Afterhours - Ercole Chila - Grand Champion at The Jack 2023 - Encore
Join JT and Leanne in this engaging episode of Barbecue Nation as they welcome Ercole Chila from Uncle Pig's Barbecue in New Jersey, who shares his insights on the competitive barbecue scene. The trio dives into thought-provoking questions, exploring who they'd choose to cook for among historical figures and the challenges they've faced in mastering difficult dishes. Leanne recounts her experience with an exceptionally lean brisket that left her team finishing lower than expected at a competition. The conversation takes a humorous turn as they discuss the nuances of barbecue judging, emphasizing the need for accountability and transparency in scoring. With a blend of personal anecdotes and industry insights, this episode offers a delicious mix of barbecue banter and heartfelt moments, leaving listeners with a deeper appreciation for the art of grilling and the bonds it creates.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- Uncle Pig's Barbecue
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcript
Welcome to Barbecue Nation with JT and Leanne.
JT:After Hours, the conversation that continued after the show was done.
JT:Hey, everybody, it's jt and this is a special version of Barbecue Nation.
JT:It is brought to you in part by Painted Hills Natural Beef.
JT:Beef you can be proud to serve your family and friends.
JT:That's Painted Hills Natural Beef.
JT:Hey, everybody.
JT:Welcome to After Hours here on Barbecue Nation.
JT:Ms.
JT:Whippen and myself are very pleased to have Urkel Chilla with us today from Uncle Pig's Barbecue in New Jersey.
JT:South Jersey.
JT:He can throw a rock and hit Philadelphia.
JT:That's how far south he is.
JT:But he's gonna now suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous lightning.
JT:Round questions here in After Hours.
JT:So, first of all, thank you for sticking around for this.
JT:So.
JT:Okay.
Leanne:Pleasure.
Leanne:I think it's my pleasure.
Leanne:We'll find out in a few minutes.
JT:We'll find out soon.
Urkel Chilla:I was gonna say reserve that till the end.
Urkel Chilla:No, it's not that bad.
JT:We will start with an easy one.
JT:If you could cook four and then dine with a historical figure, who would it be and what would be on the menu?
Leanne:Historical figure in barbecue?
Urkel Chilla:Anything.
JT:History.
Urkel Chilla:Lincoln.
Leanne:I like.
Leanne:Well, I'd like to cook for Tuffy Stone and have brisket with him, I think.
Urkel Chilla:Oh, cool.
JT:There you go.
JT:Have you ever come across.
JT:I understand.
JT:Have you ever come across a food item that you just could not master cooking it?
Leanne:Well, yes.
Leanne:Two weeks ago or three weeks ago, in.
Leanne:In Roswell, Georgia, at the Oral Oak Invitational, they gave us a brisket to cook that was so lean that I really didn't know what to do with it, but, man, it was horrible.
JT:How'd you come out on that?
Leanne:We finished 23rd, I think, out of 30.
Leanne:Something.
Leanne:Yeah, it was bad.
Leanne:All the.
Leanne:All the proteins were not very good.
Leanne:Unfortunate bag.
JT:What's the worst thing you've ever eaten?
Leanne:Probably tripe.
JT:Yeah.
JT:Yeah.
JT:That ranks up there.
JT:Yeah.
JT:Name something that you were really hot on for a while.
JT:This is.
JT:Has to do with barbecue.
JT:And then you changed your mind.
Leanne:I'm gonna say butcher's honey until they change the grind on me.
JT:Okay.
Urkel Chilla:Oh, interesting.
JT:Okay.
JT:What do you think is the best food show on television?
Leanne:I really like chop.
Urkel Chilla:Yeah, that's a good show.
JT:That's a good show.
Leanne:You ought to put yourself in that position.
Leanne:It's like, what would I do if that was me?
JT:Yeah.
Leanne:You know?
JT:Yeah.
Urkel Chilla:I feel your pain.
Leanne:Yeah.
JT:Yes, she does.
Urkel Chilla:You got chopped is what you do.
Leanne:Next year, right where you.
Leanne:I did.
Leanne:I did not remember that.
Leanne:That's.
Leanne:That I do now.
Leanne:You say that.
Leanne:I remember that.
JT:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
JT:If you could teach a politician to barbecue, who would it be, and what would you teach them?
Leanne:Oh, God.
Leanne:I would say Donald Trump.
Leanne:Maybe.
Leanne:Maybe.
Leanne:Maybe I would teach him to do brisket.
JT:There you go.
JT:He'd probably eat it.
JT:Okay, what is.
Urkel Chilla:Teach him how to light the charcoal.
Leanne:He definitely can light some stuff up.
Leanne:I know that.
JT:Yeah, he can.
JT:Yeah.
JT:So far, what has been your absolute best day in your life?
Leanne:Oh, that's probably the day my kids were born.
JT:Yeah.
JT:Yeah, that's.
JT:That's a good answer, and we get that a lot.
JT:But I agree with you 100%.
Leanne:Now, if you're changing the barbecue, I would say probably the Jack.
JT:Yeah, yeah, sure.
JT:If you could erase one mistake from history, it can be your history.
JT:It can be world history.
JT:What would it be, and why would you want it erased?
Leanne:Let me see.
Leanne:One day.
Leanne:One day.
Leanne:One day, probably.
Leanne:You know what?
Leanne:I.
Leanne:I can't even say that.
Leanne:That's a tough question.
Urkel Chilla:We can come back to it.
Leanne:Yeah, let's get back to that one.
JT:Okay, so if Leanne declared you supreme ruler of barbecue for a day, what would you ask?
JT:Supreme ruler decree that as I will.
Leanne:Rule over kcbs, that'd be one of the things I would rule over and.
Leanne:And have the judges be accountable for some of the scores they put down on paper.
Leanne:There you go.
Leanne:Not necessarily in trouble, but have a reasoning for it.
Urkel Chilla:I don't disagree with that.
JT:Leanne gets tired of hearing this, I'm sure, but I came out of the horse world.
JT:I spent a good portion of my life competing in the horse world, and I was a judge until just a few years ago when I stopped doing it.
JT:But when we went to school and we had to go to continuing education, it seemed like I was going every year for one of the licenses.
JT:I had several.
JT:One of the things you had to do was kind of like you would defend your master's thesis in college.
JT:You had to stand up in front of everybody and say why you picked the.
JT:This particular horse for first place, this one for second, third, so on, but you had to defend that.
JT:Now, there was no.
JT:Truthfully.
JT:There was no wrong answers, because it's just your opinion.
JT:But you did have to share your opinion on why you did that.
JT:And that's the one thing since I've been doing this show and got to know Leanne really well and a lot of the competitive barbecue guys, that always kind of makes me scratch my head because we were so much.
JT:And.
JT:And.
JT:And in any Professional sport, if you will.
JT:There's accountability from the officiating.
JT:There has to be.
JT:And I don't understand that.
JT:In.
JT:In the barbecue, I know they want blind judging and all that stuff, but still, it.
JT:It makes sense to me to say, you know, Leanne and I gave you tens.
JT:Some other guy gives you a two.
JT:Now, wait a minute.
JT:Why is he giving you a two?
JT:I'm just making stuff up here.
JT:But you see the relevance.
JT:Why is he doing that?
JT:Have.
Leanne:I think I should work.
Leanne:I think.
Leanne:I think it should work.
Leanne:Like they should give the table captain the.
Leanne:The authority to say, hey, everybody on this table just gave this guy nine for appearance, and you gave him a seven.
Leanne:Now, your taste and your tenderness could be different than mine, but everybody's eyes see, comes and works the same.
Leanne:So you need to tell this person why you gave him a seven.
Leanne:I mean, and it's basically, for me, it's just the appearance part, because you do have a different palate than me.
Leanne:You may not think that's too tender.
Leanne:You may think it's too tender.
Leanne:I think it's too salty.
Leanne:You may think it's not.
Leanne:So them things, them scores are your opinion, but when you go to appearance, that's a visual thing that everybody's eyes look at.
Leanne:So when you don't do that part of that, right, that means the rest of your scores are probably not going to be good either.
JT:When we.
Leanne:That's how I feel.
JT:When we judge this one division, reigning horses, you.
JT:If there was a penalty incurred when the horse was performing, you marked the penalty, or your scribe did.
JT:But if your score.
JT:If Leanne scored somebody a 70, and Urkel, you scored somebody a 70, and I scored him a 76.
JT:That was way out of the range.
JT:And so the master stewards and judges would come to you and say, why did you do this?
Leanne:See, that's.
Leanne:I think that should happen.
JT:Yeah.
Leanne:So, anyway, like, giving a comment card, you should definitely.
Leanne:Because I'm a firm believer in comic cards, especially if you don't like something.
Leanne:So if you don't give someone a comic card and you're throwing a seven around or sixes, not that I receive a lot of that, but we've.
Leanne:We've received sevens in the past.
Leanne:If you don't tell me why you got.
Leanne:You're unhappy about that 7, chances are you're gonna get the same crappy barbecue you got the week before, because I don't know what to change.
Leanne:So if you want to make the.
Leanne:Make your palate feel better, then tell me why it wasn't good and then maybe we'll fix it.
Leanne:Yeah, but I think, I think the table captain should have all the right to say, hey, you need to write a comic car for this.
JT:Yeah.
JT:What are your thoughts there, Leanne?
Urkel Chilla:Well, I agree and you know, it is the table captain's responsibility to look at the scores and if something is way off or skewed, it is supposed to be brought to the attention of whoever's overseeing the whole contest.
Urkel Chilla:So there are a few things that the captains do have, you know, can bring up, but when you're talking about straight nines like that and a seven gets thrown in, they aren't going to do anything about it because the seven is going to be dropped anyway.
Urkel Chilla:I think that's just, you know, it's not going to affect the cooker.
Urkel Chilla:But you personally, I know it does affect you and, and yeah, I agree, but there's also things happen pretty quickly, so I don't know how many comments, you know, if it happens a lot.
Urkel Chilla:I just don't know how it could get done properly on time without turn ins and all that.
Urkel Chilla:But I, I agree with you.
Urkel Chilla:There should be more accountability for the judges that are scoring out of line.
Urkel Chilla:We'll say.
JT:Yeah, okay.
JT:Do you remember what the first thing was that you got in trouble for as a kid?
Leanne:Let me see.
Leanne:I think I got in trouble for trying to put a screwdriver in a socket.
Leanne:Light socket.
Leanne:Oh, I think, yeah, I had a little, they gave me a little toolkit when I forget how old it was and I was trying to unscrew the COVID and I guess and I thought to myself, I remember like it was yesterday.
Leanne:I was like, I wonder if I put it inside here, what's going to happen?
Leanne:And thank God, before I did it.
JT:Yeah, I'll say, wow, well, what's your least favorite activity in the world?
Leanne:My least favorite activity is probably something you said earlier, golf, because I ain't no good at it.
JT:There's very few that are so you.
Leanne:Hey, you want to be in my golf show?
Leanne:I'm like, if you need a caddy, I could do it for you.
Leanne:That's about it.
Leanne:Do you remember I'm pretty athletic to do things.
Leanne:I just, I cannot get that golf game.
Leanne:Well, I don't play enough, but yeah, that's okay.
JT:Do you remember the worst concert you ever went to if you went to them?
Leanne:I never went to a concert.
Leanne:I was, I'm not really into the real loud music.
JT:Okay, that's fair.
JT:If you were an animal what animal would you be and why Urkel?
Leanne:Well, I think I'd be a lion.
Leanne:I just, that's, I, I am a Leo.
Leanne:So I, I, I feel that you want to try to dominate, so I, that's what I want to be.
Leanne:I'd want to be the king.
JT:Big, big, main.
JT:The whole thing.
Urkel Chilla:Yeah.
JT:All right.
JT:If you could instantly become a master of a musical instrument, which instrument would it be?
Leanne:That's easy.
Leanne:I, I, I really like to play the guitar.
Leanne:I really would like to pick.
Leanne:I mean, so when I was young and I, you know, they had the band in school, and I'm like, ah, the guys, they're weirdos.
Leanne:I ain't worried about now.
Leanne:I look at him today, I'm like, man, that is crazy.
Leanne:They are, they're making music with their fingers.
Leanne:It's just crazy how, how, how I wish I could do that today.
JT:Okay, here's one that will.
JT:If Sarah is right outside, she'll probably get in trouble for this.
JT:But what is something that Sarah was right about, but you still think she's wrong about?
Leanne:Oh, so it's, we have, we have discussions about, believe it or not, barbecue all the time.
Leanne:She'll come in and she'll say something about, like, all right, so I'll give you, for example, she said that Jack chicken, not that she likes a lot of barbecue anyhow.
Leanne:She said it was the best chicken she's ever had from us, period.
Leanne:And I said, we just got the kiss of death.
Leanne:Sarah liked the chicken.
Leanne:When she doesn't like something, we win first place with it, 90.
Leanne:So she said the chicken was great.
Leanne:We finished 58th.
Leanne:So we argue about what I turn in all the time.
Leanne:Let it go.
Leanne:Let the box go.
Leanne:Let the box go.
Leanne:Let the box go.
Leanne:I'm like, no, I'm not in the box.
Leanne:I gotta finish it.
Leanne:And so, yeah, there's other things I'm sure if I can.
Leanne:Give me a long enough time to think about it.
Leanne:Yeah, we get along pretty good.
Leanne:We've been together for a long time.
JT:That's good.
JT:That's good.
JT:A little off the subject here, but what's the biggest change that you think should be made in food advertising?
JT:I mean, when you go get a Big Mac, it doesn't look like it does on tv.
Leanne:Well, they should, they should put a thing.
Leanne:This is not the actual size.
JT:Yeah.
Leanne:Because when you get it, it's like, it's like on a Hawaiian roll and stuff.
JT:Yeah, yeah.
Leanne:Everything's so small.
JT:Okay.
JT:Would you describe yourself as corn fed or grass fed?
Leanne:I'm gonna say grass fed.
Leanne:I don't know why I would say that, but that's what you think.
Urkel Chilla:But you did.
Leanne:Sounds good.
Leanne:I think I was grassy.
Urkel Chilla:Great.
Urkel Chilla:Great.
Urkel Chilla:Perfect.
JT:Okay, here's a fun one for you.
JT:Boxers.
JT:Briefs or thongs?
Leanne:Briefs.
JT:Okay.
Leanne:Okay.
JT:What's the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?
Leanne:Open my eyes.
JT:There you go.
Urkel Chilla:There you go.
JT:We.
JT:We've had one person.
JT:We won't say that person's name, but one person that jumped up and said, well, you mean after I get up and pee?
JT:Yeah.
JT:Okay.
JT:Do you have a favorite classic movie?
JT:Mine is Casablanca.
JT:I don't know what Leanne's is, honestly.
Urkel Chilla:Christmas Story.
Urkel Chilla:Oh, Christmas Story.
Urkel Chilla:Okay, now, my favorite movie of like that.
Urkel Chilla:My favorite movie is Amadeus.
Urkel Chilla:I love that movie.
JT:Okay.
JT:Yeah.
Leanne:Well, I don't know how classic it is, only because it's not super old, but it's getting there.
Leanne:Crimson Tide was my.
Leanne:One of my favorite movies.
Leanne:I mean, I think Denzel Washington is a great actor.
JT:Oh, yeah.
JT:Have you seen the latest installment of the Equalizer?
Leanne:No, I can't wait.
JT:Okay.
JT:You should see it.
JT:I.
JT:We saw it.
JT:And I love that, too.
Leanne:I watch it all the time.
Leanne:How can you watch the same movie over and over again?
Leanne:You know what's going to happen?
Leanne:I'm like, I don't care.
JT:I'm kind of one of those guys where I liked it when the good guy wins.
JT:You know what I mean?
Leanne:Yeah, me too.
JT:Yeah.
JT:Do you think that cooking can help kids who are having trouble learning math?
JT:Meaning like kids, we use quarter cups and teaspoons and quarts and all kinds of stuff.
Leanne:Maybe.
Leanne:Maybe not the fraction.
Leanne:Maybe the fraction part of it.
Leanne:But I think if you.
Leanne:If you.
Leanne:If you cook a lot or you.
Leanne:It keeps you focused on things, maybe it can help you focus better on your math.
Leanne:Yeah.
JT:But there you go.
JT:What's one thing you miss about your 20s?
Leanne:Good knees.
Urkel Chilla:Yeah, a good answer.
JT:I'm with you, brother.
JT:I'm with you.
JT:On.
JT:Yeah.
JT:God almighty.
JT:You haven't seen me limp around enough to know that that's right on the top of my deal.
JT:Name one book that should be mandatory reading for everyone.
Leanne:The Bible.
JT:Okay, good.
JT:Now, last question.
JT:What would your.
JT:What would your last meal be if you were on death row?
Leanne:If I had.
Leanne:If I had my.
JT:My.
Leanne:If I was.
Leanne:My mother was around to still make it, it would be spaghetti and chicken cutlets in her salad.
Leanne:If she was still around and make it, that would be my last meal.
JT:Oh, excellent.
JT:Excellent.
JT:Herkle.
JT:You've been a really good sport.
Urkel Chilla:Yeah, fantastic.
JT:And I love your answers, man.
JT:They're just right there, so.
Urkel Chilla:Well, we're gonna be watching you on the road.
Leanne:Thank you.
JT:Yeah, we are.
Leanne:Speaking by myself.
Leanne:Had nobody helped me this weekend.
Leanne:So we're gonna, we're gonna wing it by ourselves this weekend.
Leanne:We've done that.
JT:I meant to, I meant to ask you this.
JT:In the regular show, do you do the, like the holiday cooking of the turkey or the prime rib roast or that.
Leanne:We do the.
Leanne:I do the turkey.
Leanne:So this is one of the other things my wife, Me and my wife argue about.
Leanne:So she's.
Leanne:I have a Southern Pride smoker in my garage.
Leanne:My garage is like another house.
JT:It's.
Leanne:It's got heat, air, polished floor, sheetrock wall, everything.
Leanne:It's just like another house.
Leanne:So when I say it's in my garage, it's not like in some beat up where cars are sitting next to it.
Urkel Chilla:Right?
Leanne:It's in my garage.
Leanne:So I, and I told her, I said, listen, I'm.
Leanne:So, I'll make a turkey this year.
Leanne:This was last year.
Leanne:So I'm gonna make a turkey this year.
Leanne:I'm gonna use the smoker.
Leanne:I don't want smoked turkey.
Leanne:I'm like, I'm not.
Leanne:It's only smoke if I put wood in it.
Leanne:It's.
Leanne:It's not.
Leanne:It's.
Leanne:Southern Pride is a giant oven.
Leanne:I can use it as a regular oven.
Leanne:No, no, no.
Leanne:I'm like, will you make yours and I'll make mine?
Leanne:So we, we kind of had a competition with that and of course the Southern Pride won one.
Leanne:So we started doing a couple turkeys for people during the course of year.
Leanne:But yeah, we'll make, I'll make the turkey this year.
JT:Cool.
JT:Good for you.
JT:Good for you.
JT:Urcochila from Uncle Pigs Barbecue in New Jersey.
JT:The reigning world champion at the Jack.
JT:And it's been a real pleasure to talk to you about it.
Urkel Chilla:It has.
JT:I really enjoy it.
JT:All right, that's going to wrap it up for after hours.
JT:We'll be back next week with another edition.
JT:And remember our motto, turn it, don't burn it.
JT:So go out there, take care and have fun, everybody.
