BBQ Competition at ER Bass Pro Shops

Bass Pro Shops in East Ridge will be the site of the 2nd annual BBQ Competition presented by the American Culinary Federation of Chattanooga.

The event will be held in the parking lot on Saturday, August 5 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. There will be live music and free samples of barbecue. There is no charge for the event.

According to information from the culinary federation’s Website, pitmasters will set up their smokers and various equipment around the Bass Pro Shops at about 7 a.m. on Saturday. Each pitmaster will have as many as four people on their team.

Whatever the competitors are smoking on their grills will go before a panel of esteemed chefs for judgement. Once the judges make their decision on the best smoked pork, beef, chicken, etc., the pitmaster may give away some of the morsels for tasting.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.