ is good. Vannah says, “Koa tastes the BBQ just like a judge would.” He’s also guardian of the smoker. He makes sure there’s no shiggin’ going on at their cook site.

This husband and wife team attributes their success to teamwork. They divide tasks and work well together, but in the end, Morgan says, “he does whatever Vannah says to do.”

The Cheeks also credit their success to setting goals. For 2019 they set a goal of winning more Grand Champions than before and they did that. They wanted to compete at the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue and they did that. They wanted to win the Alabama Barbecue Association’s Backyard Team of the Year and they did that. Morgan also wanted to sweep a contest (win a first place in everything) and the Cheeks achieved that twice this past year. One sweep was at Riverfest in Decatur, AL. The other was at Mission Q in Tuscumbia, AL, where they got 1st in chicken with a perfect score of 180, 1st in ribs with a 179.5 and won Backyard Grand Champion.

Then the Cheeks moved on to the ultimate food fight. They won a golden ticket this last summer to qualify them for a spot

on Team Alabama and a trip to The World Food Championships in Dallas, Texas. They blew everyone away with a first-place finish in the opening round of Burger, including a perfect score on their signature dish. The Cheeks maintained their dominance, winning the final round by half a point and taking the title of World Burger Champion. Sweet Cheeks will now move on to the WFC Final Table Competition in Indianapolis in May 2020 where they have a chance to win $100,000. “World Food has surpassed anything we could have ever imagined. Went in with zero expectations and came out astonished,” said Vannah.

You may ask yourself, if the Cheeks are so good at cooking chicken and ribs, how did they get so good at grilling burgers? Well, if you stopped by their house at dinnertime, you would probably catch them eating burgers. Vannah says, “we cook burgers a lot because they’re easy.” All that practice just might have helped them get a best burger win.

By the way, if they’re eating BBQ outside of competition, Morgan’s favorite is BBQ Pizza and Vannah’s favorite is BBQ wings, just for the record.

Many of the BBQ competitions hold ancillary contests and one of them is desserts. Vannah really enjoys cooking and competing in desserts because she can be more creative. Cheesecake is her specialty. The very first cheesecake she made she had Morgan try and he told her she should take a backup dessert, but she won a 180 top score on that cheesecake.

Sweet Cheeks recently chose lime green for their team color. It’s Morgan’s favorite color and no one else had it so it helps them stand out.

What does a backyard team do when they’ve achieved their goals? They go pro. The Cheeks will be making the switch from a Backyard team to Pro in 2020. With that change they’ll be taking on the challenge of cooking two additional meats, pork butt and brisket, and taking on some pretty tough competition.

Judging from their past experience I’d say ‘you got this’.

Food network star, Jay Ducote, interviews Team Sweet Cheeks after their big win in Dallas.

The Cheeks with Quality Assurance Inspector, Koa.

The Cheeks are two of the stars on the popular reality TV show Bama-Q. The show follows competition BBQ teams as they compete throughout the southeastern U.S. The Cheeks were filmed at WFC for two episodes of Bama-Q Season 3 which will air in December. Bama-Q Season 3 airs Saturdays on the Destination America Channel at 8 a.m. eastern time. Bama-Q Seasons 1 and 2 are available online at Amazon Prime and Pride Outdoor Network.

A Champion smile.

Food Sport Report

WFC 2019 is in the books… Thanks to all who helped make it happen!

Andy Imhof of Pardon My Fork - cooking demo with Hall’s Sausage

Danny and Chef Patrick Mosher of Spoony Radio - taste testing Top Ten desserts with with wine compliments of Haistone Vineyards’ Chris Zazo.

We’re #! - Celebrating our victory with our Media Savant and partnerin-crime, Jaima Schiffer.

WORK LIKE A LOCAL.

When away on business, a sales trip, or heck, even vacation, sometimes you just have to get something done. Starting at $25 a day you can have the space, the tech, the meeting room, and the way to knock out your work.