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If there is anything to be learned from Carlos Lopez, the pit master of Hollister’s Los Mexi”Q”tioners BBQ, it is that passion and technique can take you a long way against the heavyweight competition.
How else would you explain his win in San Jose’s “Barbecuing the Glen” competition with First Street chicken from Smart and Final against opponents using organic free-range thighs? Or his most recent win, the Modesto Famous Dave’s All-Star Competition in June, when he netted first place and a Golden Ticket to the World Food Championships with his Grocery Outlet ribs?
“I just had to figure out what works or what doesn’t work,” Lopez said. “And also learning not to try to do too much. Less is better, like the KISS analogy: ‘keep it simple, stupid.’”
Even more remarkable is that prior to entering BBQ competitions, he had no cooking experience other than watching his father, Candelario Lopez, work the family grill.
“I knew nothing,” Lopez said. “Not even backyard BBQ. Zero, zilch. I had no desire to cook, and I was horrible at it. I’d burn an egg.”
That changed in 2012, when his appetite for BBQ became whetted by repeat viewings of the Barbecue Pit Masters TV program, and he joined his father on a trip to a competition in Santa Clara.
“We checked it out,” Lopez said, “And we just looked at each other. I said, ‘We can do this. Let’s give it a shot.’”
Their first event was in Mariposa, where they ran up against 25 seasoned teams with professional smokers, unlike the small Orion smoker Lopez brought along. (He has since stepped up to a Lang.)
They took fifth place in ribs and sixth place in tri-tip, and Lopez was hooked to the point of transferring to a new position at Kaiser Permanente San Jose to allow for more flexibility to attend competitions.
Along the way, Lopez said he learned a few things about the Art and Science, starting with the fact that competitive cooking is an expensive hobby if, like Lopez, you are not sponsored.
It’s expensive for one thing, with the average entry fee hovering in the $300s—up to $1,000-plus for major competitions—and a grocery list of items you are expected to bring beyond the smoker.
“You need to get your four meats,” he said, “because the competition is always ribs, chicken, brisket, and pork. After that, you’re already in the hole, maybe $600, 700 bucks, and, of course, wood, rubs, sauces, and kale for the boxes. There’s a lot of stuff that goes into it.”
Some competitions require participants to purchase a “competition box,” containing all the meats needed for that event, as a way to level the playing field, with mixed results for Lopez.
“One had a box you ordered from Missouri,” he said, “and it included a wagyu brisket, top-of-the-line ribs, top-of-the-line chicken and pork collars. I paid 500 bucks for that box and came in dead last.”
Competition cooking also demands a flexible schedule to hit the major events—which Lopez accommodated by transferring to a different job within Kaiser Permanente—and a long preparation time for each event.
“For a competition on Saturday,” he said, “I shop Tuesday and make the injections and brine on Wednesdays. Thursday night is prepping and trimming the meat. Friday, I’m loading the truck, the wood, hooking up the smoker. I’m like a chicken with my head cut off. I’m stressing out”
Once at the competition, cooking begins Friday night and goes on into the morning to hit the turn-in time for the judging, usually every 30 minutes starting at 11 a.m.
Complicating matters, Lopez is very meticulous in his prep work, a trait that can be seen in his version of competition chicken.
“It’s a bone-in thigh,” he said, “I’ll shape it to like a little square pillow. I take the skin off and I scrape all the fat off of it so it’s like paper thin.. It takes me two and a half hours to do my 18 thighs.”
Going through all that effort for only 18 thighs? Yes, one of the other surprises is how much food you need to prepare for what is a very minimal amount that is actually tasted by the judges.
“I usually do six racks of ribs,” Lopez said. “I do the 18 thighs, two pork butts. And I’ll roll with one brisket and hope I don’t mess up. And out of those, I’m turning in six pieces. That’s it. I have a lot of family and friends who will show up because I’m not bringing the rest home.”
The judging, he said, begins with appearance: “How much sauce on the rib and is it blotchy? Is the chicken shaped well? Are the ribs matched to the same shape and size? Does the brisket look dry?”
And then, Lopez said, for each meat, it all comes down to… just one bite.
“They don’t eat the whole rib,” he said. “So, you have to wow them in that one bite. So, you’re really looking for that extra-like level of flavor, that punch that the minute they bite into it, it’s ‘wow.’ You know, that’s where they get their score from.”
The winners get the accolades, all of which Lopez has gathered in the past: Grand Champion, “Reserve Grand Champion (second place) and People’s Choice.” Then the specifics: “first-place ribs,” “first-place chicken,” “first-place tri-tip,” and even at one event, “perfect-score rib.”
But financial remuneration? Nothing close to what it costs to compete.
“Sometimes they give cash,” he said, “But I mean it’s never close. You don’t ever break even. You just bring home that trophy and get the bragging rights.”
It is an expensive hobby, leading his wife, Amaya, to suggest he begin catering on weekends and off-hours.
“We needed to do something to offset the cost of the competitions, she said, so I said, ‘You need to put yourself out there more and start doing birthday parties or catering, whatever you can do.’”
As the catering increases in popularity, Lopez admits to wanting an expansion of his business into possibly having his own food truck someday.
“That would be the way to go,” Lopez said. “But I’m not a business person. I just need someone else to handle the front part of it. I know my food is good. There’s a saying: ‘My worst barbecue that I ever cook will still be the best barbecue you ever try.’”
Off the Mexi”Q”tioners Grill:
The Competition Pork Spare Ribs – Lopez describes his award-winning competition rib as “basically a pork spare rib but elevated.” He uses up to six rubs, building the flavor layer by layer, then, when smoked to a mahogany color, wraps in foil layered with honey, butter and brown sugar.
“It is pretty much a standard recipe,” he said. “The process of the wrap is basically just to tenderize the rib a little bit better. Judges want that clean bite, right to the bone. That’s my style. That’s how I try to cook.”
Bacon-Wrapped Jalapenos Stuffed With Cream Cheese – One of his most popular items, he once had the whole family help him prep 600 of these crowd-pleasers for a construction company catering job. “It took us a week to prep those,” Lopez said. “We had a little assembly line going. But it’s your basic jalapeño wrapped in smoked bacon, coated with brown sugar. Sometimes I mix in some fresh pineapple if the pepper seems too hot. You kind of want to balance sweet with heat.“
Chicken Thighs – Lopez uses boneless thighs rather than breasts, then applies a mix of classic chicken rub and honey-chipotle rub, dusts them with a light dusting of pepper, and grills them in foil with chicken broth and a slathering of butter. The meat is basted throughout with apple cherry and apple habanero sauces, which perfectly complement his mop sauce. It’s a recipe he inherited from his grandfather, made with butter, lemon, garlic, beer, olive oil and vinegar, which helps cut the sweetness of the BBQ sauce by adding a hoppy citrus flair.
Salt-And-Pepper Smoked Pork Spare Ribs – “It’s just your traditional Texas-style,” Lopez said, “as you really want the flavor of the pork to come out in the meat. It’s not competition style so much, where it’s more of a sweet end. It is just straight salt, pepper and smoke. That’s it.”
Years ago, when he was opening The Smoke Point in San Juan Bautista, chef Jarad Gallagher told me, “Barbecue has nothing to do with the sauce. Barbecue is about how you are cooking it.”
These ribs exemplify that thought. While the competition ribs have a rich and tangy sauce that is absolutely delightful, I really enjoyed the smoky meat flavor and the honest spiciness of the black pepper in these ribs. There is a good texture to them as well: Lopez said he pulls back from overcooking them to a “fall-apart” doneness to preserve more of the meat’s texture.
Tri-Tip – Lopez uses a mix ot two beef rubs that competitive chefs he knows use for their brisket, which he lets rest overnight on the meat. But his technique varies from there, cleanly trimming off all the fat before it goes in the smoker, cooking to an internal temperature of 135 degrees with a half-hour resting time. The result is a lean and flavorful meat with a rich, clean taste.
“Traditionally,” he said, “It would be cooked over a Santa Maria grill with an open flame, and they don’t trim that fat to keep it moist. But the last thing I want is someone to bite into it and get a glob of fat. So, I’ll clean it up so it’s just a straight trim and the rub.”
Bacon-Wrapped Lollipop Drumsticks – “These are so tedious to make,” Lopez said. But the final product can’t be argued with. He cuts the drumstick at the base, then pushes the meat up and wraps the bacon around it. Seasoned with a little salt, pepper and chicken rub, a final wrap of bacon keeps the meat moist as it hangs in the smoker.
Mexi”Q”tioners BBQ
Email: losmexiqtionersbbq@gmail.com
Phone: (408) 334-0323
For upcoming events, check the Mexi“Q”tioners Instagram page.
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