Examiner.com

In a post on his Twitter account John Markus, BBQ Pitmasters producer, announced that TLC has picked up season two of this hit reality show. Pitmasters, debuting on TLC last year, follows a group of pitmasters and their support staff on the professional barbecue competitive circuit.

Last season we saw pitmasters from California, Texas, Virginia, and Georgia. In addition to being from different areas of the nation, each pitmaster brought different levels of experience to the competitions. We saw, three time world champion Myron Mixon, the 'Godfather of barbecue' Johnny Trigg, Wood Chick's female pitmaster Lee Ann Whippen, French culinary trained chef Tuffy Stone, owner/manufacturer of Jambo pits Jamie Geer, Harry Soo from Slap Yo' Daddy BBQ, and rookie Paul Peterson. Each pitmaster has their own secrets and techniques for turning out delicious barbecue chicken, pork spare ribs, pulled pork shoulder, and beef brisket.

The most important tool these pitmasters have is, of course, their pits, and we definitely saw a wide variety of pits used. Myron Mixon uses a custom made water smoker from his company Jack's Old South, as well as a custom built competition trailer cooker with banners with his likeness on it. Johnny Trigg, Tuffy Stone, and Jamie Geer all use custom built Jambo trailer pits, which are built by Jamie Geer the owner of Jambo Pits in Texas. Lee Ann Whippen had her Wood Chick's smoker trailer with a Jedmaster pit in the trailer as well as using a few Green Egg upright smokers. Paul Peterson had a custom built trailer smoker that suffered a blown tire and shifted axel on the first trip of the season. Harry Soo showed up to the competitions with the Weber 'bullet' smokers that most people have in their backyards. Don't let the flashiness of the custom trailer pits fool you. Harry turned out barbecue just as good as the others with his smokers and was awarded 2nd place in the 2009 California Barbecue Association (CBBQA) overall team of the year.

BBQ Pitmasters introduced many viewers to a world of barbecue that they never knew existed. Competitive barbecue teams often spend a season traveling thousands of miles to compete in events sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS), to have their barbecue judged against, at sometimes, hundreds of other teams. All KCBS barbecue competitions are judged using a blind judging process. Teams are given foam boxes similar to take out containers at the beginning of the competition, and all of their turn-ins must be in the provided boxes. If a box has markings of any kind on it, it will be disqualified from the judging process. All judges at these competitions are certified barbecue judges. They have attended a class, and are trained on the proper way to judge the barbecue they sample.

Apart from winning a grand champion title at a barbecue competition, teams also take home cash prizes, as well as bragging rights. Good barbecue pitmasters are separated by others by the number of grand champion titles they have won. Some competitions require that the pitmasters have won at least one grand champion before they can compete, while others are strictly by invitation only. To win these competitions, carries with it some serious bragging rights, and these pitmasters don't hold back when it comes to bragging rights.

Wether you're a backyard barbecuer or just love good barbecue, you should tune in to season two of BBQ Pitmasters on TLC. You’ll want to make sure you clear out some space in your DVR, because like me, I’m sure you’ll be hooked after the first episode.