UPDATED: Who won the top awards at RodeoHouston’s barbecue cook-off? (2024)

Dining

The 2022 World's Championship Bar-B-Que Contest minted a new crop of bragging rights in one of barbecue's biggest competitions

Josiah Aguilera, age eight, transfers cooked veggies to clear the grill before throwing on his steak during the World's Championship Bar-B-Que Contest Jr. Cook Off, the second year of the division of steak preparation, held outdoors in the Bar-B-Que City area of NRG Park Friday, Feb. 25, 2022 in Houston, TX. Photo: Michael Wyke/Contributor

In only its second year competing at RodeoHouston’s 2022 World’s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest, a small team from Taylor took home one of competition barbecue’s most coveted titles.

Williamson County Go Texan, a 10-member team under the direction of Sean Leschber, won Grand Champion, besting 252 other teams vying for RodeoHouston’s top cook-off prizes, announced Saturday night at the conclusion of the three-day barbecue event.

“Coming from a small town we got to be on the big stage,” said Leschber who cooked the champion barbecue with his wife, Cassie. “To win overall was amazing. I still get teary eyed thinking about it.”

Conditions for this year’s cook-off were not ideal. The weather – temperatures in the high 30s and mid 40s Friday and Saturday – proved to be a challenge for 253 cook-off teams coping with drizzle and near freezing cold. Attendance over the three-day cook-off was down: Just over 158,000, compared to 219,457 that packed the 2020 cook-off.

But nothing could take away from the excitement that one of championship barbecue’s biggest and most beloved competitions was back after the pandemic scuttled the 2021 rodeo. The energy, camaraderie and smoked meats know-how were out in lively, spirited force at the three-day rodeo cook-off that came to a joyous conclusion Saturday night.

Cook-off teams competed in meat categories (chicken, ribs and brisket), dessert (Dutch oven sweets), and the new Open Contest (gourmet efforts where teams were allowed to show their cooking chops beyond smoked meats). And for the second time the competition featured the Junior Cook-off – 31 contestants ages 8 to 14 drawn from cook-off teams who grilled ribeye steaks. (Held on Friday, the Junior Cook-off’s top award went to 14-year-old RJ Fite of Spring, representing Asleep at the Grill cook-off team. Raeyln Barker came in second and Vince Martinez came in third.)

But it was the meat competition that fueled the greatest enthusiasm at the cook-off.

“There’s a level of excitement I’ve never seen. It’s pent-up elation,” Peter Johnson, vice chairman of the barbecue contest said during the meat judging Saturday. “I don’t think the weather deterred them at all.”

The year absence from the competition not only stoked the cook-off energy, it might also have resulted in better barbecue efforts, Johnson suggested. “I can tell that some of the teams spent that time refining their skills,” he said.

Those skills were evident in the 248 chicken, 249 ribs, and 248 brisket turn-ins, judged Saturday.