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Community Corner

Huntley Couple Fires It Up for BBQ Competitions

Craig and Margarita Rehr put their experience and ideas to the test with chicken, pork, ribs and brisket.

After working for the Weber Grill restaurant chain for five years, Margarita Rehr not only acquired more than a dozen grills, she also enjoyed the love of barbecue and perfecting the package.

Though she’s no longer with Weber, she and her husband, Craig, have grown their passion for barbecue, and together, they’re Smokin’ Tasty, a competitive barbecue team through the Kansas City Barbecue Society.

“It’s going out there and just trying to cook the best-tasting meat and having fun,” said Craig, who responded to Margarita’s encouragement of getting in the game. “She’s always told me my cooking is good, so we wanted to put it to the test.”

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The Huntley couple’s first competition was Memorial Day weekend in 2010, when they placed 12 out of 30 teams at the Red, White and BBQ in Westmont. Last July, their ribs took 1st place in Grillin for Our Girls in Lisle. Craig calls himself the cook and the captain, and says Margarita is like the souz chef. To be successful, the pair must be quick, intuitive and skilled, as it takes more than a good recipe to impress the judges.

Craig’s sister Kathy Sobin, of Huntley, and his dad, Thomas Rehr, of Villa Park, also provide support at the competitions, which are typically two-day events.

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“We have to cook four meats – chicken, ribs, pulled pork and brisket,” Craig said. “You have to cook depending on the weather. Everything has to be cooked almost to the point where it’s still cooking as you’re serving it. Otherwise it’s going to dry out.”

To practice grilling in different weather conditions, Craig grills every weekend.

“We’re trying to get our flavor and our timelines better,” he said. “I cook when it’s raining, windy, just so I have some timelines.”

A full-time homemaker, Margarita said competitions are pretty intense. Her role is to prep the containers in which the meats are presented to the judges. That takes about two hours. Judges receive the boxes marked with only a number, to prevent them from knowing which team submitted which meat. Margarita and Craig created a methodical process that combines her experience in the restaurant industry and Craig’s love for perfecting recipes.

“Food cannot be prepped until you get” to the competition site, Craig said. “Brisket or pork usually takes about 14 hours to cook, so you want to start getting injections and rubs going on Friday, and then about midnight I’m starting to get the meat on. And then I stay up all night cooking and tending to the fire.”

Saturday morning it gets pretty intense, Margarita said.

“About 5 p.m. we start prepping the ribs and throwing those on, and then getting that molded, and until about 1:30 p.m. it’s very hectic,”
“Things are flowing at that point,” Craig said. “There are so many processes to follow. Everybody knows what to do.”

Between noon and 1:30 p.m., each meat must be turned in to the judges, in half-hour intervals.

Craig is a full-time pre-press printer, and he said a community grilling event to benefit an area charity is a dream the couple share. They said the camaraderie at the grill competitions is a rewarding part of the events. They’ve competed at Westmont twice, in addition to Thrill of the Grill in Arthur, Ill., where their chicken took third place, and the Glen Ellyn Backyard BBQ in September 2010, where their ribs took third.

Margarita said the pace of the competitions is rapid and that her sister-in-law and father-in-law are great at adapting to the pressure: “Everybody sees we’re like, ‘Don’t talk to us. If we need you, we’ll call you.’ ”

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