Enter The Indy‘s BBQ Showdown

This year, to celebrate the coming of summer, The Santa Barbara Independent is hosting our first-ever BBQ contest. We are looking for professionals and amateurs alike to send us their best entree and side dish recipes as well as their formula for the best summer cocktail. Official categories are pro entree, pro side dish, amateur entree, amateur side dish, and pro-am cocktail.

Finalists will be judged by a panel of Santa Barbara’s culinary celebrities in a showdown at Whole Foods on the evening of May 20, an event that the public is invited to watch. Then, on June 3 at a to-be-determined location, the winners will share their dishes once again at a public showcase that will serve as the after-party to that month’s First Thursday festivities.

In addition to the sponsorship of Whole Foods — which is providing the food for finalists to use in their recipes as well as prizes — The Indy‘s BBQ Contest is being supported by Kingsford Charcoal, Chopin Vodka, Ten Cane Rum, and Rancho San Julian Beef. Each will be giving something special to the winners, who also will be featured in the June 3 issue of The Independent.

To enter, send your recipes (ingredients list and descriptions are fine — we don’t want to steal your ideas!) to bbq@independent.com .

Contest entries are no longer being accepted.