We need to thank the many people who contributed mightily to making the club’s first BBQ & Chili Cook-Off a great success. They shopped, cooked, organized, set up and knocked down. Some of them even ate and drank a little. “It takes a lot of people and a lot of cooperation to pull these events off and, to me, that is what the Commonwealth Club has always been about,” James Cousins said so eloquently.

“I would like to point out that the BBQ was a different sort of event from all others, in that there were 15 or so people stepping up independently to cook their special BBQ or chili dishes, rather than 15 guys cramming into the club’s kitchen to make one meal,” James continued.

“Guys were up at all hours of the day and night cooking because that’s the nature of BBQ — cooking with the heat low and slow.  I got such a kick out of the emails coming in throughout the night and early morning, letting the fellow pit masters know that they were on-the-job. The quantity of the food was absolutely amazing…all of it. Fifteen guys doing their thing independently, and it came out to be one really great BBQ.” 

Here are the primary contributors, in no particular order, with apologies to any we have overlooked:

Kevin Murphy, Mark Menton, Bert Vecchiarelli, Harris Teran, Don Henry, John Wisniewski, James Wisniewski, Gimi and Marguerite Giustina, Joe Cordasco, Giancarlo Cordasco, Kevin Courtney, Trip Dixon, Bohdan Polanskyj, Jimmy Murray, Michael Cosgrove Ryan Coakley, Jerzy Sibani, Sandy Finnegan, Kevin’s Pig (honorary club member) and James Cousin.

As is often the case, we get to relive the day thanks to Mark Wyville’s exquisite photography. Here’s a link to that.