Let's visit a barbecue restaurant first: At Tops, we interviewed an employee, Shirley. She has been working for Tops for 10 years, and she is involved in cooking the meat. Tops uses pork shoulder. The meat is cooked at each store in brick pits with big metal doors. The fire is made of charcoal and hickory wood. The hickory wood gives the barbeque its special flavor. Tops has never won any barbecue contests, but has been voted best in Memphis by local polls. Tops has been in business since 1952.

Next stop, a hog farm: We visited a hog farmer who supplies most of the hogs cooked at the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Contest. He lives in Oakland, TN, a small town east of Memphis. He lives on a farm, down a little road in the country. He has been a hog farmer for 30 years. He grows his own corn to feed the hogs. He has automatic systems that remove the waste from the hog pens for him. He raises hogs all year long. He stores the corn he grows in silos so he can use it all year. A silo is a big round tall sort of building for storing dry goods. He sends about 1000 hogs to market a year. You can take a virtual tour of his farm on our website.

Finally, let's visit with a contest Q'er: Robert Horvath is very friendly, and he came to tell us about barbecue. He uses a simple kettle grill at home. But he also likes to barbecue a whole hog in a pit. Then he uses all parts of the hog, from the squeal to the tail. (That means to use the whole hog, but not the guts.) His first competition was in Kansas City. He is going to try to get involved as a judge. He started making barbecue when he was 8 or 9 years old and helping his mom in the kitchen. He started entering contests when he was about 27 years old. He worked with John Willingham's team when they won the Memphis in May Barbecue Contest.

Robert has more to tell us about what it's like at a barbecue contest. Let's go, let's go!