The tantalizing smell of roasting beef, pork and chicken overpowered the parking lot of Well Seasoned gourmet food store on Sunday for their annual BBQ on the Bypass competition.
A total of 23 teams from across the Pacific Northwest set up shop and prepared their best recipes of beef brisket, pork butt, chicken, pork ribs, and turkey.
Many members of the public also entered The Great B.C. Bake Off competition for amateur pie and tart baking.
BBQ on the Bypass requires participants to use a Southern style BBQ technique, cooking their meat at low temperatures in charcoal or wood smokers for long periods of time.
Teams are then judged based on the taste, texture and appearance of meats.
Some of the dishes can take anywhere from 12 to 18 hours to cook, meaning the competition begins long before the 10 a.m. start time.
“There’s no money in it and we could never make a living off it, but we love it,” said June Fettback of Mad Cow Barbeque in Langley.
“It’s like a free vacation for me, and I’ve got helper monkeys to do the work,” she joked.
The Fettback family has been entering barbeque competitions for 10 years and have travelled as far as Tennessee to have their original recipes judged.
They were the first prize winners in the ribs competition at BBQ on the Bypass this year.