Canadian team takes home the win at Idaho State BBQ Competition
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BLACKFOOT– The Smoke-N-Wings Idaho State BBQ Competition took place last weekend at the Blackfoot Airport, and a team from Calgary, Canada, took first place.
Janice Smella and her team “Smellaque” will qualify for the Jack Daniels World Competition and the Kansas City Invitational. This is only the second year the Smoke-N-Wings competition has been sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. However, this has been the 11th year that the Smellaque barbecue team has competed in competitions around North America.
“We have been very successful. We’ve been so fortunate,” said Smella. “It was actually funny because we didn’t know this, but we had actually won the Team of the Year trophy for Canada 2024, and our trophy was actually shipped to this contest.”
Along with winning first place at the Idaho State competition, Steven McClellen, the event organizer, presented them with the 2024 Canada Team of the Year trophy as well.
Smellaque travels quite a bit to attend barbecue contests and competitions, but Smella said they attend contests based on the community they find there.
“We pick contests based on the people we like, or like a great organizer, or just because it’s a fun contest, and in this case, in truth, we came because the organizers are fantastic. Steven and Stacey McClellen are local here. They just go out of their way for everything. They brought us breakfast this morning, after the contest, they actually ran around and gave everybody an ice cream sandwich, which is like the most ideal thing after a competition,” said Smella.
In addition to putting on a successful barbecue competition, the McClellens and Smoke-N-Wings were also able to raise around $9,000 for the Bingham County Mayor’s Scholarship fund through an auction held at the event. A wide assortment of donated items was being auctioned, ranging from home-made cherry syrup and 50-pound boxes of potatoes to a Winchester .22LR and Corona and Coors-themed snowboards.
“(The charity auction) started last year when we got sanctioned. Most barbecue competitions that they do usually involve some sort of fundraiser as well, just to kind of maximize what’s going on and give back to the communities,” said Steve McClellen told EastIdahoNews.com previously.
The event also featured live music performed by the band Two Bald Men and a raffle. Attendees could purchase and try barbecue from many of the teams that came to compete, many of which traveled from out of state.
