The Gas Grill Review and Gas Grill Rating Guide - Helping you choose the Best Gas Grill

Interview With Clint Cantwell

Smoke In Da Eye (SIDE) Competition BBQ Team

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I recently had the chance to do an interview with Clint Cantwell. You can find his website at www.smokeindaeye.com. Here you'll find a his blog, recipes, videos and other interesting stuff from his backyard and BBQ competitions.

SIDE is his winning BBQ competition team, so I thought it would be fun to get Clint's take on the world of barbecue and grilling. I hope you enjoy it.

Gas Grill Review: I understand you've been competing since 2006, and your team recently had some great success in New York State competitions. How many are you doing a year, and what kind of life is staying up all night in a trailer checking "da" meat?

SIDE: Yeah, we did our first KCBS sanctioned barbecue contest in 2006 and I almost retired immediately after. We had zero temperature control, lost our canopy in a wind and rain storm and ended up close to the bottom of the pack overall. But we practiced, slowly tweaked things and by the middle of 2007 we were getting some top 10 calls.

Last season was amazing, opening with a Grand Champion victory at a grilling contest on my birthday and ending with our first KCBS barbecue Grand Champion victory in October. This year is still a little up in the air. I am committed to a couple local grilling contests and 3-4 barbecue contests. We also have an invite to the American Royal invitational and are in the draw for the Jack Daniels world championship so will need to make a decision on those at some point. I'd love to be able to do more but it makes it even more special when I can break away from work for a couple days to play with fire and enjoy some laughs with the countless friends we have made along the way.

Gas Grill Review: You've written about some strange stuff on your blog, like fried spam on a stick where you advised it could be served standing up using one half of an apple as a stand. It's obvious you like to experiment. Did you really try to smoke marshmallows Anyway, tell us about a couple of experiments that really turned out well.

SIDE: Yeah, I like to have a little fun with the blog. It gets boring cooking the same pork shoulder, rib, chicken and brisket recipes for every contest so when I have time to cook at home I like to make it special. The TGI Fryday thing has been a lot of fun, though I'm not sure how long it will last. I posted a couple fried items earlier this winter as a way to pass the time until the smokers and grills de-thawed and it kinda blossomed from there. This summer I hope to get back to writing about contest life and hopefully shooting some new videos.

Now the marshmallow thing? They were stuffed with chocolate, breaded with graham cracker then grilled. Unfortunately they melted much faster than anticipated, dripping hot goo all over the grill. I still think it can be pulled off but I need to practice. I actually have a list somewhere with about 30 offbeat twists on traditional recipes that I'm hoping to attempt on the grill at some point but one of my absolute favorites was a barbecue lasagna featuring a tomato sauce/barbecue sauce base, smoked cheese, ricotta, noodles and pulled pork. It was exactly as I imagined, i.e. awesome!

Gas Grill Review: Do you prefer grilling or smoking? Are you a "low and slow" barbecue traditionalist? I've made the mistake of calling grilling "barbecue" in front of the wrong crowd in the past. Does that kind of talk offend you?

Gas Grill Review: My website's about reviewing grills and smokers. After watching a few of your backyard videos, it's clear that you have a hard time making decisions. Tell us, once and for all, which grill / smoker is your favorite and why?

SIDE: Wow. That would be like picking one flavor of ice cream. It depends on the day. I do have an affinity for Weber products, though. For contests, I use three Weber Smokey Mountains and an extended 18.5 inch Weber grill that serves as my chicken cooker. They're compact, light and I rarely have to mess with them when cooking overnight. I also have two 22.5 inch Weber charcoal grills for grilling contests and home use, a Weber Genesis gas grill, a La Caja China pig box, and a 22.5 inch WSM that was won at a recent contest and should be here soon. I also have a drafty Chargriller smoker and an upright New Braunfels smoker, both of which I will probably need to get rid of after the new WSM arrives. It's a little nuts, no?

Gas Grill Review: I noted that you use WSM's in barbecue competition. There are a lot of fans out there. Is this really the best grill/smoker combination for the money today? Is it really the right tool for the back yard chef?

Gas Grill Review: What are we going to see from you guys in the near future? I heard through the grapevine you'd like to get on Bobby Flay's grilling show. BTW, Flay was the first subscriber to my blog, so go ahead and make your plea here.

Yeah, the audition we filmed for Grill It with Bobby Flay, turned out pretty well I thought and has gotten a nice response on their site at http://tinyurl.com/cjmbv3 My son, Colin, however, really stole the show and seems more excited then I am about the whole thing! We'll see. I have no expectations as far as actually making the cut.

Beyond that, I have a couple TV concepts I'm playing with, am doing some cooking demos this summer, will try to win one or two more contests this year, and will keep on trying to come up with bigger, badder and bolder barbecue and grilling recipes!