Read about our competition team, Fat Angel BBQ, in Lafayette College's Alumni News section.

Read about Local Smoke BBQ and our competition team, Fat Angel BBQ in the Savor section of the Star Ledger.

Fat Angel BBQ is named the NEW JERSEY STATE BBQ CHAMPION!

The Wildwood Contest is always our favorite contest of the year—great venue, great teams, great organizers and reps and great parties! We always have a big following of family and friends in southern jersey and this year was no different. It was the perfect place to win our FIRST GRAND CHAMPIONSHIP! We knew we cooked some of the best food we've ever turned in, but you never know what the judges will think. We were ecstatic to hear our names called for 2nd place chicken and 3rd place ribs and we knew at that point that we were in the running for the Grand Champion Award. We heard our name once more for 2nd place brisket. The forty friends and family let out a cheer and chanted "Angels, Angels, Angels..." after we were announced as the Grand Champion. It was a moment like we've never experienced before. Congratulations to that powerhouse, I Smell Smoke!!!, for their Reserve Grand Champion call. Fat Angel BBQ is now making arrangements for the Kansas City Royal Invitational Contest in October!

Check out the photos from the contest.

Whoooo hooooo!

Fat Angel recently competed in Safeway's 17th Annual National Capital Barbecue Battle in Washington, DC. We had a great time at the nation's capital and were fortunate enough to hear our name called twice at the awards for 2nd place pork and 9th place brisket.
Check out the photos.

We're really looking forward to the NJ State Championship in Wildwood, NJ on July 11–12.

Come visit us at the Jersey Shore...
Oh those Wildwood Days!

Read about Fat Angel BBQ's latest competitions in the September issue of New Jersey Monthly. The article is also posted on their website and can be accessed below.

Barbecue Pit Stop

Fat Angel made the short trip to Monmouth County Fair's 1st Backyard BBQ. Coupling the contest with the fair made for a fun-filled weekend alongside a mechanical bull, lots of hilarious clowns, lumberjacks and a bunch of rides. We want to thank Helen, the contest organizer, and John and Murray, the KCBS reps, for putting on a great contest! We're already looking forward to next year!

  Check out the photos

This past weekend we headed to North Wildwood, NJ for the 10th annual NJ State BBQ Championship. This is our favorite contest of the year as it takes place in a vibrant Jersey Shore town. After the meat went on smoker, the partying began. To make a long story short, it was one our most entertaining and fun nights at a BBQ contest. The next morning was a little rough, but we pulled through and were happy to finish 8th overall; our highest finish was fourth in brisket. Congratulations to Chris and the Dizzy Pig guys for taking down another GC and winning brisket by over 20 points. Our whole team is already looking forward to next year.

  Check out the photos

Fat Angel traveled to Pennsylvania for the Barbecue on the Farm contest in at the Shady Brook Farm in Yardley. We were able to brave the heat, along with 56 other teams...the thermometer at the judges tent was reading upwards of 109°! Luckily, our new margarita machine and the cold frothy beverages helped keep us cool.

Thanks to the contest organizers and the KCBS reps. It was a great weekend and Tom Christine, being a cook and a vendor, knows how to run a contest. Fat Angel cooked well and was proud to make two walks to the stage. Congratulations to Lunchmeat for winning Grand Champion and to Midnight Smokers for winning Reserve. We look forward to next year's contest.

  Check out the photos

Upon returning from their honeymoon, Loren and Steve decided to press their luck at The Art of BBQ in Mays Landing, NJ. It was a last minute decision and it paid off - Fat Angel took the Reserve Grand Champion award and a first place in brisket. Congratulations to 3 Eyz BBQ for winning Grand Champion and thank you to contest organizers and the KCBS reps, John and Murray, for a great contest.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend in Yardley!

  Check out the photos

Well, the Fat Angel wedding on May 17th was a success and Steve and Loren are officially married. Co-pitmaster, Scott, was a superb groomsman and all Lost Nation and Fat Angel team members had a blast! The weekend started with a down-home BBQ rehearsal dinner catered by Mark Friedrichs of Hog Feathers. The food was awesome and it kicked off the perfect wedding weekend. Luckily, the rain cleared on Saturday morning and the weather was picture perfect. Steve and Loren are back from their honeymoon in the Dominican Republic and now it's time to focus on BBQ! We have a upcoming contest in Yardley and we're still working on opening the BBQ restaurant in Shrewsbury, NJ.

Fat Angel will have an exciting and eventful 2008! In addition to the Fat Angel wedding in May (pitmaster, Steve Raab, and Culinary Director Loren Berkheimer are finally tying the knot after 8 years!), Steve and Loren are also looking to open a BBQ restaurant in New Jersey. More details will be posted about this soon, so please check back. Steve is teaching a cooking class at Dover Downs, DE on April 5.

Fat Angel competed in the Hamilton Cookoff this past weekend and we were proud to be named Reserve Grand Champion. We congratulate all the winners and would like to thank the contest organizers and also the KCBS Rep, Linda Mullane.

We had a great weekend and look forward to competing in this contest next year. Hamilton has potential to attract a lot more teams in the upcoming years...

  Check out the pictures

After a long hiatus from updating our site, we have a lot to catch up on. Let's start with Wildwood; this is always one of our favorite competitions. The weekend started off right since Magic Hat Brewing Company provided us with a few cases of Fat Angel Beer.

Due to the limited set-up area, the contest maxes out at 32 teams and every year, the same 32 teams get invited back. This year they changed the rules to create more future competition. The top 19 finishers will get their applications a few weeks before the rest of the teams, so we were under pressure to do well and guarantee our spot for next year. It was a beautiful weekend and we were joined by a lot of friends and family. Our food turned out pretty well and we got a call for third place chicken. Unfortunately, we did not hear our name called again, but we continued to hear the reoccurring call of Philly Pigs, led by Jim Boggs. Congrats to Jim for successfully defending his title. We ended up making the cut with a 10 th overall finish. We look forward to returning next year.

We then traveled up to Harpoon for a wild weekend of drinking and BBQ with Lost Nation. Unfortunately, we could not get into this one but love the contest so much that we will never miss it again. Lost Nation was set up next to Q Haven and it was nice hang with them. Needless to say the weekend got pretty crazy as cases of Harpoon’s finest were consumed. Check out some of the videos to see the madness. Security actually had to break up the party…Congrats to Lunchmeat for winning the GC against 40 great teams.

We then traveled to New Paltz, NY for the Hudson Valley Ribfest. This was our first time going to this contest and I am already looking forward to next year. The areas were large and the competition was stiff. The Highland Rotary Club did a great job making sure all competitors were happy. With the exception of the excessive number of flies and the bees (which stung me during pork turn in), it was an amazing contest. It was great being set up to Lo-N-Slo; and congrats to them for their first place call in lamb. We were fortunate enough to be close to Lost Nation, which always makes for an interesting weekend. We also want to give a special thanks to Linda and Jerry Mullane who always make sure that the contests run smoothly.

Saturday afternoon was the NEBS grilling contest and after a little debate we decided we were up to it. It was only our second grilling contest and we have never done lamb before. Loren, Scott and I do not really like the taste of Salmon but figured that it was the best choice for the Fish category. While at the fish market, (not sure what I was thinking), I bought only enough for the 6 pieces turn-in pieces. Hindsight, it was idiotic—what if I dropped one or screwed one up? When we opened our pantry, we had 5 different kinds of Dizzy Pig rub but didn’t have the one we wanted. Thanks to Chris Hart for lending a few shakes of the rub that we needed to apply to the salmon. We added a maple butter sauce and ended up getting a call for 3 rd place out of 40 teams. Our French cut lamb chops came in 7 th while our sausage and beef were not up to par. We finished 15 th overall. Congrats to Q Haven on their 2 calls and to Uncle Jed for being the Grand Champion. Onto the real contest…

This was the second time going head to head against the big man, and I knew he was serious when he was snoring at 11:30 on Saturday night. After drinking way too much during the day, I decided I would try to get a lot of sleep like Rich. After passing out around midnight, I knew we were in good hands—my co-pitmaster Scott was ready to take over for the late shift. He regulated the temps all night and did a great job. When the sun came up I crawled out of the tent and saw that everything was under control. After all of the turns-ins were completed, we enjoyed the ice cold Fat Angel Ale that was provided to us by Magic Hat Brewery. We were happy with the way all of our meat turned out, and Loren did a great job of the boxes. But, we knew that it would be difficult to win against 58 great teams. Now onto the Awards ceremony…We received a 4 th place call in Chicken, which was a nice surprise. The Meadow Creek chicken cooker is just unbelievable. Onto Ribs where Rich got a 2 nd place call; we finished 13 th. Pork was won by IQue, and we bombed that category with a 38 th place finish. Our Brisket finished in a respectable 15 th place and in the end we ended up finishing 11 th overall. Rich won our bet by finishing 8 th overall. Congrats to Chris and all of the IQue guys for taking Grand Champion and walking away with a new Big Green Egg.

  Check out the pictures from the Hudson Valley Ribfest & BBQ Contest

As we arrived at Shady Brook Farm on Friday afternoon, we learned that Rich and the Lost Nation crew saved the site right next to their's with 3 cases of Magic Hat's fine Fat Angel beer. This was a very interesting weekend as it was our 2nd KCBS contest cooking on the Meadow Creek and the first against our mentor, Rich and his crew. The Friday night Iron Chef category presented some challenges with the three ingredients: tilapia, corn on the cob and sweet potatoes. We made fish tacos and were happy to finish 4th. When we got back to the site Saturday afternoon, the Lost Nation crew was ready to celebrate. The dessert category was fun and we turned in our very own, "Tar Beach". Thanks to our friend, Christian, who kicked it up a notch with his own creative touch. After we put the large cuts on the cooker, Rich insisted that Gentlemen Jack was ready to party. It was a fun night walking around meeting the competitors.

We woke up to beautiful weather on Sunday and we were happy to be joined by a lot of our family and friends. As 12:00 approached, we knew it got serious as we heard the Lost Nation crew shouting "You Stink" and forcing us to stay on our side of "the line". We even placed a friendly wager with Lost Nation, so after the turn-ins, we were eager to get to the awards. Fat Angel was shut-out at the award ceremony, but we were happy to hear Lost Nation get a call for 2nd place brisket. Thanks to everyone at Shady Brook Farm for a great location and to Magic Hat brewery for supplying us with beer.

  Check out the pictures from Barbeque on the Farm

This past Friday, we packed up and headed to Salisbury, Md for the Pork in the Park competition. It was our first KCBS competition with our new Meadow Creek Smoker and under our new team name Fat Angel BBQ. Loren and I are arrived around noon and set up the site. We were happy to be close to Chris from IQue and Vinny from Bad Bones BBQ. Scott arrived around 3 and we prepped all the meat. When we got our Perdue chickens, we rubbed them with some of the Dizzy Pig's finest rub. Then it was onto the chef’s choice where we tried to replicate Rich's coconut shrimp. We managed to screw it up and finished 30th. I now know how valuable Jeff is to Lost Nation. After the turn-ins, we got to enjoy some of our sponsor, Magic Hat’s fine beer with Chris from Dizzy Pig and Hillard from Free Range (I think Hillard is a converted customer). It was nice to see Dean Ayers, Steve Polson, and Steve Farrin. We were very happy to meet Tuffy and have a good conversation with him about different techniques of BBQ. Man can that guy cook - he just rolls in, dominates and rolls out…sounds like some cool smoke to me.

Scott was on the first round of manning the pit and he bundled up outside. I went to the car for few hours and woke up shivering; the next few hours were spent with the car running and the heat cranking. Scott decided to stay outside and almost freeze. After thawing out in the morning, we got our meat in our boxes and in on time. We then cracked a celebratory Fat Angel as it was the first time we have put all 4 KCBS categories in the boxes. I thought our chicken turned out great, ribs and pork ok, and I thought our brisket was dry and didn’t look good in the box. With 60 teams competing, we were just hoping for one call at the awards ceremony. When they began, we heard the recurring name of Cool Smoke; Tuffy walked in all 4 categories and won his 3rd GC of the year…Congrats Tuffy. After 39 awards without a call, we were pleasantly surprised to come home with a 1st place call in brisket; it was the first time we had ever cooked brisket on the new smoker. We were then even more surprised to see that we finished 4th overall against some pretty stiff competition. Our team really came together this weekend with Loren making sure we stuck to the schedule and with Scott being one heck of a co-pitmaster.

Congrats to Lunchmeat on a very impressive 3rd overall finish, to IQue for the perfect 180 in Chef’s Choice, to 3Eyz BBQ for winning the Maryland State Championship award and to Ribs Within for winning the Perdue chicken award with a chicken egg roll that wowed the judges. Thanks to Sandy Fulton - the Pork in the Pork festival is one of the best competitions of the year. The weather finally decided to cooperate and Saturday was in the Mid 70s. It was great to see everyone at the contest and look forward to seeing everyone again soon.

  Check out the pictures from Salisbury

Yesterday, Lost Nation "South" drove an easy 30 minutes to debut the new Meadow Creek at the 2nd Annual Grillin' on the Bay contest in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. We were joined by a lot of good friends who all had a great time at this unique NYC contest. We thought that we produced some great food and the judges agreed; we were lucky enough to finish first in pork with our ribs and fifth in chicken.

  Check out the pictures from Brooklyn