So, you are ready to take your skills you have gained by the hours spent hovering over your built in BBQ to the next level, the BBQ festival and competition circuit.  This is a great step to choose to make, for not only will you get your own signature dishes out to the masses, you will encounter other BBQ chefs, and you may learn new recipes, new ways of spicing up your own creations.  One of the best of the best is the Lexington BBQ Festival in North Carolina.  The festival is a community event that has grown in popularity exponentially over the years, becoming the city’s most attended celebrations.  And so it should be, because BBQ is good, BBQ fills up not only your belly, but all of your senses.

From the sights, to the scents, to the sounds of the chefs preparing the meals, to the taste and to the feel of licking your fingers to get every last bit of flavor this is one fine way to spend the day.  Each year at the end of October, BBQ chefs from around the country show up and deliver.  This past year marked the 26th anniversary of the festival, and now October is the official “Month of the Barbecue”.  BBQ is a big deal.  Throughout the month there are various events, some not even related to cooking and eating, such as the biking event, “Tour de Pig”.  All the proceeds from this event are given to the Mental Health Association in the city.  There are also events such as the 5K Hawg Run, and golf and tennis tournaments.

When this festival began in 1984, just about thirty thousand people attended, and by 1994 that number had grown to over one hundred thousand.  Now, not only is it a food oriented event, but a musical and artistic celebration as well which draws people not only from the state of North Carolina, but from all of the states in the country.  So many non-profit and community services have gained the benefits of this festival, as it is one festival that just keeps on giving, from the days of the festival and those beyond.  So refine your backyard skills, and head out next year to the festival in North Carolina.  You will be amazed, you will have fun, you will never forget it.

Making the move to an outdoor kitchen is simple and elegant, and the rewards are immediate.  Fresh air and freshly-cooked food, and no one will be complaining about the new lifestyle.  It’s certainly a choice, and it’s such a fantastic one that it might be hard to remember what life was like before.  There are many options for the outdoor kitchen, but certainly one of the most appealing is to start with the whole set-up, and our barbecue islands can get you on the road.  There are many options to choose from, so that you can get exactly what you want, to meet your needs and your style.

Our barbecue islands are made with the newest technological innovations so they are state of the art, and can grill your food with extreme precision.  Accuracy in time and temperature are of the upmost importance with meats, and you’ll be creating fantastic flavors with ease and with dexterity.  Our grills are also made with the latest contemporary tastes in mind, but also with a great deal of attention to the classical appeal of the outdoor kitchen.  You get the best of the new and the old, then, and with a set-up that is truly ingenious.  Once you begin experiment with the cooking techniques that are possible with these, you might start to wonder if you’re heading for a Perfect Moment.

When your attention starts to turn to the precise instant where you are, for example, cooking salmon steaks glazed with mango sauce, and watching your guests enjoy themselves in your outdoor living space, then you are on the verge of the Perfect Moment!  Spalding Gray spoke about his search for the Perfect Moment in his film and monologue, Swimming to Cambodia, and it’s a great metaphor for what an outdoor kitchen can do.  His own search meant he had to go to a foreign country and make his own anxieties the center of his identity, and it wasn’t until the anxieties melted away that he enjoyed his Perfect Moment.  The key was to make room for it, and to do this, anxiety has to disappear, and cooking outdoors has the side effect of calming the nerves.  It’s unimaginably superb.  When a Perfect Moment is made possible, then you know you’ve decided to make pleasure, friends, and great food, some of your top priorities, and the rewards, as you can imagine, don’t stop.