At the Star of Texas Barbecue Cook-Off ribs and brisket mean more than mouth-watering food.

For the competitive cooker, barbecue cook-offs are a culinary battle.

"You know there's weekend barbecuers and then there's people who just attack it and it's their passion and they love to do it," Jim Burkey of Triple "B" BBQ said.

Burkey's barbecue team takes the fight to the food at this year's Star of Texas Barbecue Cook-Off.

"You want to beat it, roll it and basically beat it into submission," Burkey said.

It's individual secrets like that that each team uses to outdo its opponents.

	Barbecue Documentary
The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum currently is featuring “Barbecue: A Texas Love Story.” The film was produced and directed by local filmmaker Chris Elley and narrated by Ann Richards. The film was nominated for an Emmy and won many awards including Best of SXSW 2004. Click here for more information.

Cook-off competition judge Ron Montgomery said there are few things he can do on such a grand level, but barbecue is one of them.

"I can't play center for the Boston Celtics, I can't drive a racecar with Jeff Gordon, but I can go out here and compete against the very best in the country and, on a given weekend, score," he said.

Many others, like competitive barbecuer Mike Mills of Apple City Barbecue, have similar sentiments.
"It is a sport, I would consider it," he said.

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	Barbecue Cook-Off News 8's Russell Wilde checks out the competition at the Star of Texas Barbecue Cook-Off. La Pasadita Wilde speaks to one barbecue team about its annual experience at the cook-off.

Mills is a legend on the barbecue circuit as a three-time grand world champion. He's made a career out of competitive cooking.

"The competitive edge of it of, 'I want to produce something that will grab the judge's attention .'" Mills said.

Helen Kruppa, of the Dead Silber Cookers, has spent the last two decades on Texas' competition circuit.

"I guess you could put it in that category with boxing and football and everything else because you're competing against other teams," she said.

	For many, the reward is satisfying the barbecue eater and watching people enjoy the outcome of all the hard work.

Kruppa said her competitors have become a traveling family. But, when the judging starts, it's every man for himself.

While there can be big bucks in barbecue, Burkey's reward is in the people he feeds.

"It is really a great pleasure when people come in and attack the stuff that you've cooked and rave about it," he said. "That's kind of the reward right there."

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