BlackJack team vows to wow in Big Apple

Alan Hawes
The Post and Courier

Hagood

The battle reaches New York next week, pitting barbecue brother against brother, North Carolina versus South Carolina, our state represented by a familiar face and familiar flavors.

Charleston pitmaster Jimmy Hagood is to be featured on NBC's "Today" show Monday morning, his BlackJack Barbecue team traveling to New York to challenge the famed Ed Mitchell and his North Carolina crew. Broadcast from Rockefeller Plaza, the piece is expected to air between 8 and 9 a.m.

"This is a dream come true," Hagood said. "It's a one-time shot. We'll pull out all the stops."

BlackJack's participation is part of a three-day segment highlighting regional barbecue styles. On Tuesday, Kansas City squares off against Texas, and then on June 26, Memphis goes up against Alabama.

It's more mock competition than anything else, the exposure offsetting a potential "defeat."

"There are no losers in this deal," Hagood said.

BlackJack's menu is set. Hagood will cook pulled pork shoulders, using meat from Emile DeFelice's Caw Caw Creek farm in St. Matthews. The heirloom pork is moist and red, the taste rich and fatty, its marbling thick and layered. Also on the bill: Lowcountry red rice and coleslaw with Jerusalem artichoke hearts and Hellman's mayonnaise, a favorite dish from Hagood's mother.

The "Today" appearance caps an incredible two- to three-week stretch for the BlackJack boys. They just returned from the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in New York, which annually brings together some of the nation's top pitmasters and about 100,000 barbecue enthusiasts. BlackJack cooked about 3,000 pounds of barbecue, serving more than 6,500 sandwiches during a hectic, hot weekend on June 7-8.

"We really worked well as a team, efficiently, to crank out food like we did," Hagood said.

BlackJack's signature 27-foot, double-decker bright red rig made the haul from Charleston, carting a Jedmaster rotisserie and converted fuel-drum grill. Several guests of note also stopped by to join Hagood atop the rig. Among them: actress Joey Lauren Adams ("Chasing Amy," "Dazed and Confused," "Big Daddy"); Joe York, a gifted, young filmmaker from the Southern Foodways Alliance; and actor Jason Davis, who has appeared in "Talladega Nights" and "Prison Break," but is likely best known as the "Dude" from the Bud Light commercials.

Earlier that week, BlackJack fixed barbecue and other dishes for a number of Gourmet editors, writers and chefs at the magazine's Conde Nast Publications headquarters. The staff was especially complimentary of BlackJack's ribs, cooked by J.B. McCarty, Hagood's chief lieutenant on his cooking team.

Their recent run is unlike previous barbecue pilgrimages, including the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue competitions, where BlackJack has finished fifth in the shoulder category two of the past four years.

"To have the opportunity to be at the mountain- top with Gourmet and 'Today,' " Hagood said, "from a businessman's perspective, that goes farther than a win in Memphis."

Reach Rob Young at 937-5518 or ryoung@postand courier.com.